College football is a godsend for the NFL, they will never ever do anything to ruin it.

Meh, Grant Hill's letter was fine in light of Rose's clarification which Hill was clearly referring to at the beginning of the letter about Rose's message today being muddled and who knows wtf he is thinking today. LOL, at blaming anyone for failing to comprehend what Rose is saying, even though I think I agree with him.

+1

It's a godsend because elite athletes get developed for their league for free. But if Auburn is giving Cam $200K to play there legally and other superstars start getting rightfully compensated for their conitributions to their schools' revenues, the NFL would swoop in and snatch them in a minor league bringing a few up directly. College football only ****s itself if it wants to become a business with regards to its players. You think the NFL is going to sit idly by and watch their future superstars massively compensated by another organization?

Yeah, you're right, people love minor league football. The XFL, the UFL, the USFL, the CFL's American expansion, all great.

People want awesome college football and basketball yet want them paid yet still tied to their rooting colleges of interests. That's ridiculous.

If the NFL had a legitimate minor league system that funneled directly to the NFL and drafted kids out of high school instead of sending them to Bama and Oregon and the rest bc they offered a better minor league salary than the boosters or school could offer, then it's gg college football.

Just watched the USFL one.

I must say, I wish I was alive too see it. Looks like a lot more fun and freedom then the nfl, especially with the celebrations.

Donald Trump is an *******, but it's not like no one knew that already. Too fast expansion and him were the cause of the demise from my point of view.

Dudd doing work.

People always think there's a huge market for the level of play at the college level but forget how much of the interest is tied to the schools playing.

But there's no reason the NFL would want to do that. There's no way it would be profitable. Hell, college football now is barely profitable for anyone except for the top teams, and there's no way that any proposed NFL minor league would draw television money and ticket revenue close to what college football gets. Why would the NFL want to kill off a league which does all their developmental work for them for free so they could run what would most likely be a highly unprofitable minor league?

Do you take issue with "exploitation" (which technically it is not) or do you not think European leagues have any shot at poaching american talent? Give it time. It will happen.

i guess so but the odds of it ever happening are close to 0 that is pretty much pointless to bring it up.

there is so much money tied in with TV money, the colleges who have made monster investments in their stadiums and programs, their is a huge built in alumni base that it makes it virtually impossible for a minor league system to steal. additionally, the government is behind all the major state programs so they don't want to get their investment killed as well.

If the best high school football players were able to jump straight into an NFL minor league and the top programs were left with scrubs, how successful do you think college football would be? If your answer is "still very successful" then I see no reason not to let that happen.

yeah you're obviously right about that, but what if the NFL decided that they wanted to run a, oh say, under-23 youth team league played on Saturdays? obviously they'd lower the draft eligibility to one's HS grad year pay players something, and eventually manage to incorporate a lot of the top talent that would otherwise by at NCAA schools. obviously they wouldn't get all of it, as many would probably choose the college scholarship (unless this NFL system destroyed college football altogether), but i imagine they'd be pretty good teams with only 30 of them, rather than ~120 D1 programs, or whatever. would probably be pretty high quality.

people really don't think that it'd be profitable? hmm, maybe i need to give it more thought, or hear more arguments about this.

(same scenario applies for NBA i think)

this makes no sense. You think NFL gives a hoot about how much money a player does or doesn't make from ages 18-21? All they care about is players getting developed on someone else's dime.

Oh I'm not getting into the "exploitation" debate at all, I just think people overestimate the amount of talent that really exists in the College level. There are certainly players that opt to play in Europe (good, **** the NCAA) but I can't imagine there are a ton of players for whom live, and more importantly the paycheck, in Europe would really be worth it.

Some will go that route, but I don't think we have to worry about European leagues raiding the college teams for talent.

Of course, I could absolutely be wrong here and the state of Euro leagues might be so awful that the worst starter on UNC Ashville might be Italy's Michael Jordon, but I don't see it.

dudd/tanner are right about this one. minor league football would fail miserably. Even if the play were significantly better than NCAAFB (it wouldn't), the college game is so entrenched and a large % of its supporters are tied to the schools themselves that a semi-pro league would never gain enough market share to stay viable.

Wait, I don't actually want this, I'm just pointing out this is what happens from the logical extension of college players getting paid for playing, which was argued so vehemently earlier.

College football is very profitable. But it goes to pay for every other sport. College athletic programs would fold instantly. That's the reason it will never happen.

The quality of the NCAA would of course suffer, but people still turn out to watch games like the Oaken Bucket Game (I'm amoung them, sigh) because it's IU vs. Purdue, not because the football played is such high quality.

I'm all for someone putting together a "Jr. League" and paying kids to play. I hope it turns out great, but I can't imagine it will. Minor league play gets minor league prices (and players get minor league paychecks).

I think you're missing my point. The Euro leagues are strong talent-wise. They'd have no interest in the Titus's of the world. They'd be going after the future NBA players.

Sure, the college game would exist and still do well, but if the first round of the draft shifted from 10-15% non-NCAA kids to 50% or more, then they'd have a problem. And if the NBA bumps the age requirement to 20-21, I think it's likely we see those avenues open up.

Think about how popular the NFL is right now. A minor league would be insanely successful as well, it would supplant major college football if the best players out of high school could start getting paid. I think it would matter a lot to the NFL if its future players were making large sums from playing in an organization it wasn't seeing a dime from. And if they can garner a salary, why not endorsement deals?

It might be on the college's dime, but it's at a much greater expense to the NFL's revenue.

then why isn't the NFL already doing it? because the players DONT get paid in college? How is that rational?

If an NFL minor league would be insanely successful, there would be one already. Instead of phony education promises for most guys, they'd be offering cash money to come play football. Why would the players opt to play college ball instead?

obv black guilt.

minor league systems that go H2H with major college sports (football and basketball) will likely always fail and make little sense unless some how NCAA was completely shut down.