Centro Has Turned Pro

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Damn, now predicting who'll win the 1500 this year is going to be a lot harder for me...

normally I am traditional and feel bad when a student quits college for sports, but...this seems different. Centro has incredible momentum, seems 100% committed, and only 7 months til the Olympic trials - I would hate to think I missed out on an Olympic spot because I had to stay up late studying.

Full Release here:

http://www.letsrun.com/2011/centrowitz-pro-1129.php

Quote: "I am very grateful to the University of Oregon and the coaching staff for all they have done for me. This important decision has taken me a couple of months to decide on but a decision I feel that is best for me in reaching my upcoming goals"

Financially it seems like a no-brainer for the kid to turn pro. What more could he do in college to increase his value?

A whole different discussion is how much money German Fernandez cost himself by not going pro after winning NCAAs as a freshman.

wejo wrote:

A whole different discussion is how much money German Fernandez cost himself by not going pro after winning NCAAs as a freshman.

That's a great question in retrospect.

He'd probably be way ahead of where he is now.

agip wrote:

I would hate to think I missed out on an Olympic spot because I had to stay up late studying.

I would hope he's not dropping out of school. Is he?

On a run the other day, I said Fernandez cost himself at least a million.

With Fernandez lets say he could have gone pro for at least $250k a year. We'd be coming up on $750k he's lost out on. And a good agent would have tried to structure the deal through 2016.

And $250k per is just the minimum I figure they'd have to pay him to give up 3 years of college. He might have gotten more.

Now if Fernandez turns pro, he'll get less per year than he would have gotten as a freshman and he's already lost out on 3 years.

I'm a big fan of the guy so I hope he has a great senior year. Talent like that does not go away.

With Centro Jr, the calculus is different as by turning pro now the paychecks just start a few months earlier and he can shift his training away from the college year.

If he stayed he would not lose out on 3 years of earnings. But I don't think his value could go up much only down. He'll sign his pro contract at the top. Now he doesn't run for Nike for free to 6 months in the Oregon jersey.

Rupp is one guy who made a ton of cash by staying in school. He was a great runner but not a champion until his senior year. So did Jenny Barringer (through the 3:59 1500m not her last XC year).

Lukezic cashed out on top but never amounted to much as a pro.

Wheating probaly benefited by staying. His double NCAA wins made him a legend but he did lose out on 2 years of earnings. If he didn't get the double his senior year, I think financially he would have taken an overall hit.

So.....it's all about the money?

in the end...yes

Kiko wrote:

So.....it's all about the money?

Of course it's not all about the money. But if money's not a factor, then never turn pro. Just run for free.

Was it wejo or rojo that was super critical of Lukezic because he went pro without having won an NCAA title? What a dumb argument. The guy got paid for several years based on his potential.

I do agree with wejo that Centro only stood to lose money by staying though. Win ncaas and the trials? He's the same guy as last year. Get injured, upset or beaten by another US stud and he's already not the next great thing. Still worth a lot, but not quite so much.

And wheating did himself a favor by staying. Do you know how many hundreds of thousands he earns annually? Had he left as a soph it would have been a third of what he makes now.

Didn't Centro already graduate? I believe this is his fifth year at Oregon, since he redshirted his two track seasons freshman year.

as a fan, i was hoping to see an NCAA 1500 centro vs lawi lalang, i know centro would be favored, but lalang has repotedly only been running for 2 years and with a brother who has a 1:42 for 800 (different person, but probably similar genetics) lawi lalang may have potential to give centro a race throw in a healthy fernandez what a race, oh well as a pro he will regularly race runners like that and better.

can centro medal again? it will be tough.

centro's teamate wheating ran great in the summer after his senior year, then did not do as good as a pro.

fernandez will still probably make more money by going to college than if he had turned pro after high school, by the time fernandez finishes school he will probably be at 3:33-3:36 for 1500 and 13:10-13:20 for 5000. times he could not possibly have attained in high school.

I am guessing that he will end up with the Salazar group. Does anyone have information on where he will be training and which group he will be joining?

Seems like a no brainer, Centro is not just good, he's WC medalist good and that alone jacks up his market value. He can always finish his degree but it's not as if he can tack on a couple of years at the end of his career and make up for what he's going to earn in his first couple as a Pro.

Didn't Ritz turn pro while at CU but still finish college right afterward?

Brojos just because you suffer from German infaution doesn't mean the rest of the world does. Nobody was going to offer German a pro contract for anything beyond maybe 50k a year. Why would they when Chris Derrick was clearly better than German just in that class year, and Derrick is no Rupp, Wheating, Centro like talent.

Lukezic cashed out on top but never amounted to much as a pro.

U.S. indoor champ, Worlds qualifier and near-finalist, and a 3:33. We can't all be women's marathon pacers, Weldon.

Excuse my ignorance re: professional running but who exactly pays runners $250,000 a year to run and what is their motivation for doing so

Kiko wrote:

So.....it's all about the money?

Very deep.....and douchey.

He turns pro, and finishes college. Where else can you make $250K per year for starters, doing what you love and have excelled at your entire life?