If you have court vision, is college really necessary?

Teenagers are taking over professional sports. LeBron James, Michelle Wie, Freddy Adu, Rick Nash — all are teenagers who are stars in their sports.

I'm sick of people complaining that these kids are losing out because they are going pro so young. The basic argument states that these kids don't get to finish their education.

What?!?

What is education for? As much as people who are still stuck in the noble atmosphere of academia would like to claim that they are learning simply for the sake of learning, they're not. There are the select few who love learning so much that they read the whole book when only part of it was assigned. Call me cynical, but the vast majority of students are getting their educations only so they can get a good job after school.

Almost everyone reading this column would drop out of school in a minute if they were offered a salary of more than a million dollars to start. I certainly would. There's nothing noble about skipping out on an opportunity.

Professional athletics is different from nearly all professions that college students — or even high school students — will end up in. In most sports you only get a few years when you can compete at a level that makes you millions of dollars. I can count on my fingers how many NBA players are over 40. There are only a few more in Major League Baseball. The NFL has about as many as the NBA in a much bigger league. The NHL has even fewer than baseball. There's too much running in soccer for geezers to contribute significantly. Tennis? Don't make me laugh. Late 20s and you're over the hill. Heck, even NASCAR is becoming a young man's "sport." Golf is another story, and I'll get back to that.

So if you have so few years to be a professional and there's the opportunity for you to make money when you're young enough to watch Nickelodeon faithfully, why not jump at the chance?

Rick Nash is leading the NHL in goals at age 19. He's going to be making millions of dollars for the next 20 years.

Major League Baseball signs most of its talent straight out of high school, and no one bats an eyelash. They just go to the minors most of the time, and aren't in the spotlight.

What's new is that more and more teenagers are becoming the face of professional sports in America.

Freddy Adu is 14 (that's not a typo). When he was 13 he signed a $1 million contract with Nike. He's also the highest paid player in Major League Soccer ($500,000 annual salary), an American league. He'll be making that kind of money — and probably more given historical trends in salary — for about 20 more years. Now his mother doesn't have to work two jobs. Should he blow 10 years in school? Frankly, mastering long division and knowing what happened at the Munich Conference are not important enough to pass up millions of dollars.

But what if he doesn't pan out? It happens all the time with basketball players. For every Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant or LeBron James, there are a few players who shouldn't try to make the pro jump. It's terrible that they blow their chance at a free college education by signing with an agent and then not getting drafted or signed. But that's a problem of guidance from parents, advisers and agents. It should not lead to a rule forbidding kids to go pro.

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Everyone made a stink about how LeBron's mom bought him a Hummer during his senior year. That's a dangerous move for most people whose biggest earning potential is a high schooler. I say, "Who cares?" It seems like a sound business move to me. Now if he had to wait four years to go pro, he'd probably never have signed a $90 million contract with Nike. Looks like the right move to me. Now he's the face of the NBA. He's got a huge contract for going No. 1 in the draft, and he's going to get paid for four more years than anybody who went to college. Whether he goes to college or not, a professional athlete has to retire when he's still in the prime of life. I don't think it's fair to deprive him of professional status and deprive him of valuable earning years. If he's good enough to go pro out of high school, those first few years could be some of the most lucrative of his career.

Michelle Wie is another youngster who is taking her sport by storm. One of the best golfers in the world, Ernie Els, said that she is good enough now, at 14, to play every week with the men on the PGA Tour. While this certainly is a blow to golf being considered a sport (a subject for another column), it is clear evidence that she should be allowed to play whomever she wants, whenever she wants. She has involved parents who don't need the money. But does that mean they should keep her from making it? The shelf life in golf is a little longer than most sports, but it's still pretty low at the highest level. People over 40 rarely win PGA tournaments. Should Wie sacrifice four to eight years of her career so she can get an education?

An education is at its basic level a preparation for any career. Oprah Winfrey dropped out of school because she got a great job offer. Now she's the richest woman in the history of the world! If your career comes knocking, your education has taught you nothing if you don't answer the door.