Charles Ward/The Oklahoma Daily

When Sam Bradford’s throwing shoulder thudded against the turf at Cowboys Stadium Sept. 5, he suffered a sprain.

Prior to the season, he took out an insurance policy that might prevent an even more serious injury: one to his hip pocket.

In 1990, the NCAA set up a program to allow high-profile athletes in football and men’s basketball to take out insurance policies in case an injury in college prevented a player from making money in the NFL or NBA, said Jeff Stanley, senior sports underwriter at HCC Specialty Underwriters.

“When the explosion of salaries and money became available to top collegiate players who were leaving and heading into the professional ranks, specifically the NBA and NFL … the NCAA was running into a lot of problems with agents providing extra benefits to players, or convincing them that they should leave early and go pro,” he said.

And, when the NCAA talked to athletes about why they listened to, and in many cases agreed with, an agent trying to entice them out of school early, the top response the NCAA got was concern about returning to college and risking an injury, he said.

“[College athletes said] ‘Well, what if I get hurt? And I’m turning down all of this money by not going pro and staying in school where I’m not getting paid,’” Stanley said.

The insurance program initially insured athletes in football and men’s basketball, but now hockey and baseball players, along with women’s basketball players, are eligible, according to information provided by Stanley.

However, not everyone on scholarship can get a policy. Instead, the program covers athletes projected to be drafted high enough to risk a substantial sum of guaranteed money by returning for another year of school, Stanley said.

For football players, players projected to be selected in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft are able to sign up. Eligibility in all other sports in the program is limited to athletes projected to be selected in the first round (including the sandwich round of the MLB Draft), Stanley said.

“(Draft projection) is an inexact science, and we try to err on the side of being conservative as much as possible,” Stanley said. “Because, kind of the worst-case scenario on this is ...we think a kid’s great, so we insure him and he doesn’t collect, but something happens where he wasn’t that good ... where a kid ends up being not drafted and has to pay back a $20,000 or $30,000 thousand loan.”

Stanley said that HCC uses former professional scouts to evaluate talent, and subscribe to draft rating services. Access to the NHL’s Central Scouting reports helps as well, he said.

Loans are available to help NCAA athletes pay for the insurance policy premiums, and the loan repayment is deferred until an athlete signs a pro contract, Stanley said.

“The loan to pay for the premium is guaranteed by the NCAA and is guaranteed at rates that are below market norms,” Stanley said. “Obviously, with the change of the financial system over the last 12 months, banks aren’t really looking to write unsecured loans to anyone, especially a young person who says ‘Please insure me because I’m going to be a pro athlete one day.’"

The policies offer between $500,000 and $5 million of coverage, based on a player’s draft projection, Stanley said.

Bradford has not disclosed the amount of his insurance policy, but Texas quarterback Colt McCoy’s policy is in the $3 million-$5 million range, according to ESPN.com’s Joe Schad.

While the policies reduce risks, they do not eliminate them. If a college athlete is injured, but is still able to sign a professional contract, he or she cannot make a claim under the insurance policy, even if that injury significantly impacts their draft status or career length and, eventually, a player’s professional earnings, Stanley stated in an e-mail.

Also, basketball players projected to be drafted in the NBA’s second round cannot get policies, because NBA second-round picks do not sign guaranteed contracts, Stanley said.

By staying in school, many of those second-round projections risk not only a chance to compete for a spot on an NBA roster, but also a potential for significant earnings in overseas basketball leagues, Stanley said.

“I don’t think (covering potential NBA second-round picks is) currently on the board,” Stanley said. “And it’s really just because we’re looking at things from a conservative perspective, where, if we’re insuring a guy in the first round and they get hurt they'd still probably have an opportunity to get drafted in the second round, or play overseas. If you start lowering that bar, where if a guy’s a projected second-round pick, and then something happens, well, maybe they don’t have any opportunity then.”

The risks, though, aren’t that extreme. Less than one percent of the athletes HCC insures make claims against the policy, Stanley stated in an e-mail.

“The coverage is really only designed to respond if the ‘worst-case scenario’ occurs,” Stanley stated.

— Charles Ward is the assistant managing editor for The Daily and is a third year law student.

The Associated Press contributed to this report