NFL Minor League?

[corchjay 5,311]

This is kind of an all encompassing post for Football and Basketball but since football is on everyone's mind right now it's more about football.

But is it time for the NFL to create a Minor League System to "draft" graduating high school players like the MLB does and to be able to develop players drafted out of college as well if they aren't prepared to be contributors in the NFL at that time? 

I ask this because the Freeze\Briles\Paterno\Petrino situations and so forth that has become of college football nothing but big business and it's nothing new.  Colorado years ago were hiring strippers, many schools have been known to "pimp" their own female students as "hostess" to recruits of football and basketball.  All of it sickening.  Coaches salaries are astronomical and make many times more then their bosses, heck even more then state elected officials.  Tickets for alumni and fans are outrageous.  

Has the purity of the sport of college football (basketball) to far gone to ever get it back? 

[CR 2,426]

An interesting question. The NFL has a perfect situation now of a built-in farm system(college FB) that they contribute not 1 cent towards. I just don't see any way with the popularity of college football where it is that players could be convinced to go minor league FB instead of big time college FB. Nor would the NFL be interested in contributing the massive amounts of money it would take to set this type of league up.

I think your points are excellent regarding salaries,scandals, etc. Things seem to to be too far gone to change at this point.

[CleCoTiger 1,957]

1 hour ago, corchjay said:

Has the purity of the sport of college football (basketball) to far gone to ever get it back? 

 

Big money corrupts in a big way. Personally, I'd like to see a lot of things rolled back. Coaches should not be paid more than university presidents. Athletes that can't read or write at even a decent high school level should not be given special consideration for admission just because they are athletes. Etc. etc.  But...big money is here to stay in big time college sports I think. And unless and until it all collapses in on itself via major, widespread scandal, I don't see it changing, and probably not even then.  I do know that while I remain a huge fan of AU football, I am not near the fan of college football and basketball (or the NFL, or the NBA, and especially not NASCAR) as I once was.  Maybe I'm just getting older and moving on from youthful exuberance. But in all of these sports, big time money (and the big time ticket prices that go with it) have taken some of the shine off, at least for me.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

54 minutes ago, corchjay said:

Has the purity of the sport of college football (basketball) to far gone to ever get it back? 

If the university system would just step up and say "no more", that would be all there is to it, but unfortunately greed trumps common sense. In fact, since most universities involved are state owned and operated, this is a rare situation where we could actually be legislated into sanity, but again... probably not going to happen because those who make the laws are huge fans of the green. 

Where I think the issue lies for NFL creating a farm league of sorts is the fact that they are just as much or more of a mess than colleges and we are going to wind up with a bunch of NFL players who have worse character than what we do now, because the NFL feels no obligation to develop said character. Forcing the kids to go through a college program at least gives them a shot of encountering one of the good programs that will work to help them become men instead of just top athletes with lots of money and very few people to answer to.

What would be really interesting is if the NCAA would implement a system where schools, like they are held to educational standards, were held to personal conduct standards. Player arrests cost scholarships, recruiting visits, etc., and make it extend beyond school by 1-2 years so they have to make sure they are actually teaching character and not just covering up for transgressions. At the same time, establish mandatory minimum penalties for recruiting violations and extend those to legal infractions, so schools will lose the desire to cover for their staff, too.

Of course, all of that is a pipe dream, since the man in charge of the organization that manages infractions has more skeletons in his closet than Alice Cooper.

[corchjay 5,311]

The only option I see is the athletes want to go to school for school not to go play football to attempt to get to the NFL.  To resolve that only offer 1/2 scholarships.  At an institute of higher learning academic students should be rewarded more then athletic students.  Heck and I am one of said athletic students.  Without a partial baseball scholarship I'm not sure my family would have been able to send me.  AND YES YES I know 85k fans don't show up for a chess match or the debate team...  

[auburnphan 6,050]

There has actually been talk of starting a minor league system for the NFL

[War Knight 514]

Not going to post as long as everyone else but I don't see why they don't/can't have a minor league set up after college. I would set up a minor league that played on different days than the NFL and put the teams in states or big markets that don't and won't ever have an NFL team.

 

Birmingham AL

Little Rock, ARK

Boise, ID

Des Moines, IO

Wichita, KS

Lexington, KE

Jackson, MS

Omaha, NEB

Las Vegas, NV

Albuquerque, NM

Oklahoma City, OK

Portland, OR

Providence, RI

Charleston, SC

Sioux Falls, SD

Salt Lake City, UT

Virginia Beach, VA

Fargo, ND

18 well populated towns in states without a pro team. That could bring in a lot of new fans. Some states, with numerous big cities that already have teams, could support the rest in town that don't have a NFL team. Memphis Tennessee, San Antonio Texas, Louisville Kentucky, Sacramento California, Oakland California, Vancouver Canada, St Louis Missouri, San Diego California, San Jose California, Mexico City New Mexico, Orlando Florida, Hialeah Florida.

 

It could be huuuuuge

 

[DAG 33,949]

Already been talk of something like this happening during the spring or summer  and chances are it will occur and chances are people will watch because football . Look at the crap we have now. Golf , Phelps racing a CGI shark and baseball. 

[boisnumber1 2,817]

5 hours ago, corchjay said:

Has the purity of the sport of college football (basketball) to far gone to ever get it back? 

Seriously, this happened about 35 years ago.

[AU64 10,122]

Good post Corch...and right on the mark. The most shameful aspect of our current system in my view is that otherwise honorable people will turn their heads and or find other ways to ignore or excuse the bad behavior of coaches and players in the college athletic system.  Colleges convert to Div III.  and let the NFL provide their own feeder system.. 

[mustache eagle 2,388]

Not as long as there is so much money to be made by colleges and NFL.

count me as one who would like the game of football to be less money driven and i personally would be happy with a lesser product to get there.

concussion lawsuits may help.  I'm could foresee a day (long from now) where today's football morphs to basically 7v7 contests.

one other pie in the sky idea that would help college and NFL (imo but NFL would have to implement) ... no drafting college players unless they have their degree.  Maybe even include a draft bonus for degrees athletes.  I know that is wishful.

[I_M4_AU 7,751]

Here is an interesting article about the fall of NFL Europe.  It states that there is talk of another league to get viewers during footballs off season.

From the article:  “We’ve reached a point where we really should be looking more at a developmental league, and I really expect that to begin here in the next year or so,” Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones, a member of the league’s competition committee, told CBS Sports. “We lost a lot of money on NFL Europe, but there were a lot of things the league did well and for all of those reasons – coaches, officiating, players, quarterbacks in particular – it’s something we really do need to be looking at and studying. The time might be right to do it.”

Also: As long as the NCAA is providing the milk – in this case, labor – for free, why invest in another herd of cows?

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jun/23/you-didnt-play-to-get-rich-what-killed-nfl-europe

It seems to cover two sides of the issue.