NCAA's DI program good, but imperfect

Interestingly, it has not been made public whether or not Clowney’s teammate, star running back Marcus Lattimore, participated in the NCAA’s disability insurance program. Lattimore suffered a gruesome knee injury during the second quarter of the Gamecocks’ game against Tennessee last October, his second knee injury in as many seasons. Had he not gotten hurt, Lattimore would have surely been a first-round draft pick in this year’s NFL draft. Now, with the injury, he will almost certainly fall to the middle rounds of the draft and may not recover sufficiently to ever make it in the NFL.

If Lattimore has the coverage — and I certainly hope he does — at least he would receive some compensation if it ends up he is unable to play pro football because of the injury. Still, the coverage would provide no benefit to Lattimore if his NFL earning power is merely diminished, as the coverage only pays out if the injury is “career-ending.”

See also: Slideshow: 10 athletes we hope had Disability Insurance

While it’s great the NCAA has this program, what’s not great is that the star players are responsible for paying the premiums. They receive loans to pay the premiums, but they’re responsible for paying those loans back whether or not they end up playing their sport professionally. Many think the schools or the NCAA itself — which both profit tremendously from the efforts of star athletes in college sports — ought to pick up the premium tab.

Kentucky basketball player Nerlens Noel, who suffered a season-ending knee injury this season, is covered by the NCAA’s disability insurance program. While it’s likely he won’t collect a dime from the policy because he is expected to be back on the basketball court next season, the injury did give Kentucky coach John Calipari the opportunity to talk about the insurance program recently in his blog.

“Every year, five or six of my players are insured as part of the NCAA Exceptional Student-Athlete Disability Insurance Program in case they suffer a career-ending injury. They don’t have to get the insurance, but we talk to some of the guys about why they should consider it and then let them make up their mind from there,” Calipari wrote in the blog post. “Understand it is only for career-ending injuries. Injuries happen in our sport — sometimes career-ending ones — and I would hate for these kids to pay a lifelong price after putting so much on the line for us.”

While Calipari is pleased the program is available, he’s not happy the players are on the hook for the premiums.

“My problem with the insurance is the players have to agree to pay the premiums for it to receive it. Why wouldn’t the school or the NCAA, which is making billions of dollars, make sure that those kids that come to school and have that opportunity to be drafted are insured? Why would we make the players pay for that? The only option then is for them to take a risk and potentially jeopardize their entire career. If the kid doesn’t make it to the NBA, he is still obligated to pay it back himself, even if he went to school for four years, did everything right academically, graduated and helped the school win games and championships.”

I like that Clowney and Manziel getting this coverage led to lots of articles about this last week. Any publicity about DI that raises awareness about the product is certainly welcome. Please share your thoughts on the NCAA’s Exceptional Student-Athlete Disability Insurance Program via the comment tool below.

Watch: Video: Disability income insurance expert Ted Tafaro of Exceptional Risk Advisors, LLC