My son's baseball also motivates his academics. I agree with others here in that unless you are talking about a Harvard type situation, having the degree is what matters. I think the degree is something that is a pre-requisite to many jobs. It is a pre-qualifier. It allows employers to weed out a certain percentage of the population in their search for a candidate. With the degree, you get a look. Without the degree you don't get a chance to compete. There may be people out there without a degree that are just as capable to do the job, but without the degree, they don't get that opportunity. Doesn't matter so much where you got the degree from.
I think what some people don't realize is that playing baseball is an education in itself. College athletes learn the concepts of time management, teamwork, commitment, hard work, overcoming adversity, learning to lose and keep your head high and I can go on and on and on. AND I think employers realize this as well. I think pretty much any employer who sees that a job applicant was a college athlete, will give that applicant an edge up. Because they know what playing a college sport entails.
So, I would not discount the opportunity to play college sports as just something a kid wants to do and nothing more. It teaches a lot of lessons. It helps build character. And I think it will open a lot more doors to the players than if they were not college athletes as well as students.
I've had colleagues in my profession, in the last 12 months, tell me that they seek to hire college athletes for many of the reasons that you mentioned. Before my conversation with them, that had never crossed my mind.