In reply to Squints:
Yes I like college football just the way it is. It would suit me if they would just leave things the way they are. It's a great game.
I base my numbers on the following; there are 120 or so Division One college teams with approximately 100 guys on each roster. That comes to 120,000 guys playing. There are 32 professional football teams each with a 53 man roster. That means at any given time there are 1,696 guys playing pro football. That means 1.4% of the guys playing college football will be able to make a living playing pro football. Now this does not count the lower college Divisions who are also competing for some of these pro positions and I realize that the pros have practice squads that offer limited earnings to a few more guys, but in general the math actually represents a lot less than the 20% number I mentioned in my earlier post. I think you would see a lot more kids try this route than the low numbers that this math concludes would actual be able to be successful doing it. In other words more would try out and be cut than would actually be able to participate. They might lose their college eligibility in that pursuit but perhaps there would be a way to go the college route for those that tried and failed initially.
I know most all these kids think they can play in the league one day but in reality there are so few opportunities to do so that the hope of a quality education is therre best hope to succeed in life. I know this flys in the face of all the recruiting services and football factory coaches who preach to these teen age boys that they are all going to be playing on Sunday, but the facts are very very very few of them will ever get that chance. It's kind of like all the kids that think they are going to be rock stars some day. It's a one in a million shot. Best take a big drink of reality juice before they end up heart broken and dead broke.
As far as ESPN, they want content. Any thing that they can put on TV or any other media platform and gain a paid subscriber and advertisers with, they will do it. As for the NFL, a minor league organization would give them total product control and allow them to manage their product from cradle to grave. They would not necessarily need to make a profit on this aspect of it, the real money would be in the finished product for the few years they would have them on the field.
My Obamacare reference was an attempt at humor. I have younger children and they are paying more now for health care than they were before the ACA as am I. I hope somebody is benefitting, I just have not meet anyone that is.
Go Jackets!
