PonyFans.com

a 4yr NFL developmental league...

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/could ... 08944.html

Might even help schools like SMU. Players are going to Alabama with the plan to go to the NFL afterwards. They may want to skip the Alabama route in the future.

Not sure that all of our players have professional plans.

Sounds like the United League from a few years ago if it had been better seen through

No. College football will be more nurturing for 18 years old with better coaching, facilities and opportunities beyond FB. If someone was to go pro at this age, it's OK. Community colleges offer a better path, as well.

I see this as an alternative to JUCO for a few kids. I suspect very few are going to uproot themselves to go to SoCal if there are 4-yr college alternatives available.

AustinPerson wrote:Might even help schools like SMU. Players are going to Alabama with the plan to go to the NFL afterwards. They may want to skip the Alabama route in the future.

Not sure that all of our players have professional plans.

I entirely agree and have been saying it for awhile. Like minor league baseball, there should be a similar thing for football. Heck this could potentially help cities with no major league sports (or no football) and give the local populace to see potential stars without the sky rocket prices at NFL games or big college brands. Also, for players who have no desire for the education route and wanted to take the easiest degree, they can bypass it and go to what they really want: $$ and fame.

I would argue alongside you that this would indeed help smaller colleges as the population of recruits will be more academic focus.

I would guess that the stats for NFL success from this format are extremely low. I believe the successes from the World Football League to the NFL were very minimal and this involved a group of much older and more mature athletes.

I predict this will cost the NFL a lot more money than they project and that it will fail miserably in 2 years just like previous attempts. I actually wish NCAA could get rid of anybody that doesn't want to be in college-they make the sport worse-not better. Whatever NFL throws out there it won't compete against quality FBS Football because NFL developmental squad team won't have access to the loyalty of hundreds of thousands fans and alumni willing to spend a helluva lot of money to support their university.

Won't hurt us and won't work.

The big misconception is that outside of the structure of the NCAA that the players would have access to money or fame. How many people tune in to D-League games or Minor League baseball? How much money do those players actually make in the minor leagues? How are they going to drive dollars their way? Who's really going to watch this? 4 teams? How exciting.

I think the only way a minor league system for the NFL works is if the NFL team subsidize them themselves.

exactly the platform of Texas A&M and the SEC made Johnny Manziel just as much as vice-versa. If Johnny Manziel makes the same plays in a developmental league nobody would ever hear about it-he wouldn't be a marketable brand either before leaving school. Therefore, kids are going to the platform with the highest visibility. These kids are using Colleges as much as Colleges are using them

I think with the money they are paying they will attract attention

$50,000 a year is not bad. Nice option to have. Granted Alabama and Ohio State pay more.

First of all they are throwing out numbers in a proposal. No way they pay kids coming out of high school who are 3-4 years away from a 2% chance of playing in the NFL that much. Right there we are talking about a payroll of 3 Million for 60 players w/o any source of revenue before even adding Coaching Staffs (at least 1-2 million), trainers, medical staff, team personnel, game/event costs, and let's not forget huge travel and equipment costs.

The average minor league baseball players earns a little over $11,000 and the football roster will have to be more than twice as large
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/03/minor-l ... -bud-selig

Who they going to get to Coach when Colleges are paying Head Coaches between 2-7 Million and have Coaching Staffs earning 2-5 Million. Inferior coaching than what they would have gotten in College. This has financial disaster written all over it-just like all the rest of the minor league football leagues too numerous to list. The level of competition will also be inferior so just how much development will be done?

I can't see this working in any way. Honestly, and that's even trying to look at it from the kids perspective.

1. People are still in the mentality that college football is a business. It's not.
Is.
Not.
College football loses money for the most part already. Take away the tax subsidies, the enormous alumni donations, the additional student fees subsidies, the massive amount of essentially free labor and so on and college football starts to bleed like a stuck pig. Starting a minor league from scratch with no help faces a massive climb.

2. Stallion has already gone into a quick cost analysis. I'll simply say that football isn't basketball or baseball and the number set is completely different and much worse.

3. I don't remember if it said or not - if a kid goes for the four years to the minor league and doesn't make it do they have any college eligibility left? I would imagine not, so if they don't make it they got a not-that-great job for four years with nothing to show for it. But even if they can with the skyrocketing cost of college these days $50,000 ain't that much - SMU's sticker price last year was $55,000. What is Cali's tax rate, by the way, for $50,000? Even straight up financially it may make more sense to go to school, even if it's a school that is a fraction of the price of $50,000, and that's before you factor in the actual hard, proven value of an undergraduate degree.

4. Since the financial option and addition to one's earning potential make college a far better option this league isn't going to get the best talent available - it's going to get the leftovers. Hard to see leftover HS prospects making money in California, which brings me to another point -

5. Why the hell are they doing this in California again? Doesn't it make more sense to do this in Texas where football is king, they can rent a HS stadium that puts 30,000 butts in the stands for far less, and there are less taxes? Hell they could start a league with the left-over equipment alone.

That's it. More I think about this the more I know this has no chance.

I don't think most power 5 schools lose money with those large television contracts they have. Maybe they should start a new college league consisting of only power 5 schools and let them pay the players. And the let the G5 schools form another college league that doesn't pay players and the G5 schools could play in the Spring.