New Nebraska Cornhuskers QB Bubba Starling has a million dollar question to answer. Actually, it’s a $10 million question. Because Starling is also the 5th overall pick in the 2011 MLB Draft, by the Kansas City Royals franchise.
It looks like it’s going to come down to the wire tonight. Much like last year, with MLB #1 overall pick Bryce Harper, we should probably see a finalized deal at midnight.
According to the Kansas City Star, Starling and the Royals are about $2.5 million away from sealing it.
Huskers beat reporter Sean Callahan tweeted: “KC Star reports this morning that Bubba Starling is looking for around $10 million and KC is currently around $7.5 million.
“To put $10 million in perspective, Stephen Strasburg got $15.1 million from Washington. Previous record was $10.5 million (Mark Prior).
“Dayton Moore (KC Senior VP-Baseball Operations/General Manager) on signing Bubba Starling: “I have not had any discussions. I don’t know where it’s going to go.”
After the deadline to sign with the Royals passes, Starling would have to wait three years to begin a professional baseball career.
During Big Ten Media Days, Nebraska coach Bo Pelini spoke about the situation.
“I assume he’s going to be here until he’s not and then you deal with it, he’s on campus right now, he came to the second session of the summer,” Pelini said before later adding:
“He’s going through everything our kids are going through. I go under the assumption he’s going to be with us, and if he’s not, we’re prepared for it either way.”
Okay, so both sides are being diplomatic and claiming they don’t know. However, usually in this situation, the prospect will take the money in baseball and save the college eligibility for later. (See Chris Weinke, Drew Henson, and Joe Bauserman). Although there have been exceptions like Clayton Richard.
If Starling were to stay in Lincoln, he would likely be QB2 behind Taylor Martinez, with Cody Green leaving the program and Kody Spano leaving football. Starling is ranked by Rivals the 119th overall top prospect in the nation for his recruiting class.
Of the three players who traveled to Chicago for Big Ten Media Days, Starling was not one of them. However Pelini did say as much as he could about Starling’s choice:
“We’ve talked at length in the past, I have a good understanding of what he’s facing right now. I can sit and talk until I’m blue in the face and I could speculate on 9,000 scenarios but it still wouldn’t do us any good.” Pelini said.
So there you go. It’s up to Starling and his family, and only they know for sure. But we should have a resolution pretty soon, and if you have to guess I would say it’ll be the Royals.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net, an official Google News site that generates millions of unique visitors. He’s also a regular contributor to Chicago Now, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker, and Fox Sports
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