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College Football News, Rumor & Humor

I am shocked by the move if it happens. Tua could come out, not work out for any ****ty teams, drop to the mid part of the first and then come in after a redshirt year to get healthy in a great situation.
 

Yeah but wouldn’t you sacrifice 10 million to get a better situation that sets you up for the future? 10 million isn’t going to mean much once he gets to his second contract. Also quite a bit of competition at QB next year in the draft.
 
Yeah but wouldn’t you sacrifice 10 million to get a better situation that sets you up for the future? 10 million isn’t going to mean much once he gets to his second contract. Also quite a bit of competition at QB next year in the draft.
Yeah, I don't know, there's always going to be tradeoffs. I personally think he's better off going to the NFL and not risking another injury or regression, but I see the logic in coming back as well, assuming everything goes to plan.
 
Yeah, I don't know, there's always going to be tradeoffs. I personally think he's better off going to the NFL and not risking another injury or regression, but I see the logic in coming back as well, assuming everything goes to plan.
The other thing is he has an insurance policy for this year already so I would think if he drops in the draft he can still cash out on some of it but maybe it was only for dropping out of the first round or something like that.
 
I didn’t realize that this was a permissible benefit to pay for insurance policies for student athletes... interesting.
I didn't either until I saw someone Tweet it out the other day.

There are NCAA rules that allow athletics department officials to help secure policies and there are also funds available at each university that can be used to pay for the insurance policies if the programs want to allocate money for that purpose.

The student assistance fund is money provided to every university by the NCAA that can be used for a variety of scenarios to help student-athletes financially for everything from travel for funerals to formula for babies. The NCAA allows universities to pay for the insurance policies out of this fund, but not every university chooses to do so. Texas A&M, for example, paid $50,000 from this fund to help offensive lineman Cedric Ogbuehi secure insurance. Butt and his family secured loans to pay for the premium instead of using the student assistance fund at Michigan.

"It's subject to institutional and conference-level parameters," Wille said. "The Mountain West conference doesn't have a cap, so we could provide for that premium for the student in full if we wanted to."
 
I didn’t realize that this was a permissible benefit to pay for insurance policies for student athletes... interesting.
I didn't either until recently. I think it was in the podcast with Tad, but Tucker has mentioned insurance policies as one of the questions he gets from parents in the "new" era of recruiting.
 
I didn’t realize that this was a permissible benefit to pay for insurance policies for student athletes... interesting.
Yeah it is. Bama of course was the first to... I was going to say "realize it," but it happened a little differently. They started by using AD funds to buy a version of disability insurance for all their players. Then petitioned the NCAA for a ruling, saying it was part of some funds that could be used for something vague like "student athlete welfare."

The NCAA looks at it, and says "yes, that's ok." Then Bama expands that by buying performance/career insurance for some blue-chip players telling the NCAA "if the first is ok, then this is too." The NCAA responded with ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

So now several SEC schools are doing it as a matter of course, and the rest of the P5 is catching up quick. The policies are not cheap, and some athletes haven't benefited from them the way they probably should have, but yes, they are allowed.
 
Yeah, I don't know, there's always going to be tradeoffs. I personally think he's better off going to the NFL and not risking another injury or regression, but I see the logic in coming back as well, assuming everything goes to plan.
There is history of guys who came back with the expectations of being a high draft choice the following year and instead falling. There is a lot that could go wrong for Tua that an insurance policy wouldn't cover. What happens if instead of a major injury he has a series of minor injuries that cost him multiple games but don't lose him the ability to participate in pre-draft activities and play normally. What they would do is cement an idea in the NFL that he is fragile and he drops into the 20's or more in the draft.

If he comes out this year he has guaranteed millions. He is also likely to end up with a team with much better surrounding talent which will pay off when it comes time for the big second contract. It also means he will likely not be seen as an immediate savior and be given time to come back fully.

It may very well be though that money isn't the determining factor. He seems like an intensely competitive guy and after this season he may see playing for a national championship at Bama as unfinished business. His self-confidence would tell him that he will stay healthy and he will play well enough to raise the trophy and get drafted for the big bucks.
 
Coming back is a poor decision for Tua in my opinion. Take the $19 million now.
Agreed. It’s kind of like when to decide to take social security except without a guarantee.
He’ll have $19M in the bank to start versus $0 for at least a year and no guarantee that he’ll get a penny more a year from now.
How long would it take for him to just break even by waiting a year?
 
Returning to the discussion about Tua’s decision, if he stayed I’m not sure how the insurance would work. From what I know, the NCAA only recommends insurance for those considered top 10 picks because the policies are based on “loss of value”. If you are not a top pick, the ability to prove LOV becomes challenging. In Tua’s case, with such a bad injury and uncertain draft status, his proof of LOV would be doubly hard to prove. Plus, further aggravation to the leg injury would probably be written into the policy as an excluded preexisting condition.

Again, I’d take my chances in the NFL draft this year.
 
Returning to the discussion about Tua’s decision, if he stayed I’m not sure how the insurance would work. From what I know, the NCAA only recommends insurance for those considered top 10 picks because the policies are based on “loss of value”. If you are not a top pick, the ability to prove LOV becomes challenging. In Tua’s case, with such a bad injury and uncertain draft status, his proof of LOV would be doubly hard to prove. Plus, further aggravation to the leg injury would probably be written into the policy as an excluded preexisting condition.

Again, I’d take my chances in the NFL draft this year.
From my reading on the subject, which admittedly was like 2-3 articles a few months ago, often the policies are what we would think of as "catastrophic." They tend to only kick in if you're hurt badly enough that you can't play at the professional level.

Which means a lot of the kids are left with a "take the payout now, and never play football again," or "try to play." Often times literally their whole life has been about trying to play, so they try - and end up with a low round draft pick, maybe barely hang on with a team, get hurt again, and are out of football in a couple years with neither the payout nor the career.

"35 year old" me would take the money and let the dream go, but I somehow don't think 21 year old me would.
 
It's illogical to ignore that he'd be deferring his second contract, where the "real" money is made, by a year. If Tua thinks he can make it that far it's a no brainer, unless he just really loves life in Tuscaloosa.
 
"35 year old" me would take the money and let the dream go, but I somehow don't think 21 year old me would.
This can't be repeated enough. What I would do with significant money today is light years different from 20 years ago.

Excuse me, 5 years ago for 35 year old me.
 
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It's illogical to ignore that he'd be deferring his second contract, where the "real" money is made, by a year. If Tua thinks he can make it that far it's a no brainer, unless he just really loves life in Tuscaloosa.

Somehow this almost never gets brought up. It's a big deal for 1st round talent that has a high % chance of getting that big contract. Also adds 1 extra year of income assuming you will play until a fixed age where you aren't good enough.
 
I guess this belongs in a new 2020 college football news thread, but anyway:

That's the right call.

There is substantial downside in staying at Bama for another year, and the insurance only mitigates some of it.

By going now, he's practically guaranteed his first year salary, as he likely won't be able to play. He'll probably go to a decent team. He'll get a year under NFL coaching.

Then, in 2021, he will make less money than he would have in 2021 had he returned to Bama and everything worked out perfectly, but he'll be one year closer to the "real" money contract.

Returning for another season of college football had limited upside, and a whole lot of risk.
 
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