Sport-Blog.com

When it comes to the topic of college costs, most people immediately think of skyrocketing tuition charges that are the norm at a majority of campuses across the country. But in the case of prominent student athletes the costs can be significantly greater than the $20,000 to $30,000 per year price tag at the most expensive schools. Take former Trojans quarterback Matt Leinart, for instance. His senior year at USC cost him a whopping $10 million, even though he only took one class. How can that be? Well, his NFL stock took an unexpected dive in the days leading up to the draft. Let's take a look at how this all played out.

When Leinart ended the 2004 college football season, he was pretty much on top of the world. He had just finished leading the Trojans to their second consecutive national championship by posting a 13-0 record on the season, including a 55-19 whipping of the Oklahoma Sooners for the title. Leinart threw for 332 yards and 5 touchdowns in that Orange Bowl victory, setting a new record for TD passes in the process. This performance on the national stage capped off a fantastic year for Leinart, in which he also won the Heisman Trophy, which is awarded to the nation's best football player. Leinart, a junior at the time, could have declared for the NFL draft at that point.

Had he declared, he would almost certainly have been the number one overall pick, meaning that he would now be a member of the San Francisco 49ers organization. Instead, Leinart chose to return to USC for one more year in order to try for an unprecedented third national championship in a row, and perhaps, a second Heisman. With Leinart out of the draft, the top choice in 2005 turned out to be quarterback Alex Smith of Utah. Smith ended up signing the richest rookie contract in NFL history, a six-year deal that could be worth as much as $57 million with bonuses and incentives. A good percentage of that money, $24 million, is guaranteed. So even if Smith turns out to be a bust as a professional, he will walk away from the game a very rich man.

Leinart held a press conference and laid out his reasons for wanting to return to USC. He still had some goals that he wanted to accomplish, and he was simply having too much fun leading the college lifestyle to give it up for a job in the NFL. Leinart would need to take only one class (ballroom dancing), so he would pretty much have lots of time to devote to football. Immediately after the announcement was made, I applauded his decision and wished more athletes would follow his example and finish their degrees before turning pro.

During Leinart's senior season, he didn't make any costly errors or sustain any major injuries that would threaten his position at the NFL draft. He actually passed for more yards in 2005 than he did in 2004, and again led USC to an undefeated regular season. However, the Trojans ended up losing to Vince Young and the Texas Longhorns in the Rose Bowl, a game in which Young clearly outplayed Leinart. If I had to try to pinpoint a time when Leinart's stock began to fall, I would say it happened soon after the Rose Bowl.

But Young would have his fair share of offseason problems, not the least of which was the now-infamous Wonderlic test score disaster. Most mock drafts had Young listed as the third-overall pick prior to the test score leak. Afterwards, Young had dropped as far as seventh on many lists. Leinart had no such troubles, and reportedly performed well in workouts and during team interviews. So far so good.

Soon, however, teams began questioning Leinart's commitment to professional football. During his four years at USC, Leinart was pretty much treated as an A-list celebrity. He was used to hanging out with other young stars from the entertainment industry, and was used to the glitz and glamour that go along with being on the rise in Los Angeles. It was rumored that Leinart couldn't even walk across the USC campus without bodyguards to help clear the way for him. Not every young man receives that kind of attention, and it's easy to see how someone like Leinart could get used to -- and indeed, crave -- the spotlight.

So NFL general managers and team owners had to start asking themselves: How would Leinart respond to playing in a small market like New Orleans, or even worse, Nashville, which is the home of the Tennessee Titans. The concern was that Leinart would be too distracted with his pals back in L.A. and wouldn't devote 100 percent of his attention to football.

As a result, Leinart went from being the projected number two pick overall (behind teammate Reggie Bush) to third or fourth. Even that wasn't too bad, all things considered. So imagine everyone's surprise when draft day rolled around and Leinart ended up waiting around in the Green Room for what had to seem like an eternity. The Arizona Cardinals finally put an end to his agony by drafting him with the 10th pick.

As the 10th overall pick, Leinart's first contract will be nowhere near as lucrative as it would have been had he gone in, say, the top three. Of course, the details of Leinart's contract haven't been worked out yet, so anything can happen. But generally speaking, Leinart's contract will be an 8 or 10 percent increase over the contract that the number 10 player signed last year. Plus, Leinart should get a bit more right off the bat since he's a quarterback. Overall, though, the consensus is that Leinart will fall about $10 million short in terms of guaranteed money this year versus what he would have made had he gone to the NFL last year.

Despite the way things turned out, I still stand by my initial feeling that Leinart made the right decision by returning to school for his senior year. Little did I -- or anyone else, for that matter -- know that the monetary costs would be in the 8-figure range. Ten million dollars is a sum of money that most average people don't have a chance of making in their lifetimes, so it may seem that Leinart made a colossal mistake. But there's no question in my mind that by the time Leinart is done playing football, $10 million will be a mere after thought to him. In other words, over the course of his career, he'll likely make that figure 10 times over, and won't even remember the cost of his final year at USC.