In this sport, college athletes can also make some extra bucks on the pro circuit

Imagine a gifted football athlete being allowed to play for Texas Tech or TCU on Saturday and then suiting up for the Dallas Cowboys the next day.

The NCAA and the NFL will not allow that. But in the world of rodeo, athletes long have been allowed to compete for prize money on the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association circuits at the same time.

“Kids compete and win money, it doesn’t affect anything and that’s what sets rodeo uniquely apart,” said Dave Appleton of Fort Worth, the 1988 world all-around champion who in 1982 competed in the PRCA’s National Finals Rodeo and the NIRA’s College National Finals for Western Texas College in Snyder.

“If you turn pro in football, you can’t play on a college team. But in rodeo, you can compete for Texas Tech’s rodeo team on Saturday and you can compete in the PRCA or in The American on Sunday and then go back to class on Tuesday.”

A prime example is Brody Cress, who competes for Tarleton State and is a world-class PRCA saddle bronc rider.

Cress recently finished in the money in both circuits on the same weekend. On Feb. 20, he made a prize-winning ride at the NIRA’s Odessa College Rodeo. And on Feb. 22, he clinched the saddle bronc riding title at the PRCA’s San Antonio Livestock Show Rodeo.

Cress, who is working on a master’s degree at Tarleton, pocketed $24,750 in San Antonio.

Cress also has qualified for the RFD-TV’s The American, which is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington and offers competitors a $2.4 million purse. He finished second in the 2019 saddle bronc world title race with $286,372.

“It’s awesome to be able to be able to do college rodeo and pro rodeo at the same time,” Cress said. “It really helps kids progress. For me, it was a huge opportunity to be able to get a four-year degree and a master’s degree and get it all paid for while college rodeoing.”

Tarleton State, which has one of the top rodeo programs in the nation, also has 2019 PRCA world champion tie-down roper Haven Meged on the school’s six-man team.

Tarleton coach Mark Eakin, who led the school to an NIRA men’s title in 2105, sometimes has to give up some of his top competitors when they leave midway through a college rodeo to ride in a pro rodeo for bigger prize money.

Last year, Meged, a Montana native, clinched the NIRA tie-down roping title as a rookie while competing for Tarleton at the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyoming.

“It ain’t easy. Without our teachers, coaches, sponsors, and family, I couldn’t have done it,” he said.

Meged became the fourth person in PRCA history to win an NIRA and a PRCA title in the same year. The others are Ty Murray (all-around in 1989 while competing for Odessa College), Matt Austin (bull riding in 2005 for Hill College) and Taos Muncy (saddle bronc riding in 2007 for Oklahoma Panhandle State).

Muncy said competing in both actually gave him an edge.

“A lot of times, you could work a college rodeo in and there would be a pro rodeo 30 or 40 miles down the road,” Muncy said. “While living in Guymon [Okla.], you could go to a college rodeo there and the next week you could go to the pro rodeo. I was getting on lots of horses constantly. I felt like I was really on my game.

“I’d get on five or six practice horses every week and then go rodeoing during the weekends. It just worked. I was a broke college kid and I was making a little money.”

But it was challenging. Muncy, who was a sophomore majoring in ag business, said he competed in about 65 pro rodeos in 2007 in addition to the college tour.

“It was a lot of sleepless nights, it was a lot of driving,” Muncy said. “You have to back at school Monday at 8 o’clock. On weekends, you would go to a college rodeo somewhere in Kansas and then fly out to California and then fly back for the short [finals] round at the college rodeo and then fly back to the short round somewhere else.”

Appleton, an Australian native who serves as a sports commentator for the Cowboy Channel and RFD-TV, completed an associate degree at Western Texas College while competing on the school’s rodeo team. In 1982, he competed in bucking stock events at the College National Finals in Bozeman, Montana, and earned his first trip to the PRCA’s National Finals, which was in Oklahoma City at that time.

“We had practice pens (at WTC), and then we could go to college rodeos which were restricted to people who were only in college, but it allowed you to compete against people who were at your own level and it gave you the ability to say, ‘Well, I’ll also go test myself in the big pond (the PRCA),’’’ Appleton said.

At Western Texas College, Appleton competed for Bob Doty, a highly successful coach who led WTC to the 1986 NIRA team title and later helped Tarleton State earn multiple team titles.

Bret Franks, a three-time PRCA National Finals Rodeo qualifier, encourages athletes to compete in both as rodeo coach at Clarendon College near Amarillo.

Under Franks, Riggin Smith excels as a prize-winning bucking horse rider. Last year, Smith clinched the NIRA saddle bronc riding title at the Casper championships and he’s currently ranked No. 2 in NIRA’s Southwest Region, a college rodeo super conference that also includes Tarleton State, Weatherford College, Texas Tech and South Plains College.

Like Cress, Smith is competing this weekend in The American. Smith earned a berth by finishing in the top six at The American Semifinals last weekend at Cowtown Coliseum.

Franks said it’s wise to allow riders to work both pro and college rodeos.

“There’s so much opportunity in rodeo now,” he said. “If you don’t encourage it, you’re not going to get the guys who can win for you. If they can ride well, they’re going to hit the trail.”