There is also no provision in the Division I Manual to prohibit a coach from revoking a scholarship the year after a recruit gets hurt. For those from poor families and without coverage through a parent, this means that a young man or young woman can be enlisted on the promise of an education, get injured on the field, and lose his or her only source of medical insurance precisely when he or she needs it most. "There is no doubt there are horror stories out there about schools terminating scholarships," says Warren Zola, assistant dean for graduate programs in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College and a sports business expert. "It comes down to the ethos of particular schools."

Many from low-income families are completely dependent on the school's healthcare system, which in some cases means being cared for solely by team doctors and trainers—many of whom may feel pressure to keep a team's healthcare costs low or to get an injured player back on the field. Several lawyers experienced in college sports point out that the relationship between athletes and team doctors is unique because the university, not the patient, does the hiring. Doughty wasn't encouraged to seek out care by an impartial physician, and it didn't cross his mind to. "I put everything in their hands and trusted them," Doughty says. "They said I would be taken care of."

The NCAA reports there are 20,718 college football injuries a year, with 841 of those spinal injuries. The National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research has recorded a steady rise in the number of football players who have permanent disability due to cervical cord and brain injuries.

Players with professional potential have the option to purchase Student-Athlete Disability Insurance through the NCAA, which guards against potential financial loses from career-ending damages. As a recent Atlantic article by Kevin Fixler explains, however, most individuals with these policies won't be able to cash in on them. The disability insurance only covers those who can never play their sport again and has resulted in fewer than a dozen successful claims in more than 20 years. With treatment and rehab, most can return, although it may not be to the same level as before the injury.

Knee injuries are generally less debilitating, but with around 4,000 incidences per year, they're the most common in college football and cost roughly $11,000 to repair. A competitor who gets hurt, then, can easily rack up thousands of dollars worth of medical costs. "Their situation is very vulnerable," says Ellen Staurowsky, a sports management professor at Drexel University who has researched various aspects of the college sports business.

It's impossible to know how many Doughtys are out there, although conversations with experts, retired coaches, and athletic trainers suggest there are many more. Officials won't release medical information because of privacy laws, and no one keeps track of what happens to players once they are off the squad. So these young men and women can fall completely off the grid. "This is a very difficult area to get specific data," Staurowsky says. "So we don't know what kinds of injuries are out there. I don't think there is any way to fully capture the problem."

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For Doughty, the interest started trickling in late junior year—recruiters calling his high school coach, letters arriving from schools that wanted the wide-set defensive tackle behind their scrimmage lines. The teenage boy even got to go inside Nick Saban's house during a visit to the University of Alabama. But it was the recruiter South Carolina sent to the Doughtys' home on dusty G Lane that sealed the deal. The middle-aged man sat on the loveseat, against the front wall and across from the only window in the room, and told the 17-year-old and his parents this would be the best decision of his life.