Memo to Bubba Starling: Take the Money with Kansas City

Nebraska quarterback Carl Crawford drops back, scrambles and effortlessly runs 50 yards for a touchdown to put the Huskers ahead 35-13 in the 2002 BCS National Championship Game, giving Nebraska its sixth national title.

Nebraska head coach Frank Solich has finally been vindicated as a serious head coaching option in college football.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

In 2013, Nebraska quarterback Bubba Starling drops back. Scrambles. Starling to the 35, the 45, the 50, the 40, the 20…he’s all the way HOME…(insert roar here). 

Bubba Starling dazzles the Huskers faithful with a 65-yard touchdown run to give Nebraska a 41-21 lead over Alabama with 4:40 left in the fourth quarter of the national title game.

What could have been.

What should have been.

Instead, Solich is attempting to win a Mid-American Conference championship at Ohio University. Solich had the right quarterback recruit, too bad he was such a good athlete that he opted for millions rather than being a slave for the University of Nebraska.

Had perennial outfield All-Star Carl Crawford decided to run the option rather than fielding pop flies in Major League Baseball, current Nebraska head coach Bo Pelini would be a head coach in the MAC somewhere.

Not Frank Solich, who is the head coach at Ohio University.

Same with outfielder Bubba Starling, who was hand picked out of the cornfields of Kansas to save the Kansas City Royals baseball franchise. Starling could be a 6'5", 240-pound wrecking-machine in Nebraska’s new offense.

Instead, Starling will ultimately take $6 to $7 million in bonus money, and rightfully so, to play “A” ball this summer. 

This is no way humanly imaginable Starling will choose football over baseball in this case. By that, what would Starling's fourth season be like at Nebraska? He, like Crawford, could be a major league starting outfielder.

Starling choosing mundane college classes rather than a hefty signing bonus is a ridiculous conundrum. 

Starling ought to sign his major league contract every single day of the week and twice on Sunday. 

Major league All-Star or Heisman Trophy winner? 

I will take major league All-Star, Mr. Trebek.

Why? Because Starling can actually profit at 18 years old from his God-given ability. Rather than getting paid for having “an education” at Nebraska getting your ribs broken for four or five years.

Should Starling choose Nebraska, he would receive the ultimate blackball in the NFL draft. “He is an option quarterback; he is lucky to be a seventh-rounder in the NFL draft,” ESPN “guru” Mel Kiper Jr. would say.

If Starling chooses the Huskers, he is the biggest idiot high school quarterback of all time. His Wonderlic score would be four or five, so automatically he is a sixth or seventh-rounder, no matter what he does at the NFL combine.

Politics.

Bubba, just go play baseball. Hit .275, hit 20 home runs per season and underachieve like former Husker Alex Gordon. 

And Kansas City will love you leading the Royals to 81-81 every single season, until you can sign with a real franchise, finishing third in the American League Central Division behind the White Sox and Twins.

Bubba, it’s not worth it.

Sign the contract. Get paid. Now.

If you don't, you will be another Terrelle Pryor. 

A player promised the World when signing a letter of intent, only to suffer from the atrocities that college athletes suffer.