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Proposed Football League a Threat to College Football?

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Proposed Football League a Threat to College Football?
Photo: SHANNON STAPLETON/REUTERS

There is word of another attempt at starting a football league. This one has a significant variation compared to other startup leagues. The players would be very young, ages 18 through 22, the same as college players.

There is no affiliation with the NFL, although there are a number of people involved who have NFL connections. Tom Brady’s agent, Don Yee, came up with the idea.

The league will be Los Angeles-based and will be called Pacific Pro Football. The four-team association could get off the ground in 2018. There will be an eight-game schedule and the players could earn as much as $50,000 per year. The Pacific Pro Football group does not intend to compete with the NCAA and college football but the circuit will be recruiting players from the same group, high schools, that has been sending players to the colleges for more than a century.

There may be as many as 200 players that could join the league which is not a large number that should worry the college football establishment but since college football refuses to pay players, some of the top line high school players could have an option, get paid and get pro attention or get a scholarship and get almost nothing for playing.

But Yee has a bunch of holes to fill, including raising millions of dollars to get the teams going, pay players’ salaries, along with coaches, administrators, trainers, equipment and equipment managers and medical people and get insurance then he has to have money to rent stadiums.

There is a question of whether any cable TV network would want the product which would be limited to two games a week over a two-month period in July and August. Recruiting players and finding the right ball are probably the easiest things to get for the venture. New football leagues are difficult startups.

By Evan Weiner For The Politics Of Sports Business

This article was republished with permission from the original publisher, Evan Weiner.

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