Graduation Time: Basketball More Valuable Than Bachelor's Degree?

Do the student-athletes graduating this spring after playing in any of the 351 Division 1 basketball programs have a better chance finding employment in a job related to their major or on a professional basketball team?

There are only about 48 job openings in the NBA each year for almost 1,000 students who finish playing Division 1 basketball. Bo McCalebb (pictured driving past Russia’s Andrei Kirilenko) may be the best of 5,404 former players for American colleges drawing a paycheck in a foreign pro league–as he went from being one of the top 50 Value Add college players to earning $2 million a year in Macedonia (ranked just 38th on the Top 100 pro basketball destinations on the table below). 

Many top players can earn six figures playing in France, Spain, Turkey or other top leagues, or take closer to $20,000 to stay in the D-League and have a better chance to get a quick call-up for an injured NBA player. If every D1 player wanted to continue as a pro, it is likely about half of them could land a job in one of the countries listed below. 

This means players could actually have a better employment rate as players in the year after graduation than as job seekers in their major. The Atlantic reported two years ago that 53 percent of first year college grads could not get a job in their major (see Atlantic article here). D1 players also do not leave college with the debt of the average college grad–which is $35,000 according to CNN. 

The following table ranks destinations for college players who want to go pro based on five factors; 1) the level of pro play in the country, 2) how many Americans earn pay checks in pro leagues there according to US Basketball database here, 3) how many players NET $1 million or more playing in that country, 4) the country’s FIBA ranking, and finally 5) how well players from that country performed in the NBA this year based on the Breitbart Sports valuation of players outlined in this post. A more detailed explanation appears below the ranking of the top 100 pro basketball destinations.

Pro Rnk	Country	Level of Pro Leagues	American pros there	Players net $1m	FIBA rnk (1st=100)	NBA Player Contributions	Total
1	NBA/USA	100	100	277	100	8196	500
2	Spain	95	179	8	99	77	411
3	Turkey	76	97	10	94	53	370
4	Italy	60	195	7	80	57	332
5	France	48	250	0	93	90	331
6	D-League/USA	80	180	1	50	95	330
7	Russia	90	5	15	95	60	325
8	Greece	70	72	5	96	15	278
9	Germany	44	600	1	87	38	274
10	Brazil	20	65	0	91	85	261
11	Israel	57	167	0	64	0	221
12	Lithuania	48	37	0	97	36	218
13	Australian	25	241	0	92	0	217
14	Angola	10	102	0	86	0	196
15	Argentina	31	0	0	98	66	195
16	Puerto Rico	10	105	0	84	0	194
17	Great Britain	10	153	0	79	0	189
18	Mexico	10	282	0	77	0	187
19	Canada	10	238	0	76	0	186
20	Japan	10	192	0	66	0	176
21	Venezuela	9	90	0	73	0	172
22	Finland	10	124	0	62	0	172
23	Slovenia	15	12	0	88	49	164
24	China	29	42	0	89	0	160
25	South Korea	8	79	0	69	0	156
26	Dominican Republic	7	71	0	75	0	153
27	Uruguay	7	72	0	74	0	153
28	Philippines	25	61	0	67	0	153
29	Serbia	26	7	0	90	25	148
30	Czech Republic	38	36	0	52	17	143
31	Ukraine	29	40	0	56	15	140
32	Poland	7	65	0	61	0	133
33	New Zealand	5	45	0	82	0	132
34	Belgium	7	74	0	51	0	132
35	Lebanon	5	48	0	72	0	125
36	Sweden	15	53	0	37	18	123
37	Portugal	6	63	0	50	0	119
38	Macedonia	15	18	1	68	16	117
39	Qatar	5	48	0	59	0	112
40	Croatia	1	11	0	85	0	97
41	Bosnia and Herzegovina	15	11	0	43	27	96
42	Tunisia	1	14	0	78	0	93
43	Iran	1	10	0	81	0	92
44	Columbia	9	80	0	0	0	89
45	Luxenbourg	8	79	0	0	0	87
46	Congo	15	0	0	24	42	86
47	Nigeria	0	2	0	83	0	85
48	Latvia	2	19	0	63	0	84
49	Bulgaria	3	28	0	53	0	84
50	Georgia (Europe)	15	9	0	48	8	80
51	Jordan	1	7	0	71	0	79
52	Ivory Coast	1	0	0	65	0	78
53	Switzerland	7	71	0	0	0	78
54	Morocco	3	32	0	42	0	77
55	Montenegro	15	9	0	26	25	75
56	Iceland	7	68	0	0	0	75
57	Romania	7	65	0	0	0	72
58	Panama	0	0	0	70	0	70
59	Egypt	1	10	0	55	0	66
60	Kazakhstan	2	15	0	49	0	66
61	Senegal	0	0	0	60	0	60
62	Taiwan	0	3	0	57	0	60
63	Holland	5	54	0	0	0	59
64	Cameroon	0	0	0	58	0	58
65	Denmark	5	53	0	0	0	58
66	Kuwait	2	24	0	31	0	57
67	Cyprus	5	52	0	0	0	57
68	Kosovo	5	51	0	0	0	56
69	Paraguay	0	0	0	54	0	54
70	Saudi Arabia	3	25	0	25	0	53
71	Hungary	5	46	0	0	0	51
72	Slovakia	5	45	0	0	0	50
73	Cape Verde	0	0	0	47	0	47
74	Central African Republic	0	0	0	46	0	46
75	United Arab Emiratess	1	9	0	36	0	46
76	Bahrain	2	16	0	28	0	46
77	Jamaica	0	0	0	45	0	45
78	Cuba	0	0	0	44	0	44
79	Libya	2	18	0	23	0	43
80	Chile	4	39	0	0	0	43
81	Virgin Islands	0	0	0	41	0	41
82	Rwanda	0	3	0	38	0	41
83	India	0	0	0	40	0	40
84	Malaysia	1	9	0	30	0	40
85	Mali	0	0	0	39	0	39
86	Mozambique	0	2	0	35	0	37
87	Indonesia	0	3	0	33	0	36
88	Syria	0	1	0	34	0	35
89	Algeria	1	11	0	21	0	33
90	Hong Kong	0	0	0	32	0	32
91	Uzbekistan	0	0	0	29	0	29
92	South Africa	0	0	0	27	0	27
93	Norway	2	24	0	0	0	26
94	Estonia	2	21	0	0	0	23
95	Thailand	0	0	0	22	0	22
96	Madagascar	0	0	0	20	0	20
97	Costa Rica	2	18	0	0	0	20
98	Sri Lanka	0	0	0	19	0	19
99	Chad	0	0	0	18	0	18
100	Peru	2	16	0	0	0	18

Key to rankings:

1) Level of Pro Leagues–Breitbart Sports rated the level of play of pro leagues in different countries, led by Spain (“95”) and Russia (“90”).

2) American pros there–Next we gave each country (and the D-League) a point for each American player currently on contract with a cap of 100 points (e.g. 179 former players from American colleges now play in Spain which gives them 100 points in our rankings).

3) While 277 NBA players net $1 million a year after taxes, so do 15 players for Russian pro teams and 10 for pro teams in Turkey. We give each country five points for each player who makes $1 million net.

4) We then gave teams up to 100 points (NBA/USA) for being 1st in the FIBA rankings, 99 for second (Spain), etc.

5) Finally, we gave each country a point for how well each player from their country played in the NBA this season based on a value put on all 492 NBA players by Breitbart Sports in this post.

Each of these five categories gives a country (and the D-League) up to 100 points, thus grading them against the NBA’s perfect 500 rating.