Professional Football
The National Football League employs approximately 1,300 players on a regular basis. (This is the number of roster positions available on all 27 teams, including a few on each team's taxi squad.) How important is it to attend and play football in college if you want to be an NFL player? Only three players who began the 1981 season on an NFL team did not play football in college, and all three were foreign-born placekickers. Clearly, if you want to play in the NFL, you must go to college. Why? Because college-level football serves as the training ground for the NFL.
The new United States Football League also looks to colleges for its talent, although as a less established league the USFL also seeks players anywhere they can be found. It remains to be seen whether the USFL will last long enough to be considered a stable marketplace for football talent. (Recall that the World Football League lasted only two years during the early 1970s.)
There are a few minor professional football leagues which exist on shoestring budgets. Each year several of their teams go out of business (some in the middle of a season) or move to new locations. They give former college and high school athletes a marginal opportunity to play football for money. These minor leagues primarily employ players who have no hope of making an NFL team (or even a USFL team) and generally pay less than might be earned in a good part-time job. In fact, most minor league players hold other jobs to make ends meet.
The Canadian Football League provides another opportunity to play professional football, but the CFL limits the number of players from the United States allowed on each team. Most of these slots are taken by top-level former college players who have had contract problems with the NFL teams that drafted them.
In order to have any hope of playing in the National Football League, you have to play in college, preferably for the full four years. Which colleges offer the best chance for making the jump from amateur to professional football? As a football player are your chances better at a smaller college where you can be a star or at a big-time "football factory"? To answer these questions let's look at the schools that produced the greatest number of players (15 or more) recently active in the NFL. The top producers of NFL players during the 1981 season were as follows:
About one-third of all NFL players in 1981 came from just these twenty-two schools. Knowing which colleges are the top producers of NFL talent is more than merely interesting. If you believe that you possess the talent and desire to have a career playing professional football, your chances appear to be much better at one of these schools with a proven record of producing pro players. NFL teams generally pick their top draft athletes from these schools, and top draft picks sign larger contracts. As a result, coaches often give these top draft picks a greater chance to make the starting squad. This doesn't mean that low draft picks from other colleges aren't considered as well; we often hear about the unknown player from a small school who makes good. It's just that your chances are much harder if you haven't played at a college that has an established reputation as a producer of pro football talent.
For added information, the remaining colleges that, as of the 1981 season, had five or more former students earning a living as NFL players are listed below. This doesn't mean to suggest that these schools consistently send a significant number of players to the NFL each year. If a college has, for example, ten players in the NFL at any one time, it probably means the school is sending, at most, only one or two players each year to the NFL. What are the chances it would be you? It is important to have dreams, but this one is extremely unlikely.
Only 60 NFL players came from nearly 700 colleges in NCAA Division III and NAIA schools! Yet, at some time during every televised college game, we are likely to hear an announcer pointing out how well Joe Anybody from tiny West Tech is doing. The announcer then chirps about how wonderful it is that anyone from anywhere can become an NFL player. But making a point of mentioning these players from small schools shows how unusual they are. Don't let this or a coach's sales pitch that "We play a pro-type game" fool you into believing that your chances of playing in the NFL are anything but extremely small if you go to a college other than one of those listed above.
Professional Basketball
The National Basketball Association has space on the rosters of its 23 teams to employ 276 players. As with football, professional basketball does not have a broad and stable minor league training ground for its players. Instead, like the NFL, the NBA uses college-level competition to train its future players (at no cost to the professional teams, we might add). As of the 1981 season, only three basketball players who had bypassed college were regularly employed in the NBA.
A very clear picture emerges as to where NBA players received their collegiate basketball training. The following list shows the 33 colleges that had three or more of their former team members employed as NBA players for the 1981-82 Season:
For those who follow basketball, there shouldn't be many surprises in this list, except possibly for the presence of Central Michigan and the absence of a few schools that usually rank high in national polls. Most of the schools on this list are thought of as basketball powers, either nationally or in their own regions.
More than half of the players in the NBA for 1981-82 were drawn from among these 33 schools, while about one-quarter of all NBA players came from only the top 11 schools on the list. Well over 1,000 other colleges fielding basketball teams produced only 132 NBA players. If you dream of making a career of professional basketball and are thinking of enrolling at a small college, be aware that every one of the top suppliers of NBA talent was a college in Division I of the NCAA. While we find an occasional Caldwell Jones from Fort Valley State or an Artis Gilmore from Jacksonville, these are unusual cases.
Basketball has been called "the city game" in part because big city playgrounds supposedly produce so much future NBA talent. Eighteen percent of 1981-82's NBA players went to high school in one of 12 urban hotbeds of basketball. New York City produced the greatest number of NBA players that year (16), followed by Chicago (11) and Detroit (10). Out of the many thousands in these cities with no dream for their future other than playing pro hoops, less than 40 players had reached their life goal by playing in the NBA! No other city produced more than 7 NBA players for the '81-'82 season. Major cities may have more basketball players than elsewhere, but extremely few are going on to NBA careers, particularly if they don't get an athletic scholarship to one of those 33 top basketball colleges listed above.
Professional Baseball
College experience is not as crucial for future major league baseball players as it is for NFL and NBA players. Slightly more than half of the players on major league rosters during the 1981 season had bypassed college. There are two apparent reasons for this. First, baseball has its own broad minor league training ground, while colleges serve as the minor leagues for professional football and basketball. Second, about 20 percent of major leaguers come from Latin American countries, where college is limited primarily to the wealthy.
Although fewer professional baseball players attend college compared to football and basketball players, college is no longer seen as a waste of time for baseball players with professional aspirations and talent. The 46 percent of major leaguers in 1981 who had attended college is four or five times as great as the number who played in college a decade earlier. One reason for this change is the decline in opportunity to play in the professional minor leagues. In 1949,448 minor league teams were in operation, providing on-the-job training for nearly 9,000 minor league players (at roughly 20 players per roster). By 1980 there were only 154 minor league teams, with approximately 3,000 players earning and learning as they prepped for the big leagues. As the minor leagues shrank, colleges filled the void for training future professional baseball players. And since more and more players are now going to college, the quality of college baseball has increased, to the point that it is now considered to be about on a par with the professional Rookie or Class A leagues (depending, of course, on the division in which the college team plays).
Another factor leading to the increased number of talented young baseball players who enter college athletics before going on to a professional career has been "free agency," which began for professional baseball players in 1976. Players who declare themselves to be free agents may leave the team that initially signs them on and sell their services to the highest bidder. The loss of long-term control over players has radically changed the way team owners handle raw young baseball talent. Since major-league players are now in a position to sell themselves to another team after a few years, it is no longer good business to sign contracts with players who are very young, often directly out of high school. Team owners want their players to be older now, with their skills and maturity developed at someone else's expense. Enter the colleges, which provide these benefits at no expense to the professional team owners.
If you are interested in college baseball, you probably know that Arizona State is considered to be a pipeline to the major leagues. For 1981, Arizona State, in fact, could claim 18 major leaguers as former students, more than double the number of alums from the next most-productive college. Here is a list of the top 10 producers of major league baseball talent employed in the 1981 season:
These 10 schools alone were responsible for more than 20 percent of the major leaguers in 1981 who had attended college. Baseball, however, differs from football and basketball in that many baseball players attend college for only one or two years (often at a junior college), while in the other sports it is usual for athletes to remain in school at least until their four years of playing eligibility expires. Only 25 percent of 1981's college-trained major leaguers spent four years in college. This is probably because, unlike football and basketball, major league baseball still has no agreement with colleges to refrain from recruitment negotiations with professional prospects while they are still in school.
Professional Ice Hockey
For a young male ice hockey player born in the United States, a career in the National Hockey League is even less of a realistic goal than for athletes seeking comparable employment in football, basketball, or baseball. A sample of 17 of the 21 National Hockey League team media guides shows that only about 10 percent of the players during the 1981-82 Season had been born in the United States. In fact, European players outnumbered U.S.-born players 49 to 46. Most NHL players (nearly 80 percent), of course, were Canadians.
How important is playing ice hockey in college for those with dreams of professional hockey? More so than used to be the case, but less so than in other sports. According to one report, the NHL fifteen years ago had only five players with collegiate experience. A comparison with 1981-82 rosters indicates a dramatic increase in college training among NHL players. Although less than one in ten Canadian-born players had competed in college, almost two-thirds of U.S.-born players had collegiate hockey experience. So, if you are American and want to play professional ice hockey, your best route is probably through college. (Canadian youth have an extensive, highly competitive junior hockey program in which to develop their skills.)
The choice of colleges that serve as launching pads to the NHL, however, is small. Few colleges have ice hockey teams and those that tend to produce NHL players are bunched into two regions, the north-central states and New England. The Western College Hockey Association (including the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, University of Wisconsin, University of North Dakota, University of Denver, University of Minnesota-Duluth, and Colorado College) produced 41 percent of all college-trained NHL players during the 1981-82 season. A handful of Central Collegiate Hockey Association schools (the University of Michigan, Michigan Tech, Michigan State, and Notre Dame) produced 18 percent of the former college players. Just these ten teams accounted for more than half of NHL players with college experience.
Several East Coast schools, such as the University of New Hampshire, Clarkson, Bowling Green, Boston College, and Boston University, contributed significantly to the 1981-82 roster of NHL players. But, the scale of this contribution can be measured by the University of New Hampshire, which is considered one of New England's leading collegiate feeders to the NHL. New Hampshire has sent only 8 players to the NHL in fourteen years.
Down on the NHL farms (their minor league teams), there is a higher proportion of U.S.-born and college-trained players than on the parent teams. The Montreal Canadians during the past 10 years drafted 61 players who had played in college (of 166 drafted, overall). While college-trained players may find employment in the minor leagues of professional ice hockey, the minor leagues of any sport can hardly be considered a profitable and attractive career.
Professional Soccer
As in the NHL, the North American Soccer League (NASL) is populated mainly by players born and raised outside the United States. According to information in the 1981 Official NASL Guide, less than 30 percent of the 273 NASL players in 1981 were U.S. citizens. (This includes several foreign-born players who were naturalized only after coming to the United States to play in the NASL.)
Among the U.S.-born NASL players, only 27 competed in collegiate soccer. The leaders in producing future professional soccer players were the University of Connecticut and the University of Akron, each contributing three players, and San Jose State, Seattle Pacific, Indiana University, and Saint Louis University, with two players each. Collegiate soccer players should note, however, that there is a movement afoot within the NASL to look more to U.S.-born players in the future. This effort is in part aimed at attracting more fans to the sport, but also reflects the growing recognition that college-level soccer is improving in quality.
Professional Golf
The Men's Pro Golf Tour: The Tournament Players Association listed 295 golfers on the men's professional circuit in the 1982 Official Media Guide of the TPA Tour. This is the number of men throughout the world who were then making a living-more or less-playing professional golf.
We say more or less because the amount of money earned by each golfer ranged (in 1981) from Tom Kite's high of $375,699 to Jaime Gonzalez's meager $320. As in any sport, success can be quicker to leave than to arrive. Kermit Zarley, who won over $66,000 as recently as 1979 (and over $683,000 to that point in his career), earned just $732 in 1981. Although their earnings are typically supplemented by affiliation with a country club and product endorsements, professionals in individual sports don't have contracts providing them a guaranteed wage during the tough times as team sport athletes do. If golfers or tennis players don't perform well in tournaments, they don't make money.
How important does attending college seem to be in the progress of professional male golfers? First, in looking at the 1981 tour, let's discount the 25 (out of 295) tour golfers who were foreign-born. Close to 90 percent of the 270 American players attended college. TPA players appear overwhelmingly to consider college to be a worthwhile investment. Actually, the figures favoring college attendance look even stronger when you consider that of the 32 American players who have not had some college experience, all but five are over 35 years old. Thus, nearly all of the younger generations of male golfers have found good reason to go to college.
Not only do TPA golfers tend to gain playing experience in college, but 48 percent of the college alums on the 1981 circuit had graduated from the colleges they attended. This is a slightly higher percentage than the NFL claims for its players, which is approximately the average for all college students. And considering that professional golf is as much business as sport, it is not surprising to know that about two-thirds of the men pros who attended college listed business or marketing as their major.
Which colleges tend to be chosen by male golfers who have the talent to become professional tour players? Top male golfers flock to just a handful of schools. Not only have that, a select group of college campuses seemed to sprout future pro golfers like weeds.
Professional Tennis
The Men's Pro Tennis Tour: More than any other professional sport except soccer and ice hockey, men's tennis is populated by a large proportion of foreign-born players. Only one-third of the 239 players listed by the Association of Tennis Professionals in 1981 were U.S. citizens. Paul Bauman, editor of the 1982 ATP Media Guide, notes that of this group, almost all had gone to college. College tennis provides a showcase for young amateur players and allows the best to test their skills against each other. Playing college tennis also means that participants (or their families) don't have to pay for the extensive travel required to compete against top-level opponents.
Where do top junior-level tennis players choose to develop their games and reputations? We've seen consistently in other sports that future professional athletes tend to gravitate toward a select few schools. This is truer in men's tennis than in any other sport. Almost exclusively, these schools are located either in California or in the Deep South. (The weather requirements of tennis provide an obvious reason.) In 1981, over half (31 of 60) of the top-ranked American male tennis professionals played at just three schools: UCLA (12), Stanford (11), and USC (8). Other schools that sent from two to four players to the 1981 ATP Grand Prix tour include UC-Berkeley, Trinity (TX), Miami (FL), University of Texas, San Jose State, SMU, Pepperdine, and Northern Illinois (which snuck into the California-Texas-Florida-dominated "Tennis Belt" through the Gullikson twins, Tim and Tom). A staggering 83 percent of Americans among the top 150 ATP players went to one or another of these 11 schools.
If you have any serious designs on a career in men's professional tennis, you would be wise to consider one of these colleges where the competition is the best. Of course, coaches at these schools already know who are the best junior-level players nearing college age, and they actively seek them out. But rankings can be wrong. If you are both good and hungry for top competition, contact coaches at these schools if they haven't already contacted you. But be aware that the competition within these teams is often more intense than their matches with other schools. Even if you are good enough to star at most other colleges, you may never get to compete inter-collegiately at one of these schools in the tennis elite.
The Women's Pro Tennis Tour: Women's professional tennis differs in one significant way from all other professional sports. Girls begin playing in the top levels of tennis circuits when they are still so young-14 or 15 years of age no longer surprises-that by the time they reach college age, collegiate competition would be a step down for many of them. We can only speculate why female tennis players tend to turn professional sooner than males do. Could it be that since so few other avenues in professional sports exist for women, there is a great rush in tennis, where opportunities have long been open to women? Or is it simply that role models like Chris Evert-Lloyd and Tracy Austin established a precedent that became the norm? Despite the number of young teenagers who join the women's pro tour, entry into women's professional tennis for many players comes by way of collegiate competition, since college tennis provides a fine competitive experience.
Of the 216 women players rating a personal profile in the 1982 Women's Tennis Association Media Guide, 102 (47 percent) were Americans. Of these, almost three-quarters went to college. (Some had already turned pro and thus were not competing on their collegiate teams.) The same warm-weather Tennis Belt dominates women's college tennis as it does men's. Also, for the 1981 tour under consideration here, the same three California schools-USC, UCLA, and Stanford-dominated women's tennis, with representation by 43 percent of the top players.
