Pro vs College (Mallory Pugh)

*yawn* Pugh is all about NT endorsement/name, not this bush league. "trend"? maybe for the wave of 1 "guaranteed" 18 yo NT every few years.

She no doubt saw the bush leaguers dominating the college teams in the spring exhibitions which hastened her departure from Eastwood. Perceived "more competitive" training ground, no academic hassles, boo-ya.

i think it was bad advice, the NCAA would have raised her name recognition. Even do a year or two there, win a CC. But, she didn't feel like going to class. Not to mention she's not all that.

 

Stinx, where'd the hell this thread go? I only see if cuz there's a notice from your reply in my Inbox?

Oh, i get it, OP Eddie deleted his OP.

 

I'm pretty sure Pugh did not need to play in college to raise her name recognition. Name recognition comes with being a member of the women's national team far more than anything else. Where is that $200K coming from--is that what the Spirit is paying her? Of course it is going to be a while before the women's pro league is established as MLS is only now gaining traction and it's been around for, what, 15 years I'm guessing. I rather feel that the pro women's teams should be attached to the men's franchises, if that could be worked out. Without that, you are almost automatically having to have franchises in smaller markets, which makes it a bit tougher to get established, I should think.

 

I imagine Pugh's endorsement contract(s) will dwarf her $200,000 USSF pay. Suppose she had gotten injured in college, ending her career? All those $$ would have been lost. That's certainly a significant part of the equation.

Originally, information from the Pugh family was that she wanted the college experience. Maybe that changed after a little time on campus at UCLA -- it wasn't as great as she'd imagined?

But I think a big factor that hasn't gotten discussed is the Lavelle factor. Maybe Pugh and her family saw the potential for her to be displaced by Lavelle as the darling of US Women's soccer, with all the financial implications that might have.

I bet lots of considerations went into the decision calculations.

 

Its interesting to hear the responses from a lot of people on this board and in the other news outlets. There are many criticizing Pugh for passing on a college education. As documented, she will make 200K through the USSF and probably close to a Million in endorsements. Yet hundreds of high school grads go straight into Minor League baseball with a dream to make the bigs (only a very smal percentage ever do) She is getting paid now and wont risk injury in college that can kill a professional career

 

Good points, i'm just saying supplementing/reinforcing her name, especially during international "downtime", would have been better served setting some sort of "historical benchmark" in the NCAA. i mean, if she was all that, she would have been slam-dunk College Cup hero. Look at, Rebecca Lobo, for example. she's still leading a cushy life, not from Liberty, not from Olympics, but from UConn.

I saw Rocky Rodriguez in LA like three months ago signing auto's. I don't think the crowd of girls could say which pro team she plays for.

Injury risk in pro league = Injury risk in NCAA. It's a risk i would be willing to make, especially with today's medical robots.

She can't be making 200k from the Washington Federals or whatever, Google told me the league cap is ballpark 270k. But i see the point about quick endorsement deal now which couldn't happen at UCLA. I just think she thinx it's better competition after these Spring exhibitions.

As alluded to with the men's and women's coupling (do they do that in England?), I think that's a great idea, The WNBA would be dead without NBA subsidy. But I think the men's soccer league will always be barely sustaining itself as with marginal market success comes labor demands. Cannot break the glass ceiling sans big TV deal which can't happen. But speaking of the WNBA, and this is the risk with womens professional adult soccer, in my opinion,, is that it begins to morph into a non-family friendly experience. WNBA games are a Melissa Ethridge concert and that is a niche market. Kills their bottom-line and increases near total reliance on NBA.

I think the absurd gravy train for pro leagues like the NBA will scale back with mounting economic pressures on their advertisers, consumer base and finally the networks. The ESPN cannings are a direct result of bloated TV contracts. The first thing to go when the roll back wave hits the NBA is the WNBA.

 

Pugh salary of 200K is paid by US Soccer Federation and isn't counted towards her professional club team's salary cap.

 

Well, PART of Pugh's salary does count towards the cap. I believe the current figure is in the $35K range. By league bylaw and the latest collective bargaining agreement , it has to be higher than the salary being paid to any non-allocated player.

 

Unless you are a diehard UCLA fan, who really cares whether she turns pro or not. It's wonderful that she has the opportunity to explore the pros at such a young age, and that it seems she will be rewarded for those skills. with the money she makes in 1 year, she will be able to afford the college education she wants from any college, if the pro soccer thing doesn't work out. Good for her, Hope it works out. It's not the route that will work for 99.99% of the soccer players out there (Male or Female). I wonder, did yall complain about Lebron skipping college? or Kobe? I sincerely hope that she is very successful, and not just a token like Freddie Adu was...

 

I am neither loitering nor trespassing nor complaining. I have simply chosen an advisable location to await my clients delinquent husband. NBA is apples/oranges to women's soccer. There is no EPL. What if Pugh doesn't score on the WC and Olympic stages. What if somebody else scores that PK. Game-changer, new face. Even Olympic medalists are forgotten two days later.

Not to mention it's too easy to get "swallowed" up in women's soccer. 11 peeps, large field, chess action. It's not like she has the stage like Venus or a figure skater or gopher.

 

at the end of the day Holmes, who cares.. hope she does super well, as it may open up more doors for more women to play soccer on a bigger stage.. Nothing in life is guaranteed, so when an opportunity knocks, maybe the best choice is to open the door and see where it takes you..

 

well, i guess it's just something to shoot the breeze about on a women's college soccer forum, west. I could shrug too but both of us doing that is little excitement.

ja, I see, but which door is "best choice" to open? Your working assumption is all the "opportunity" is endorsements and pro. Me thinx there was "opportunity" at Eastwood, and that door would enable her to seize on two avenues of opportunity, albeit sequentially. Now, she just has to hope some younger cute face doesn't expose her sports brassiere first, for she will never experience a college team, conference/ncaa tournament, CC. Exposure? I might be wrong but between all the networks, college soccer is on the tube far more than whatever league. Is that bush league even on TV? All the stuff I posted above about fleeting marketability of, as Stephen A would say, "quadriperennial athletes", is true. The potential for getting lost in an 11v11, slower action sport is true. I think in a few years she will enormously regret skipping UCLA as she, as a kid now, just doesn't feel like dealing with academics. This is just verbal, not judging.

Maybe it'll work, as you, say, who cares. But I would have gone to UCLA. By the way, it's a total jip P5 athletes don't get any endorsement money for the logos the schools cash in on. Like music tunes, if a college team is on the tube, each kid should get a royalty. So in that respect, I see why Pugh did it and that is really what started early basketball draft entrants en masse. Of course there were early draft entrants before Webber and Howard from the Fab Five but they were one of the first to identify how they were exploited in apparel by UM/Nike.