BERKELEY, Calif. — Last week, on the morning after his 21st birthday, Jared Goff showed up on time for his 11 o’clock independent study class. He arrived at California’s Haas School of Business with baggy sweatpants and a hoodie on his lanky 6-foot-4 frame and a million-dollar investment portfolio on his laptop.

The hothouse question on campus is whether Goff, a junior quarterback who is projected as a first-round pick, will declare for the N.F.L. draft after the Golden Bears’ season. The possibility accounts for Goff’s weekly trek to the Haas School’s professional faculty wing and a glass-walled cubicle that has the feel of a terrarium.

Goff, a sociology major, is taking Personal Finance and Brand Management in Professional Sports, a custom-designed course taught by Stephen Etter, one of the founding partners of Greyrock Capital Group.

“So many student-athletes treat finances like a foreign language,” Etter said. “I want them to understand enough of the lingo to be able to have a conversation with whomever they entrust with their money.”