Before the Search - Pro too Soon?

I am going to do my research project on wheter or not athletes are going pro too soon. I already know that many players are going pro in all sports as early as 18 years old. I also know that you only go pro for about 20 years. They have no college education but are some of the best players in the sports world, breaking records at 18 that were previously never thought to be able to be broken. My question is: Are athletes going pro too soon"?. In order to answer this question I may need to find out why players feel the need to go pro so soon?, do they have a back up plan if going pro does not work out for them since they have no college education(even though they could go after they try to go pro), do you players really know how to handle and save up that much money that they would potentially make? Also, at such a young age and in sports these days you could injure yourself to an extent that could ruin the rest of your life, why do that at 18 with your whole life ahead of you?