Players’ talent should be the only variable

And for the 11th overall pick, the Pittsburgh Pirates select…

Neil Walker, the… And for the 11th overall pick, the Pittsburgh Pirates select…

Neil Walker, the switch-hitting catcher from nearby Pine-Richland High School.

All he’s done is help his team win a Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League championship by batting .650 and belting 12 home runs. This kid appears to be the real deal. But should he be able to jump right from high school to the pros like this?

It’s a debate that’s been going on as long as I can remember, and it will likely continue. Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League tell us that it is necessary to draft high school athletes because their talent will be better developed in the minors.

The National Football League, on the other hand, has the luxury of using NCAA Football as its own minor league system. League officials say that their sport is different than any other. They say that the hard-hitting nature of the sport warrants the three-year waiting period placed on any high school graduate wishing to make himself or herself eligible for the NFL Draft.

So who’s right?

NFL teams spend far less on player development. Think of all the money that professional baseball and hockey teams have to dump into minor league systems. They have to pay players, coaches, and general managers and have a whole slew of other expenses that come with operating a minor league club. And all of this money is spent primarily to develop talent for the pro team.

Now take a look at the arrangement that the NFL and NCAA have. People love college football. They love to watch it, read about it and buy their favorite team’s apparel. They especially love to watch the NFL Draft and listen to Mel Kiper, Jr. predict where their favorite players will end up. First-round picks in the NFL Draft are already household names before commissioner Paul Tagliabue calls out their names. And while these players are performing on the field for nothing but a degree that most never receive, the universities are the ones collecting the dollars.

Am I saying that college athletes should be paid? Not exactly. But if someone is good enough to go pro, he should have that right.

Walker is good enough to go pro. He’s good enough to turn down the full scholarship to Clemson. And he’s good enough to sign on the dotted line and do what we all want to do — get paid.

He’ll receive a hefty signing bonus without ever stepping onto a college diamond or, more importantly, a college classroom. But that’s the nature of the beast. The landscape of professional sports is always changing, but one thing will always ring true — it’s all about the Benjamins.

That’s the real truth. o matter what kind of rhetoric you hear about how college athletes need three years before they are mature enough to play in the NFL or about how NCAA competition would be harmed. The NFL doesn’t want to have to spend more on player development, and the NCAA does not want to lose its top athletes.

So while Walker is signing his big league contract just before taking the field in a PIAA playoff game, Mike Williams, the Heisman Trophy finalist from USC, will have to wait to hear what his fate will be.

Nothing against Walker, he is deservedly living out his dream. But it’s hard not to feel sorry for players like Williams, who claims that the NFL actually persuaded him to declare himself eligible for the draft.

It doesn’t seem right, but when it comes to league policy in any sport, not much does.

Ryan Walker is the sports editor of The Pitt News and would like to dedicate this column to Ronald Reagan, who believed that people were inherently good, and whose optimism helped us all to believe in our country and ourselves.