Professional League / college alternative

[Reaser]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/fo ... story.html

[Mark L. Ford]

Interesting idea, although my first impression is that it's going to be made up of 18 to 22 year old young men who are not talented enough to get a football scholarship to a small college.

An interesting sentence from the article:
"Other professional football leagues have been short-lived. The much-hyped XFL, backed by pro wrestling titan Vince McMahon, lasted one season (2001). The Stars Football League also made it just a single year (2011), the Fall Experimental Football League two (2014-15) and the United Football League four (2009-12)." I know about the first one and the last one, but I had never heard of the Stars Football League or the Fall Experimental Football League, which apparently both got off of the drawing board and played seasons without being noticed. Is there anyone else besides me who missed the **FL and the FExFL?

[JuggernautJ]

Interesting idea, although my first impression is that it's going to be made up of 18 to 22 year old young men who are not talented enough to get a football scholarship to a small college.

There might be a large swath of candidates who are unable to attend college for a wide variety of other reasons, including social and economical positions.

I played with one guy who was an excellent defensive lineman but couldn't get out of high school because he was heavily dyslexic (I know, different times).
That was a crippling handicap academically.... not so much athletically.

I think there is a place for this league and I wish it well.

[Reaser]

Is there anyone else besides me who missed the **FL and the FExFL?

The Fall Experimental Football League went by FXFL. I watched all the games - though the seasons were really short so it wasn't difficult.

[Reaser]

There might be a large swath of candidates who are unable to attend college for a wide variety of other reasons, including social and economical positions.

I played with one guy who was an excellent defensive lineman but couldn't get out of high school because he was heavily dyslexic (I know, different times).
That was a crippling handicap academically.... not so much athletically.

I think there is a place for this league and I wish it well.

My main concern is for the 'trailblazing' players who jump at this during the first season. If the 'league' folds after a year all the players will have lost their eligibility to play in college and would be out in the cold. That's a huge risk v. little reward. Would be more interesting to see players' choices once/if the league was established. Certainly no one is going to turn down an offer to play at, for example, Clemson for many years until/unless this is an established alternative.

As you said, there's a lot of reasons for players not to go the college route so I believe there is a place for this.

Kind of reminds me of how interested I was in all the backrounds of teammates in JUCO football. We had a 27-year old DE who was awesome but turned down scholarship offers out of high school solely because he didn't want to goto school anymore (he was smart and had the grades so it wasn't that, it was just that he didn't want to sit in school all day) so he joined his family business (rich) but when he turned 27 he didn't want the "what-if" on not playing football. We had a QB who turned down D1 scholarship offers (pac-10 schools) to go on his mission. We had players that didn't have the grades. We had players who should have been playing at a higher level but didn't get an offer - or offer they liked - and couldn't afford to walk-on at a university. We had players that had no business playing any level of college football. We had players who JUCO was the right level for them. And so on.

So from money, religion, school, etc. There are a lot of potential reasons. I think the same would apply to this college alternative.

[jeckle_and_heckle]

Is there anyone else besides me who missed the **FL and the FExFL?

The Fall Experimental Football League went by FXFL. I watched all the games - though the seasons were really short so it wasn't difficult.

When active, both leagues were all over the internet.

[JohnBowen]

I think it would be great. Would rather it have some teams outside of just 1 state but could see why having it in a centralized location could help. Personally, I really enjoyed NFL Europe.

[Throwin_Samoan]

It's fine for players who - for any one of a number of reasons - do not have college as a viable alternative, in theory.

But here's the thing: unless people are going to pay to watch a collection of guys for whom the prospect you might get paid for as long as the league is viable is a better one than taking a scholarship and muddling through for a couple of years and potentially bettering themselves, they're going to be left at 20 years old with a little money, no way to play any college ball and virtually no chance of playing professional football.

No bucks, no Buck Buchanan, as it were.

A league like this - any alternative league, basically - is unlikely to generate sufficient eyeballs and ticket sales to make it an actual viable alternative. Now, if they attach jobs or trade education to the scenario, fine, so the guys can have a job or learn a trade and also play football and not have to, you know, go to class and have coeds fawn over them.

But is it that easy to find jobs for a couple hundred young men just out of high school in one geographic area?

Don't see it working. Don't see any of these things working.