Offensive tackle Cedric Ogbuehi was one of the college football stars who had loss-of-value insurance last season, and he suffered a severe knee injury in Texas A&M's December bowl win over West Virginia.
But he still went in the first round -- 21st, to the Cincinnati Bengals -- and his agent, Ryan Williams, told the New York Times that Ogbuehi does not stand to collect on his policy, though the injury arguably caused Ogbuehi to go later in the first round than he would've a year earlier.
Loss-of-value policies are supposed to protect players who are injured, and it is expected to do so in the case of cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, who was injured during practice at Oregon in December and ended up being drafted in the seventh round by the Cleveland Browns.
But the whole idea of a "draft projection" can be nebulous, and that makes loss-of-value policies difficult to understand in some respects. Yes, Ogbuehi seemingly would have gone higher had he not been hurt. At the same time, maybe he would've gone at the exact same spot or even later in the round. There's no way to say for certain.
"If it's highly unlikely to actually collect, then maybe once again this becomes a great benefit people talk about that really doesn't enhance the welfare of the student-athlete," professor Warren Zola, executive director at Boston College's business school, told the Times.
The Times reported that supporters of the policies point out that most policyholders do not collect no matter the type of insurance policy.
The newspaper reported that "no college player is known to have collected on loss-of-value insurance," though it did mention the case of Ekpre-Olomu. Coincidentally, Williams also represents Ekpre-Olomu, and he told the Times he couldn't comment because of what the Times termed "confidentiality language in the policy."
There have been players who collected on disability insurance, though. For instance, Florida defensive tackle Ed Chester suffered a knee injury in 1998 that was so severe that he had to give up football, but he told the St. Petersburg Times that he had a $1 million disability policy.
The Times reported that "loss-of-value is bought as a rider to total disability insurance" and that premiums tend to cost up to $8,500 per $1 million of value for personal total disability, and up to $6,000 per $1 million of loss-of-value insurance.
Mike Huguenin can be reached at mike.huguenin@nfl.com. You also can follow him on Twitter @MikeHuguenin.
