I'm not sure that the ND degree, or any other highly...

regarded university, has the same networking pull for athletes. Maybe someone has studied this and found that D1 athletes who do not become professional athletes do just as well financially and career advancement-wise as their non-athlete cohorts but it also seems like an inordinate number of them end up coaching the sport that they participated in, often at the high school level. Maybe that is their choice, is what they love, know, and are passionate about.

Many years ago I was looking to fill a very entry level international position and of the 100 résumés that I received I was very surprised that one of them was from a Duke basketball player (that everyone here would recognize) who had graduated 10 years earlier. I think most people would say that Duke's academic reputation is at least as well respected as ND's but, maybe, the network is not as strong. That's an N of 1 and maybe there was other reasons that an individual would not be able to leverage the Duke degree into a meaningful opportunity.

Of course we have some very bright shining stars of athletes that have been tremendous success in other businesses like Pat Eilars and Kevin Keyes. What about the vast majority of former student athletes, are the same sites opened to them?