ORD_Buckeye;1919443; said:
A lot of [players] hate having to go to college, and I don't see them fighting to get in. Why deal with under the table benefits, having to go to class, live in a dorm etc. when they could just simply play football, get paid for it (more than most of them have ever seen in their lives) and go out and bang townie chicks at night.
Sorry, but I don't see the Nick Fairleys of the world turning that down in favor of perpetuating the student-athlete sham somewhere,
For the reasons I mentioned previously. Playing in a massive, packed stadium, on national television, vs. playing in a mostly empty municipal stadium on local television. Being something of a hero around town, vs. being generally unknown. And yes, the money (I estimated previously that it would be around $40K/year, approximately the average for a AAA baseball player) would be decent, and more than a lot of the guys would have seen before. But when you factor in the basic living expenses that you wouldn't have to pay were you on the college team, it wouldn't be very much. Finally, banging townie chicks vs. banging football-groupie college girls. I'm sure a few HS players, who truly hated the prospect of having to take classes and being told what to do off the field would go the minor league route, but I think most, including most of the top-rated players, would not. For good reason.
That is, unless...
ORD_Buckeye;1919443; said:
particularly if entry into the NFL is a quicker route via the d-league than a mandatory three year wait in some university.
Of course, if the NFL made a new rule that you had to wait three years if you went to college, but didn't have any mandatory waiting period to make it to the NFL as long as you went to the minor league, that would change things, at least for the guys who felt certain they were NFL caliber. But the NFL would never do that. There's no way NFL GM's want to get into the business of drafting HS football players. It's hard enough to guess whether a 17 year old HS offensive lineman is going to be good enough to play in the BigTen in 2-3 years. Can you imagine trying to determine whether a 17 year old HS offensive lineman is good enough to play in the NFL in 5-6 years. It can't be done. I'm sure the NFL likes it just fine that colleges currently develop those players for 3-4 years, and the NFL scouts get to evaluate them when their 21-22, rather than 17-18. And absent waiver of the 3-year rule, there's very little incentive for a HS player to go that route, in my view.
Even if the three year rule were waived, I'm not sure many high schoolers would go that route. Because I suspect even most 17 year old kids would be realistic enough to know that there would be no earthly way they'd make it up to the big league in fewer than 3 years or so.
The only other thing, in my view, that would likely make an NFL-farm minor league a viable option for a decent number of upper echelon high school players, would be if college admissions offices no longer gave admissions credit for being a great athlete. Such that some of the really good high school players wouldn't be able to get into most Universities.
buchtelgrad04;1919574; said:
How would their "talents go to waste?"
Because most guys who went straight to the hypothetical minor league would probably never play in the NFL. And when their playing careers ended, they would have a few years of living
la vida loca to show for it, and not much else. No money saved, no degree, no support network, nothing. In contrast, a guy who played football at, say, Oklahoma for four years, even if he was a lousy student, would have some decent options. The guys who go to the minor leagues, who aren't mortal locks for the NFL, would be wasting their talents because they'd be exchanging their talent for something of transient value (a few years of having some cash in their pocket and having fun), rather than exchanging their talent for something of permanent value (a college degree and, more importantly, the resume boost and support network that comes with being "ex player on the big University football team"). Put it this way; if you're a former Buckeye who never made it to the pros and graduated with a 2.1 GPA, someone's probably going to hook you up with a far better job than what your educational background merits. If you're a former Binghamton Mauler who never made it to the NFL, you're operating a jackhammer on I-90.
