Give Mallett High Marks For Passing on Degree

So much for the value of a Stanford education.

That was the prevailing thought as news drifted out recently that Cardinal quarterback Andrew Luck will return for his senior season rather than enter the NFL Draft. This despite the consensus opinion he’d be the top overall pick.

Arkansas’ Ryan Mallett, meanwhile, is putting work on his sociology degree on hold. As you surely know by now, Arkansas’ record-setting, rocket-armed QB quit school to get ready for the draft, to be held April 28-30 in New York City.

With apologies to ESPN contributor Mark Kreidler, it is Mallett, not Luck, who made the smart play. Kreidler wrote after Luck’s announcement he’d made a wise choice due to uncertainty surrounding the NFL’s labor situation.

A quick refresher: The NFL’s current collective bargaining agreement is set to expire on March 3. Its expiration won’t cancel the draft, but will prevent teams from signing their picks until a new agreement is reached.

Chicken Little-types claim the labor strife could drag into fall and either cut short or kill next season. That, however, is a hard sell to anyone who understands just how much money players and owners stand to lose if there is no season.

We are talking about a league, after all, that’s close to signing an extension for Monday Night Football worth close to $2 billion. That’s in addition to a deal worth up to $1.2 billion over six years, starting this year, with Anheuser-Busch.

Perhaps equally important as far as Mallett is concerned is the number of teams in need of a quarterback right now. No less than six – Carolina, Buffalo, Arizona, San Francisco, Tennessee and Washington – of the first 10 teams in the draft order have no-brainer quarterback needs.

That doesn’t even take into account Cincinnati (fourth) or Cleveland (sixth), which might be looking. Add Minnesota (12th) and Miami (15th), and it seems like a pretty good time to be a draftable quarterback, especially because there are only four considered to be first round-worthy.

Along with Mallett, Missouri’s Blaine Gabbert, Auburn’s Cam Newton and Washington’s Jake Locker are drawing the most attention. All will benefit not only from Luck staying in school, but an almost guaranteed run on quarterbacks once the first of them is drafted.

And while a rookie wage scale almost certainly will be part of the new collective bargaining agreement, wiping out the $50 million guaranteed deals like Sam Bradford got for being the top pick last year, there remain millions to be made.

Consider, for example, that Tim Tebow got a reported $9.7 million guaranteed for being the 25th pick last year. Heck, Jimmy Clausen was taken midway through the second round and got $2.5 million guaranteed.

It’s also worth noting Colt McCoy, taken in the third round, got a little more than $1 million guaranteed. McCoy, by the way, is represented by the same agency Mallett chose.

So while ESPN’s Mel Kiper and Todd McShay and all the other draftniks spend the next three months moving these prospects up and down their rankings, Mallett can laugh all the way to the bank. Whether he eventually turns out to be Drew Bledsoe – the best guess here – or Ryan Leaf, Mallett figures to cash some pretty fat paychecks in the relatively near future.

Sociologists entering the marketplace with a bachelor’s degree earn an average starting salary of $34,796, after all, according to a 2008 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

So whether he’s picked first or 40th, Mallett clearly deserves an A+ in economics.