A lot of guys can’t afford to go back to college once their scholarship is gone. Plus, they don’t have the motivation anymore, especially if they spend 3 or 4 years in the minors. I would be curious to see what the number is for guys who are drafted, but who do not go on to play in the big leagues.

But Major League baseball players seem so intelligent

College baseball players can’t take a lot of hours during their spring semesters because of all the class time that is missed because of road trips and the raw number of games played. What happens if you need to take a particular class to graduate and that class is only offered during the spring semester late in the afternoon or at night, when baseball games are scheduled?

To make matters worse, there are only 11.7 scholarships awarded to each Division I baseball team. In states like Tennessee and Georgia, players can get HOPE scholarships through the state lottery in addition to partial athletic scholarships. For most college players who won’t go on to even play AA baseball, baseball is not very financially rewarding. It quite frankly can get in the way of getting a college education. That hurts their financial rewards outside of baseball.

lol

Former Cub Joe Girardi got a degree in industrial engineering from Northwestern. That’s impressive!

I believe Shark graduated but I don’t think you count folks not on the 25 man roster. Needless to say not all intellect can be measured with college experience or a degree.

Most players drafted in the June Amateur Draft have clauses requiring the school to pay their tuition to school, covering however many years of school they have left.

I’m not terribly surprised with these numbers, given the amount of time spent on the baseball field versus in a classroom for most of these guys in the spring and summer. I think it’d be more accurate to try and find how many guys receive their diploma (in a certain amount of time) when their careers are over.

Even though I am so in favor of advanced education, if I had a chance to play in the pro’s most likely meaning I would have been drafted in HS, I would have had to take that chance.

But once having been in MLB (not just a cup of coffee), I’d have to think that after earning all that money, I’d be hard pressed to convince myself to go back to college.

Most college players, as noted above, leave school once they’re drafted and don’t come back.

Andre Dawson also had a college degree.

Or if this was posted just out of general curiosity….if you can throw a piece of dead cow 90 miles an hour, what use do you have for a degree?

graduated from University of Pennsylvania.

Jody Gerut graduated from Stanford.

I was reading the other day on the hypocricy about the NCAA and sport leagues not caring about baseball players being drafted coming out of high school, but football and basketball players needed at least a year of two in college.
The reason was that baseball is not a revenue sport, so it doesn’t affect them, whereas they want to keep talented players in the other sports as long as possible.
Of course, it’s not that clear cut, there are many reasons, not the least is baseball having an actual farm system unlike the other leagues to develop talent, but it was an interesting point, and there is probably some truth to it.