Go to school, Maurice Clarett. Ohio State says you can keep your scholarship. That's a heck of a deal, tuition for nothing, books for free, no hip pointers.

People all over America are working two jobs right now, just to pay for night school. Adults who graduated from college five years ago are still writing monthly checks, to pay off student loans.

Probably, very few of them have TVs in the headrests of their loaned automobiles.

Go to school, Maurice. If you think OSU used you, then you use them. Take the scholarship-for-nothing and go to class. Learn something.

Don't take it from me. Listen to Bengals linebacker Kevin Hardy, the best defensive player in college in 1995. He was the second player picked in the '96 draft. He was an All Pro in '99.

Oh, yeah, he also graduated with his class at Illinois, with a degree in marketing.

Illinois got a stud linebacker for four years. Hardy got five free years of education that would have cost him at least $100,000 out of pocket. The university used his ability to win games and sell tickets. Hardy used the university to get an education. It was an opportunity. That's what college is. An opportunity.

"If I had to put in order everything that has happened to me, on and off the field, receiving that degree is right up there," Hardy said. "Being selected No. 2 overall was a tremendous feeling. But so was walking across that stage, hearing, 'Kevin Hardy, marketing.' "

Hardy was lucky. He grew up in Evansville, Ind., in a situation foreign to Clarett: Two parents with good jobs, an older sister already in college, no money worries.

"The thought of going to the NFL and trying to make a lot of money wasn't prevalent in my mind," Hardy said. "The degree was the most important thing to me. I always looked at life beyond football. Not many people make it to the NFL."

You can argue cultural differences and financial pressures. You'd have a point. Clarett has lived with his mother, in less-than-palatial circumstances. What you can't argue is this:

A free education is priceless. It's an open door to a better future. All you have to do is walk through. And, the walking can be easier for big-time jocks:

"(Clarett) could have a twin brother who doesn't have the athletic ability. Both those guys could be in the same school, but those same opportunities, in terms of the help they get to learn, wouldn't be available to his brother, because he's not on the football team."

Clarett knew what he was getting into when he signed with OSU. He knew the NFL's position regarding underclassmen. As Hardy said, "Lots of talented guys have gone through" (Ohio State). "They had to do the same thing."

Hardy's advice: "You're not going to play football this year anyway, so the classroom is the most important thing."

Work within the system.

"Don't go to the CFL," said Hardy. "Don't sue" the NFL. "The NFL is too big for a player to challenge them on that."

Go to school, Maurice. You can have a free education and a football career. That's two more opportunities than most of us ever had.

E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com