Whoever set that up as the choice should probably hand their finances over to someone who understands money over time. Yoeli isn't choosing between $0 next year or $150K next year that's the short-sighted dumb way to look at it.
Careers are discrete -- they begin, and eventually they end. The end is out of his control, but he is controlling the beginning. That's when average Joes will do what the OP did and look only to next year. But the true dichotomy is between the last year of his career.
Generally, if your pro sports career lasts more than 3 years, you will make more in your final 1/3 of your career than in the first 1/3. To put some hypotheticals out there, in a 9-year career he might make $150K for each of the first three years, $500K in the middle three, and $250K in the final three.
Leaving college right now begins his career a year earlier, and thereby adds a year at the end. If he stayed another year, he would only have 8 years under that scenario, and the lost year of compensation would be the 9th year at $250K.
Those are just plug numbers for illustration, but hopefully he's getting better advice than the OP presents.
