I have a buddy, headmaster of a fancy private high school in fact, who just stroked the big check to send his son to an accelerated flight school in FL. The kid went straight out of high school.
He may get lucky and find a good airline job at some point. Of course, he may need an extra 5000 hours of PIC time just to get the invite to interview. And down the road that could mean the difference between a wide body Captain seat, or career F/O. Or, he may lose his medical at some point (or license for that matter) and then he's hooped without that POP.
Spoken another way, there's no way I'd counsel a young person to try this without a degree. It can be done, but its much tougher and historically takes a lot longer to amass the requisite quals. Until the supply of qualified guys dries up, it will take a burnished app to get the call.