Football is king, the dollars don't lie. But would a professional league spanning spring/summer be viable? Concepts have tried and failed in the past for various reasons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Football_League#Competition_vs._NFL - The most successful run at the idea, had a strong plan in place by avoiding direct competition with NFL viewership. Eventually fell the wayside by doing just the opposite in a power play by a couple owners looking to leverage themselves into owning NFL franchises (most notably the Trump) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XFL - Followed a similar concept, but eventually became a punch-line due to thier owner Vince McMahon's other company, the WWE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Football_League_(2009) - The most recent train wreck, deciding to directly compete with NFL vieweship in the fall/winter months, targeting non-NFL cities to generate interest. What you never heard of it? exactly the problem... I believe there is a definite market there waiting to be tapped, but circumventing the NFL at this point seems impossible. The most glaring logistical issue I can think of is the draft landing smack dab in the middle of spring. If fringe NFL talent i.e., UDFA's are your target talent base you have to offer them more lucrative contracts than what a NFL practice squad can offer...but many of those players won't even consider this an offer until AFTER the draft is over. On there other hand, a loophole they could exploit is offering "early entry" to players out of college, players facing NCAA sanctions in particular would be ripe for the picking However, if there were to be any involvement directly with the NFL that loophole would be deemed unacceptable. thoughts?
fail on the links... USFL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Football_League XFL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XFL UFL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Football_League_(2009)
I think if they had a league that paid players coming out of high school it would be worth watching and possibly sustainable. Essentially you have 8 teams stealing as many top recruits as possible and pitting them against each other. You could allow professional-caliber athletes to play in the league as well but I don't know, an out of work NFL lineman would probably dominate a bunch of kids.
I never even approached the idea from that angle. I like it! but, all these football factory colleges offering scholarships to "student atheletes" would take great exception to that. personally I love the idea...but it might find some heavy handed opposition from some well placed donors with a vested interests...
Go after practice squad player. That is the solution, essentially turning into the NFL version of the NBA Summer League or the MLB's Arizona League. Practice squad players are FA at that time anyways without a paycheck and need to stay in shape to potentially make an NFL team in the fall. Also a number of players fail to meet the requirements to actually be on the practice squads due to number of years of being activated for part of season but say never playing. Those players combined with high school players who cannot make the grades could make for an interesting "developmental league". The other issue though is competing with Arena Football. It has had its share of issues with losing a league and essentially disbanding and then recreating itself over the past few years. But a lot of players that could go into another spring league end up there instead.
I wish college football was in the Spring, or there was some form of minor league competition going on.
judging from the failures of the past, simply pulling in UDFA level talent isn't going to keep peoples attention. the quality of the product on the field needs to sell. the die-hards would watch, but it wouldn't spark enough interest in the casual fan to make it sustainable
I think they should create a league of mostly the best undrafted free-agent quality players. Start early in the summer, so that you can have the draft right after the NFL draft, go immediately to training camp, and start play. Put the teams in non-NFL cities, and even some regions where there aren't other pro sports. Play it on a bigger field, change the rules to favor a more uptempo game. Use a $4 MM salary cap for a 39-player roster, so that players make enough salary, but the teams can stay profitable. I'd think that you could sell out 40,000+ seat stadiums, and get a pretty good nationwide following. You might even develop some really good NFL talent that was overlooked at first for whatever reason. Oh wait, I think that exists. Spoiler
Yeah, I don't think it would work either, unless college football were to go away entirely or the NFL owned/supported the Spring league. I really wish kids who wanted to play football professionally out of high school, and guys who weren't good enough for the NFL out of college, had somewhere to go to play and make a decent living. The NCAA sucks, and I hate what it has done to "amateur" football.
http://www.theusfl.net/faq.html The made the announcement last month (on April 1st leading many to believe it was an April Fool's joke) and they want to work with the NFL to make it a viable minor league playing in the spring.
What... Arena Football not good enough for you guys? The product on the field will never equal the NFL, nor ever come remotely close. The only way anyone will go for it is if the NFL created a secondary league, but after NFL Europe failed I doubt they will be too interested in that.
Yeah, I don't watch any other leagues because they bore me. But if they had a league with top high school talent underway right now I'd be all over that. All over it. And I think a lot of others would be too. These other leagues draw in the casual beer chugging fan. A league with D1 CFB talent in it would attract hardcore enthusiasts. It would impact the NFL too since the top players in this league would be draft eligible in 2 years. A league like this would REQUIRE ESPN's attention. I really think that would be the differentiator -- paying kids. Stealing the best recruits away from OU, tOSU, FLA, USC, and legally paying them. You could even set aside a policy where if a player receives a debilitating injury they get to dip into a college fund that covers school (although they should be saving the money themselves). Anyone can get into JUCO and then get into a major university. Put the ball in their court.
A college degree is becoming so worthless (especially the kind of education given to most elite NCAA athletes) that an actual money paying league would be hugely enticing to high school seniors. Plus you've got droves of guys who don't make it in the NFL whose best career prospects would be in athletics. Once the market for football gets big enough to support a minor league, I can see this happening. But probably not without the NFL supporting it or outright owning it. Lord knows the NCAA would hate it. But if there is money to be made, somebody will try it.
A league like this is the only kind that the NFL might HAVE to embrace. ESPN would definitely have to embrace it when so many NFL prospects would be coming from it. Hell, stars would be in the league. RGIII wouldn't just be some Heisman candidate, he'd be a marketed, fully endorsed mega-star with a cereal commercial and his own sneakers. Mack Brown wont be able to get the #1 prospect anymore by offering a scholarship and some under-the-table money when then other league would be offering a salary and more importantly, the opportunity for that athlete to market himself. It's scary to think something like this could kill college football though. It would definitely change it. You better believe they would start paying players.
