A slight diversion, but along the same topic — we recently learned that my son, who is in his second year, is on target to graduate after three years. He would be draft eligible, but when I asked the coach I talk to once a year if he would still get athletic aid if he chose to stay a fourth year, he said sure he could do that but graduating early "is a great place to be for negotiating."
Why is that? It seemed to me you'd be in that spot of teams basically saying "yea, so you can come play for us for no money, or be done playing." Is it just because he could stay in school for that additional degree?