Miami ? The serious knee injury Willis McGahee sustained in the fourth quarter of the Fiesta Bowl was unfortunate, indeed.

And so is his decision to still leave the University of Miami early and enter this April’s NFL Draft.

It is as if he is blithely ignoring the injury. Or maybe hoping pro teams weren’t watching the bowl game and haven’t heard he got hurt?

Things changed for McGahee that Jan. 3 night, changed a lot, and his decision on his immediate future ought to have changed as well.

Everything about the decision is about money. That’s too bad, but it’s reality. So let’s talk money.

McGahee proved this past season that he has $10 million talent in terms of the type of NFL contract he might have commanded, preinjury. Now, because of the knee but also because of the way he has played his hand, he might be leaving about $9 million of that money on the table.

McGahee would have been a high first-round pick, maybe even top-five overall. His stock was rising. He was seen by pro teams as poised to follow Edgerrin James and Clinton Portis as the next great ex-Hurricanes runner.

Now? Only questions.

Now, McGahee is a medical red-flag.

Now, the draftniks are speculating some team might gamble on his full recovery around the third round.

A typical three-year contract might get up over $1 million, total. Might.

He could fall even lower, though.

He will be a “big risk/big reward” type of pick for somebody, but few teams are willing to take on the “big risk” part with an early-round pick.

By leaving UM early, forsaking two remaining seasons of college eligibility, McGahee essentially has given up the chance to control his own future, or to ever again be the first-round pick he should have been.

The only way to do that was to return to UM for his junior season and prove — not with optimistic medical diagnoses, but on the field — that he is the same Willis McGahee, fully recovered.

“Show us he’s all the way back with another college season and then you’re still getting him a year early,” one NFL personnel man this week said. “As it is, he’s forcing teams to gamble on him. It’s his risk, too.”

McGahee’s rehabilitation from two torn ligaments won’t be nearly complete in time for him to participate in the annual predraft scouting combine next month, or in individual workouts. He’ll still be damaged goods come draft day.

He does have the option to sit out next season and re-enter the draft in 2004 if he feels he isn’t picked high enough. But that would be a wasted year on the sideline, a year that might not erase teams’ lingering doubts.

That year might have been spent in a Hurricanes uniform, not telling but showing the NFL he is the same old McGahee, good as new.