The exposure he'd get as an ND football player would help him substantially in obtaining endorsement deals and probably boost his salary and day job prospects while playing in MLL.

Even if he played high school football, he hasn't played the sport in years. He would have to learn a position essentially from scratch. The kinds of contact in each sport are very different, so he'd have to dive into a different S&C program just to be physically ready to play.

Whatever position he would play, there are football scholarship players who have been in the program for years. He would have to pass them on the depth chart; and because the football staff is committed to its own scholarship players first, being the equal of his teammates won't get him significant playing time (if any at all). He would have to be obviously better.

If Perkovic really were interested in football, going to a lower level D1-A or a D1-AA school as a graduate transfer would be the smart move. At that level, he would be a more gifted athlete than almost all of his teammates. He'd still have to adapt in other ways, but his size and athletic ability compared to teammates would make it hard to keep him off the field.

So far, the MLL has been content to draw its fanbase largely from youth lacrosse players and their parents. If the league wants to take the next step, it probably has to start drawing more casual fans. Boasting a former ND football player among its ranks could help greatly, not to mention that it would instantly give Perkovic much greater name recognition. And a graduate degree might give Perkovic more earning power at a day job, should he choose to go that route.

Of course, everything above but the last sentence is contingent upon Perkovic, at a minimum, receiving significant playing time in football. Without that, the rest is all for naught.

As an aside, I should note that MLL's two-point FG rule seems to be tailor-made for Perkovic, and in tandem with a year on ND's football squad, could make him the first real MLL superstar.

The tradeoff is that a year playing football at ND probably costs him any shot he has at #1 overall draft pick status. It's doubtful that any MLL team would draft him #1 and then consent to him playing football at ND for a year. And if he withdrew from this year's draft and reapplied the following year, it's doubtful he'd then be the #1 overall pick after a year off from competitive lacrosse.

If the NFL were his ultimate goal, he might be better off to follow Chris Hogan's blueprint and go the grad transfer route to a school whose football team is less competitive than ND's, since college football would essentially be a one-and-done for him.