You have seen those NCAA public service announcements, right? You know, those ones featuring a fit-looking young man or woman saying something like this: There are 380,000 NCAA student-athletes, and just about all of us will be going pro in something other than sports.
It's often difficult to remember that these are student-athletes. But at ASU, there's about 500 walking, talking, studying examples.
Football players request lecture notes in those wide-sweeping bulk e-mails too. Baseball players rush home to take quizzes for their online classes as well.
But that leaves out the hours they spend each day on the field, in the weight room, and yes, doing homework.
Andrew Beinbrink played that game of homeostasis and after six seasons of professional baseball post-college, he, as they say, fell back on his degree.
Let's just say he came out ahead.
Beinbrink, utilizing his 1999 diploma from the University's W.P. Carey School of Business, is the CEO and co-founder of TheSportsTV.com.
He has said he remembered Pat Murphy, his coach at ASU, encouraging his teammates and him to apply themselves in school, even if it meant sitting in the front of class.
But not all former ASU athletes end up joining America's mainstream job market. Many have realized or are still chasing the ideal career: playing a sport and making a living doing it.
ASU has been a breeding ground of sorts for amateurs seeking careers in the NFL, NBA or MLB.
The University can offer big-time recruits from far away places and local products a host of reasons to be schooled in and out of the classroom.
ASU is, after all, a part of the Pac-10 Conference and thus competes against the best talent the left coast has to offer. Athletes see match ups with historical giants USC and UCLA and think exposure.
But according to recent results, Sun Devil athletics are gaining in the conversation of national powerhouses.
After the 2007-2008 season, the University ranked fourth in the Sports Academy Director's Cup. Plus, Sports Illustrated ranked ASU first in athletic program's excellence.
But, at least for the sports for which exposure comes easy, a program's past success in graduating athletes not to the podium but to the professional ranks seems integral.
ASU has graduated 90 baseball players to the big leagues all-time. In fact, a school-record 15 Sun Devils were selected in the 2008 MLB draft.
Thirty-four Sun Devils have been drafted into the NBA since 1964.
But those many undrafted, unsigned and unpaid former amateurs need the cap and gown so much more.
Reach the reporter at apentis@asu.edu.
