"If he's smart, capable, hard-working, has solid values, his degree could be from dipshitU and he'll end up being successful."
This should be a given, barring any unforeseen and/or unfortunate circumstances. And you'd like to think that this is the case for most people.
In this day and age though, with that sense of entitlement that so many young people have (and the enabling that often goes along with it), this is a big "if" for a lot of kids nowadays.
Unfortunately there are those athletes who get used to being idolized and taken care of so much, that when it comes time to do it on their own, they find they didn't use their smarts, and suddenly, here they are at 38, a has been, and not as much money in the bank as they should have.
And with the mindset of so many of today's youth, I fear this may be even more of a prevalent problem in years to come than it has in the past.