Here you go, Rice Head Coaches.

Here are your odds of becoming a professional athlete (they're not good)
By: Luke Kerr-Dineen | July 27, 2016 1:18 pm

The glitz, the glamor, the fame, the fortune; it’s not hard to understand why so many people dream of becoming professional athletes, but what are their odds of actually doing it?

They vary between the sports, of course, but according to a new study called “The Odds of Success” by Canadian Casino company Online Casino, they’re pretty very slim.

Ice hockey has the best odds — 1 in 598 for high school athletes — but even that pales in comparison to other things. Like fatal car accidents: People have a 1 in 113 chance of dying in a car crash, according to the study.

Wow, this took a dark turn. Anyway, here’s the infographic:

For later viewing, in case the infographic link above gets broken:

High School Football: 1,083,617
College Football: 72,788
Drafted to Pros in Football: 256
Odds of a US High School Athlete Making it to Pro Football: 1 in 4,233

High School Men's Basketball: 541,479
College Men's Basketball: 18,697
Drafted to Pros in Men's Basketball: 46
Odds of a US High School Athlete Making it to Pro Men's Basketball: 1 in 11,771

High School Women's Basketball: 429,504
College Women's Basketball: 16,589
Drafted to Pros in Women's Basketball: 33
Odds of a US High School Athlete Making it to Pro Women's Basketball: 1 in 13,015

High School Baseball: 486,567
College Baseball: 34,198
Drafted to Pros in Baseball: 738
Odds of a US High School Athlete Making it to Pro Baseball: 1 in 659

High School Men's Ice Hockey: 35,875
College Men's Ice Hockey: 4,071
Drafted to Pros in Men's Ice Hockey: 60
Odds of a US High School Athlete Making it to Pro Men's Ice Hockey: 1 in 598

High School Men's Soccer: 432,569
College Men's Soccer: 24,477
Drafted to Pros in Men's Soccer: 75
Odds of a US High School Athlete Making it to Pro Men's Soccer: 1 in 5,768

Well it's not as bad as the 1 in a million that i've been told, lol. Baseball seems within reach for some as well.

But in baseball most careers die in the minors. in the other sports, it is not enough to be drafted since most of them do not make the team for regular season.

(07-27-2016 02:52 PM)owl95 Wrote:  Well it's not as bad as the 1 in a million that i've been told, lol. Baseball seems within reach for some as well.

These are way better than I could've imagined

It just just the odds of becomimg a professional. minor league ball players, as well as those on European basketball teams or playing in independent leagues count as pros. it equates being drafted to being a pro.

I think a key word here is "drafted". Not all professional athletes, even some of those in the respective top league (MLB, NFL, NBA, for example) were drafted. So the odds must be "way better"...but still "way worse" than having a successful career in something other than sports as a result of getting Rice degree.

A few years ago we had a guy working in our mail room who beat the odds and had a pro career in football. He played at an Oklahoma university, was drafted by an NFL team and played two and a half years before he tore up his knee. Successful career by these odds but not set for life. He had a really nice car for someone his age.

Well, and it also ignores the multi-sport athlete in high school - a not uncommon phenomenon. The odds should skew better across the board, if you're really trying to count who became a professional (which is the title of the infographic) and not who was a HS athlete in a given sport and eventually because a pro in that sport.

Or maybe that's just my editor hat coming on - title needs to be amended to be accurate.

It occurs to me that we don't just nit-pic the coaches, we nit pic at just about everything! And that's...okay!

and what's hinted at above is you also have to factor in how long is your pro career even if you do get drafted and make the squad -

I'll bet the average is less than 5 yrs, overall (not talking about superstars, just the average joe), taking into account injuries.

So now you've spent your bonus, and taxes have taken half your salary so not much left over (especially after you've taken care of the posse), and all of a sudden you're out of a job, with no workforce skill training, and no degree to present that would make you hireable - and you're looking at having to make a living for the next 40 - 50 yrs.

Very interesting. I've always wondered the odds. It's harder than I thought.

As some have mentioned, those are 'drafted', not playing. Sure, some undrafted players make teams and some even have very long careers, but more than half those drafted never see a regular season game.... and though it may have changed slightly, the average career in the NFL is fewer than 3 seasons. OF COURSE we see stars that play for a decade and earn 100mm over that time, but the vast majority of players earn far far less and for a far far shorter period.

More significantly for us, if you adjust it to those in g5... the odds are far greater against you. Certainly there are exceptions, but teams often draft g5 'stars' in the middle and late rounds because they haven't been as tested as the p5 stars... and making a team in the NFL for guys like that (and specialists) is as much about getting the right opportunities/openings as it is about talent... so the 'hit' rate for those guys is vastly lower. For probably 80+% of any draft and 90+% of g5 draftees, you have a 2-3 year window to either become a star or do something else for a living... and you're 25. If you aren't a sure-fire star (AND able to avoid injury) then you'd better have a solid degree.

(07-27-2016 05:04 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  It occurs to me that we don't just nit-pic the coaches, we nit pic at just about everything! And that's...okay!

The correct spelling is nit-pick.


Sorry -- it was too easy!

I think you had one season in the NFL as a kicker.

(07-28-2016 10:36 AM)Hambone10 Wrote:  As some have mentioned, those are 'drafted', not playing. Sure, some undrafted players make teams and some even have very long careers, but more than half those drafted never see a regular season game.... and though it may have changed slightly, the average career in the NFL is fewer than 3 seasons. OF COURSE we see stars that play for a decade and earn 100mm over that time, but the vast majority of players earn far far less and for a far far shorter period.

More significantly for us, if you adjust it to those in g5... the odds are far greater against you. Certainly there are exceptions, but teams often draft g5 'stars' in the middle and late rounds because they haven't been as tested as the p5 stars... and making a team in the NFL for guys like that (and specialists) is as much about getting the right opportunities/openings as it is about talent... so the 'hit' rate for those guys is vastly lower. For probably 80+% of any draft and 90+% of g5 draftees, you have a 2-3 year window to either become a star or do something else for a living... and you're 25. If you aren't a sure-fire star (AND able to avoid injury) then you'd better have a solid degree.