They have already earned their undergraduate degrees and are pursuing master’s degrees while playing football for the Black Bears.
Under NCAA rules, every student-athlete is allowed five years to complete four years of eligibility. Many football players space out their academic workload for their undergraduate degree over five years because most of them are redshirts their first year as they make the big jump from high school to college football and academics.
That means they practice with the team but don’t play in games, so they won’t use up a year of eligibility. However, under a new NCAA rule, a true freshman can appear in four games without losing a year.
But there are some like Vitiello and DeVaughn who earn their undergraduate degree in four years. If they still have a year of eligibility remaining, they can return to school and take classes to remain eligible or work toward a master’s degree.
DeVaughn called his decision to return to UMaine and pursue a master’s degree “probably the best thing I have done in my college years. It has been phenomenal.”
“When I figured out I could graduate on time [in four years], I decided that I might as well do something worthwhile that would change my life in the future. So I thought I’d get my master’s degree,” said DeVaughn, who didn’t want to just take easy, useless courses to maintain his eligibility.
“The school is paying for it. It’s working out well so far,” added DeVaughn, a Folcroft, Pennsylvania, native who received an undergraduate degree in kinesiology and is working toward a master’s degree in higher education.
Vitiello transferred to UMaine from Boston College, where he earned an undergraduate degree in communications. He is pursuing a master’s in human development at UMaine.
“It has been good. I have a lot of years under my belt. I know what’s to come, how to work hard in school and on the field, and how to take care of time management,” said Vitiello, a native of Bridgewater, New Jersey.
“I like the idea of having master’s degree and being able to play sports. It makes your resume look phenomenal. It shows how much hard work you put in not only in the classroom but on the field as well. It shows people your true character,” he said.
DeVaughn and Vitiello said since there aren’t as many classes in grad school, it isn’t as stressful.
“We don’t have a lot of tests in my program. So I don’t have to spend much time studying for tests. I do a lot of reading and I do papers, which is stuff I like to do,” said DeVaughn, who takes classes two days a week and has the rest of the week to do his schoolwork.
He said he received a valuable piece of advice from one of his mentors.
“He told me to do something every day for grad school and I’ll be fine,” he said.
DeVaughn has advised his younger teammates to “really focus on school your first year so you don’t get behind. You don’t want to be trying to catch up [academically] and stressing out [later on]. It’s very important to get ahead of things. So if you want to go to grad school your fifth year, you can do that.”
University of Maine head football coach Joe Harasymiak pointed out that tight end Brendan O’Neil, a transfer from Wake Forest University, earned a master’s degree in business from UMaine last year.
“It has been good to us. We have a good graduate school here, and we like working with them,” Harasymiak said.
But the UMaine coach pointed out that it is important for graduate students to complete their master’s degrees.
“Where you run into problems from an academic standpoint is when kids start it and don’t finish it. It doesn’t look good. It leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths. But it’s more of a problem at the FBS [Football Bowl Subdivision] level with the [NFL] draft,” said Harasymiak, whose team is a Football Championship Subdivision team. “Brendan got his MBA and we want to make sure [DeVaughn and Vitiello] finish theirs, too.”
There are 1,200 student-athletes playing college football at some level this fall after already earning undergraduate degrees, according to a National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame release.
That number “sends a powerful message about the doors that college football opens,” former NFL quarterback Archie Manning, the chairman of the National Football Foundation, said in the release.
“This list allows us to showcase those individuals who have truly taken full advantage of the opportunities created by college football,” he added.
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