Football Minor League Working to Get Off the Ground

[Mavric]

Would compete with colleges for athletes.

The people behind a new professional league that hopes to launch in 2018 say they don’t intend to compete with the NCAA. They have a long way to go financially and otherwise just to get their venture off the ground. But if they can play even one season, paying the bills and cutting 18- to 22-year-olds in on the action, it’s easy to see where the impact could be significant.

“It’ll make sense for a lot of young men and a lot of families,” longtime NFL receiver Ed McCaffrey, one of the nascent Pacific Pro Football League’s co-founders, told USA TODAY Sports recently. “We’re hoping to provide them with that choice.”

The plan: Four teams based in Southern California, each playing an eight-game schedule on Sundays during the sports dead zone of July and August. Roughly 50 players per team making an average salary and benefits package of $50,000 a year, which they’d be free to supplement with endorsements. Rules tweaked to enhance safety and give NFL scouts matchups they want to see. Coaches with NFL experience, who would teach pro-style schemes in an immersive environment unbound by rules regarding classroom time. Any player four years or fewer removed from high school would be eligible, including college underclassmen who’d entered the NFL draft.

Numerous minor leagues have tried and failed in recent years to expand the American pro football landscape by relying on players who’d missed the NFL cut, which inevitably limited the potential for creating a compelling consumer product. Money has been a common problem, too, and remains a central question here. Don Yee, a veteran NFL agent who is CEO and principal founder of “Pac Pro”, says the league has received angel financing from family and friends and he has met with a potential investor, as well as media distributors. But there is a lot of work to be done. There’s no endorsement or backing from the NFL or its players’ union.

What makes the concept intriguing is it targets a previously untapped talent base: players who currently have no option to play for pay because the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement bars them from the league. (Basis for that rule: Players need time to physically and mentally mature before competing against fully developed adults.)

USA Today

 

[junior4949]

On one hand, I hope this succeeds. On the other hand, I hope this doesn't succeed. When a school is making a million plus per scholly player, some of the riches need to be spread around. However, all athletes need an education to fall back on if/when the NFL doesn't work out.

 

[Scott Tenorman]

This was bound to happen eventually, just don't know if it can work without the financial support of the NFL. I'm pretty sure the owners like having a farm system they pay nothing for.

 

[BigRedBuster]

On one hand, I hope this succeeds. On the other hand, I hope this doesn't succeed. When a school is making a million plus per scholly player, some of the riches need to be spread around. However, all athletes need an education to fall back on if/when the NFL doesn't work out.

A school makes a million plus per scholly player?

 

[Enhance]

Agree with Scott - this just won't work without the NFL's support and I don't think they're going to sideswipe the NCAA anytime soon.

And whether they intend to compete with the college game or not is irrelevant - they will compete with the college game. Definitely not for eyeballs or interest, but in players. Hundreds of kids sign scholarships every year to play college football with the intent of trying to go pro, and you have to wager a fair chunk of those players would forego college altogether in exchange for a developmental league.

There are some downsides to this program, too. For starters, the college game opens your eyes to the scrutiny and expectations of big time football, realities that get put on steroids (pun unintended) when you go to the NFL. This league won't be able to give them a taste of that other than in the classroom. You'll also have hundreds of draft eligible players in the NCAA who have played dozens of high pressure games in big time environments. None of these developmental players will know what that's like. That may not phase most or all of the players, but it is one of those intangible issues to consider.

 

[RunMickeyRun02]

McCaffrey’s involvement is notable because his son, Stanford star Christian McCaffrey, was among the high-profile players to sit out bowl games this past month with an eye towards April’s NFL draft. Another son, Dylan McCaffrey, has committed to play at the University of Michigan, which has also offered a scholarship to youngest son Luke – a high school sophomore who’d be eligible for Pac Pro’s second season if the projected schedule holds.

I found this interesting ^^^

Other thoughts:

Leagues come and go, some without even a kick off. Just a few weeks ago I heard rumblings of an NFL developmental league did some digging and the responses ranged from "Never is ever going to happen" to "We're starting this spring". I still think the UFL started and operated under the gamble that the NFL would swoop in and fund them as a D league and I'll never get why they insisted on playing in the fall.

I do miss the Nighthawks, don't miss how the players got treated when things got lean. I was smart enough not to buy season tickets to the final season. I blinked and missed the Mammoths (or did I?) anyway they followed me on twitter. I've watched 3 Lincoln and 1 tri-city team disappear and the once mighty Arena league dwindle down to only 4 teams. Still my Beef tickets should arrive any day now.

I always have the same thought during the spring game. It seems like a shame to NOT use memorial stadium in the spring. My favorite league that never made it off the ground was made up of teams (Nebraska was one of the teams rumored) to use college stadiums and not even have team names just Nebraska, Tennessee, Arkansas etc made up of simple uniforms and former players who played there previously...never happened but I would have liked to see it.

There seems to exist a notion amongst most football fans in America, if it isn't NFL or 1-A college football then it isn't worth your time and if you're into it, you'll be made fun of. As long as this is around I don't see any other league lasting very long.

 

[Landlord]

For starters, the college game opens your eyes to the scrutiny and expectations of big time football, realities that get put on steroids (pun unintended) when you go to the NFL. This league won't be able to give them a taste of that other than in the classroom.

I know football rosters are huge, but how many programs can offer that kind of environment? The overwhelming majority of college football programs are lucky to draw a few thousand people for a game in their best seasons.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

On one hand, I hope this succeeds. On the other hand, I hope this doesn't succeed. When a school is making a million plus per scholly player, some of the riches need to be spread around. However, all athletes need an education to fall back on if/when the NFL doesn't work out.

A school makes a million plus per scholly player?

NU has an athletic budget of over $100M annually, and most of those revenues are generated by the football team, so I think it's fair to say that a player on football scholarship generates $1M of revenue.

 

[BigRedBuster]

I think if this gets up and running, the players that go into that are going to have a major wakeup call to the working conditions and facilities available to them compared to today's college football programs. I'll guarantee you they won't be walking into buildings like what they have available to them at places like Nebraska, OSU, LSU, Alabama...etc.

If this gets up and running, I think this will hurt lower level programs a lot more than the P5 programs.

 

[BigRedBuster]

On one hand, I hope this succeeds. On the other hand, I hope this doesn't succeed. When a school is making a million plus per scholly player, some of the riches need to be spread around. However, all athletes need an education to fall back on if/when the NFL doesn't work out.

A school makes a million plus per scholly player?

NU has an athletic budget of over $100M annually, and most of those revenues are generated by the football team, so I think it's fair to say that a player on football scholarship generates $1M of revenue.

That's not what the school "makes" off the program. Subtract the expenses for the program.

LINK

 

[Enhance]

For starters, the college game opens your eyes to the scrutiny and expectations of big time football, realities that get put on steroids (pun unintended) when you go to the NFL. This league won't be able to give them a taste of that other than in the classroom.

I know football rosters are huge, but how many programs can offer that kind of environment? The overwhelming majority of college football programs are lucky to draw a few thousand people for a game in their best seasons.

Many perhaps can't offer the 90,000 Husker fan type environment, but the average attendance for division one games in 2015 was 43,933 people. That's where most NFL players come from.

I should've been more clear, too, but I think the gameday experience is only part of it. The media scrutiny, fan expectations, coach expectations and everything else that goes into can't really be replicated on the developmental level. And it's not like baseball where you go through seven minor leagues before your make the majors - this would be like spending a couple years in some combination of every one of the seven baseball minor leagues and then jumping to the NFL.

I guess I also don't want to make it seem like this makes or breaks the league - I don't think it does and I think some players would be able to handle it all just fine. I'm just saying I think there are some underlying benefits to the NCAA route.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

On one hand, I hope this succeeds. On the other hand, I hope this doesn't succeed. When a school is making a million plus per scholly player, some of the riches need to be spread around. However, all athletes need an education to fall back on if/when the NFL doesn't work out.

A school makes a million plus per scholly player?

NU has an athletic budget of over $100M annually, and most of those revenues are generated by the football team, so I think it's fair to say that a player on football scholarship generates $1M of revenue.

That's not what the school "makes" off the program. Subtract the expenses for the program.

Well, I work in Finance, and I was taking what junior was commenting above as "revenue generated".

If you want to look at profit, I found some information from 2013-14. NU football generated $60M with $24M of expenses, so football profit was $36M, which was able to be used for other sports in the athletic department. I would assume that the revenues and profits have only grown in the past few years, as NU has become full earning members of the B1G. So, even if NU's profit was $40M from football, that's ~$500K of profit per scholarship player.

Here is the link where I found the info for 2013-14. http://www.omaha.com/huskers/net-gains-in-lincoln-volleyball-is-a-revenue-generator-for/article_2637c720-c903-515d-8aaf-c86c2c3352a0.html

 

[Landlord]

Good arguments, but on the other side of it, how many FCS, D-II, D-III, etc. players that know they won't ever be good enough for the NFL can still all the sudden actually make a mini career out of playing football instead of having college be the end all?

I'd love $50,000 a year.

 

[BigRedBuster]

Well, talking about revenues greatly distorts the discussion.

Look at the link I provided at all the college programs that don't have revenues above expenses.

 

[Scott Tenorman]

Good arguments, but on the other side of it, how many FCS, D-II, D-III, etc. players that know they won't ever be good enough for the NFL can still all the sudden actually make a mini career out of playing football instead of having college be the end all?

I'd love $50,000 a year.

Happens all the time in baseball. Kids will take a chance to make a little money with an outside shot (for most) to make the league over going to college for free. Not universally true, but definitely a common occurrence.