Michael Schumacher. 7 time F1 World Champion, highest payed athlete in the world during that last half of his active racing career, currently tutors drivers from beginning level Karting drivers to current Ferrari F1 drivers.

Still holds a lot of F1 records, including most drivers' championships, race victories, fastest laps, pole positions, points scored, most races won in a single season, and is the only Formula One driver to have an entire season of podium finishes.

He has even be recognized by F1 legends and sporting press as 'The best all around racing driver in Formula One'.

And I know you 'guys' may think Auto Racing is not a sport, but consider this:
http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/understanding_the_sport/5298.html

and here:
http://www.f1technical.net/features/9468

and even here (google is so wonderful):
http://www.f1complete.com/content/view/2672/392/

Most of them are in better shape then 'Real' sport athletes (Seriously, a golfer is an athlete but not a driver. ). An average person would pass out from the forces encountered in an F1 car. If anything, the drivers are less like athletes and more like Jet Pilots......

North Plano/Mc Kinney/ Allen area, hello everyone!

Then so was I when hired as well as a majority of the department I work in (which is Information Security btw, not hell desk). This is not at some Mom and Pop ISP either but a VERY large Government IT Contractor (Not EDS, but close! lol). In a little over 10 years in Information Security, I hardly ever see just a degree win out over experience and certifications for an analyst/engineer position. Now, if you aspire to management, this is a different story. Get all of the college you can!

I am in no way saying that college is worthless, however, don't be blinded into thinking a degree equals a job because it simply doesn't. My advice would be to get a degree. While working on it, get a job in the industry and work on getting certs. The combination of these things will make you a better applicant for a larger portion of positions and will give you a working idea of what the industry is like. College alone DOES NOT prepare you to work in the IT/IS fields and most hiring managers know this. With the IT job market like it almost always is, you will need all the help you can get.

By the way, the CISSP was more difficult than any ENTIRE semester of school that I have encountered and it required 5 years of experience before I could attempt it.

So, TL;DR: When in doubt, get a Degree, Certifications, and Experience. There is no magic bullet for the IT job market.