Apparently, there are some plans to form a means for players who do not qualify for college, or simply don’t want to go to college, to get a shot at an NFL career.
If it works, how would this impact college football? The NFL ready kids could get paid (though maybe not as much as at Auburn) and get their chance, without going to class every day.
I think it will work; the semi-pro league. Of course they have to sell tickets and sign TV deals to make it. May or may not have a significant effect the college game. And outside of the numbers of players there are likely to be issues that are not known now.
Lots of guys struggle like heck with the scholastic side of it and can’t finish their four years in school. Don’t know how much loss there is there, but it’s some.
I had a high school friend who signed with JFB and flunked out 3 times. Wasn’t because he was dumb; just didn’t have time for football and the babes and partying.
200 players in any given year will/can participate. But some of the same individuals could stay in the program for 4 years. That alone could lessen the impact on the college game.
Actually, it might move the NCAA off the 3 year rule.
Interesting concept, but there would only be a couple hundred roster spots in the entire league. And people could (and would) stay in it more than one year, so there would maybe be 50 or so openings each year after the first. It might attract guys who would otherwise go to juco because of grades, but I can’t see much more than that. The pay would be pretty minimal; think D-League or worse. Most guys on scholarship probably would come out ahead financially.
Consider that there is that option open in basketball now. Not in the US, but you can go play pro in Europe or Asia to wait out the one-and-done period to join the NBA. To my knowledge only two guys have done that: Brandon Jennings in Europe and Emmanuel Mudiay in China. Granted, there’s the cultural issue of going overseas, but it’s still an option to a year in college that virtually no one is taking.
I think I’d like a change that took people who aren’t interested in going to school can pro immediately. Before pro salaries became outrageous, that’s what college football was.