New league to help or hurt?

[Oldgoldandwhite]

They could be getting a quiet push from the NFL. Good minor league set up for marginal students.

 

[awbuzz]

After reading their blueprint, its gonna be hard to get this going. It seems like it would be more of a NFL camp with scrimmages. They need to create a brand by maybe starting a team in populated football states (CA, GA, FL, TX) to create a fan base. 4 separate teams in So Cal is not gonna give anyone a reason to pull for one team over the other or care who wins or loses. Odd marketing scheme they have. I think that there is a market for this but it's gonna take a major backer and intelligent marketer to get this going.

Keeping travel costs down is the biggest reason, then more convenient for scouts to watch.

 

[GTJake]

One of the Founders of this league was interviewed on local radio yesterday.
The bottom line here is to give a handful of certain athletes an opportunity to market their talents for a possible shot with an NFL team.
Not sure how they are going to make this work financially unless the NFL steps in and subsidizes as a sort of minor league set-up.
I don't see this having any effect on major college football for a long-time if ever.

 

[LawTalkin Jacket]

I love this idea. It is a bit like offering studs who want to skip school the opportunity that Europe offers to basketball players for a year in lieu of playing for free.

I have suggested such a league for years, but I thought maybe it would be focused here in the SE, but Cali and Texas may be just as good a place to start. You have teams fielding local HS players who couldn't get in to college or who don't want to go. The local kids would generate interest from local fans where the teams are, and the NFL training and draft prep would make for general NFL fan interest. To get it going they need to find the next Jadaveon Clowney and offer him $1,000,000 contract which he couldn't refuse versus playing for free. Steal that kid from USC or Alabama and other kids will notice him wearing gold chains and driving a nice ride while they are eating and sleeping in dorms and having hear Coach scream at them to make it to class.

I hate that kids are forced to go play for free even if they hate school and may be ready for NFL. The market should dictate their ability to make a living, not some rules agreed upon by NFL and NCAA fat cats.

btw, it will only help the non-factory schools were kids really want an education. Which is really what college football is supposed to be for.

 

[GTJake]

According to the interviewee yesterday their target player market would be JUCO and non-drafted players out of eligibility.

 

[northgajacket]

According to the interviewee yesterday their target player market would be JUCO and non-drafted players out of eligibility.

In other words the targets would be the rejects

 

[northgajacket]

Dang @northgajacket you beat me to it. The XFL was mostly ex-college football players, marketed hard with NBC and Vince McMahon, and that failed in about two seasons. Now they're trying a league with kids nobody has even heard of? No chance at all.

Actually only lasted one season, the ratings plummeted after the first week, both NBC and McMahon lost around $50 Million I believe ( could be wrong on numerical amount)

 

[Squints]

Exactly! How much AAA baseball do you watch, it has better players than college baseball? I bet none.

Lol come on. AAA baseball teams as a whole have much better players than those in college baseball. You could probably say the same for AA. The overwhelming majority of college baseball players never see success or time outside of the lowest level of the minor leagues. If they even get that far.

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

May be where all the transfers go from now on.

 

[babuka]

I am not willing to outright dismiss this model unlike many of the other failed models that either serve as an NFL competitor or a development league. This is serving as a direct competitor to college football only and is paying the players cold hard cash. It will be heavily dependent on transfers initially and will serve as an alternate for all these players who have to go to prep school or juco for 1-2 years just to get credits and test scores up to meet NCAA minimum requirements. There is a ton of talent at those schools. The key to their success is starting hot. Get a lot of transfers, get 3-4 high profile 4-5 star guys and have a few players get drafted all in the first year. Remember "we ain't here to play school"