What if: College of Football
Alright, time for a little thought exercise here: The College of Football
What if a university, likely private with a relatively well funded scholarship base, were to give the big middle finger to the NCAA and do the following:
Establish a College of Football as a degree granting program within the school.
Offer Academic Scholarships to the most gifted players, and allow those not granted scholarship to enter the program and pay their own way if they like.
The college of football would entail taking classes in various football areas, both in the classroom and on the practice field, and in games, with the objective of being a Pro Football/NFL Prepatory program.
The best players could be lured in with the promise of excellent NFL and CFL contacts, and the freedom to be directly in contact with pros and agents at all times.
The NCAA could simply completely bar them from competition in NCAA events, and it wouldn't matter. The school could play games as exhibitions against semi-pro teams and the like, even offering payment to those teams to do so, and fund its future by A: Selling Tickets to games in a Pro-Football fashion, and B: Donations and contributions from the vast number of players that would eventually be well paid in the pros, and C: Student athletes who pay their way into the program.
Student athletes wouldn't be discouraged from attending because it's still a college and they're still earning a degree in the event that a pro-career does not materialize.
Obviously, the NCAA schools would hate that, because it would hugely cramp their ability to recruit the best (and most paycheck oriented) players. But, how would they stop such a thing?
I don't know why, but I don't think it would work. Interesting idea though.
"Sorry NCAA, this isn't practice time, this is my homework!"
I believe the NCAA would just bar them from everything, but like I said, if they did, they could play semi-pro teams instead.
Somebody Negged you (and me) for responding to this.
Note people: This is just a concept for discussion. Just a random idea I had. Nothing to get upset about. I'm not really supporting such a thing.
I don't see how this would be a workable model. If this were done by an established program - USC, say - the boosters would be furious at having to replace their normal games with games against these mysterious semi-pro teams that nobody's heard of and that don't mean shit for anything. The school would have to entirely depart the NCAA, meaning no college hoops or baseball or anything else that people root for.
And there's no way a non-D1 school would have the credibility to pull this off. "You're turning down a USC offer to go to Extended Football Camp at St. Jehosophat of the Plains? Ha ha. Let me know how that works out for you."
The NCAA would stop this basically by letting this thoroughly unworkable house of cards collapse on itself and laughing hysterically.
Or rather, almost certainly, but don't be too quick to overlook the almighty dollar. In most years, even the best D1 schools might have three kids drafted. What if this school regularly had 8-10? You don't think there are a lot of kids with such strong dreams of the NFL that they wouldn't take that risk to go somewhere much less heard of?
How are you going to get to 8-10 players drafted? This is kind of an underpants gnome scheme. The money required to get this thing off the ground - you've assumed it'll come from past happy graduates, but you have to spend all kinds of money to get to that point in the first place. And I submit that that money will never be there.
current NFL owners or sports agents to buy into it with the intent of creating a "player mill". That's pretty grim, though.
They spend $0 on pre-NFL player development now, so I don't think you'll find them willing to pony up the millions for that. Agents - definitely not. Owners - I guess I wouldn't put it past Al Davis because he's a kook, but they'll be looking at investment vs. return and finding it not even remotely worth it.
"That most of us are going pro in something other than sports". Also this wouldn't have the interests of the student athlete in mind since there is no fall back plan.
Yes, this is a major road block for this idea. Essentially, you'd have to make sure that these kids are educated in other areas (e.g. Math, Business, literature etc.) in order to provide a fall back plan for these athlete-students that do not go pro.
In such a scenario, you could offer studies in coaching, strength and conditioning, and broadcasting as "minors" (as MCalibur talks about below). Besides, in our current economy, it seems that most degrees need fall back plans anyway.
I'm not sure I would like to see this happen, but it is an intriguing idea. I think you would need at least 10 major schools to do it together in order to any gain any traction.
Good evening, I'm Joan Face. Welcome again to "What If?" Each week on the show, we ask a hypothetical question about a specific historical event. Tonight's question, like all our questions, comes from a Mr. Kevin O'Donnell, age 10, a paperboy from Alton, Illinois. Kevin asks, "What If Superman grew up in Germany, instead of America?"
In a regular university:
1. You can do anything you want - yes even practice 24hrs a day (as long as it is voluntary)
2. AND you get an actual degree.
Your idea would leave them with zero options apart from the NFL which is exactly what working in McDonalds for 3 years instead of attending college gets them.
Why in the world would they choose to forego a world-class (MSU excluded of course) FREE education that ahem...includes adoration from more coeds than you can handle in order to go to what is essentially a draft-or-bust sausage fest?
a university hasn't come up with a "professional athletics" degree yet (seriously, exclude general studies jokes please). I would think that you could develop a legitimate program that has economics, business, nutrition, basic anatomy, movement science, history of professional athletics, ethics, marketing, contract law.. all those things that a professional athlete would encounter and need to know as they go about their career. Far from being a "cuddle class" for athletes, it would have an academic rigor to it that is preparing the student-athlete for their next path be it as an athlete or working in professional athletics.
came from initially. I figured that as soon as you start intentionally training student athletes to be professional athletes, the NCAA is already going to be pissed, so you may as well go all out.
That sounds a bit more workable. It would only take a few years for the competitive advantage to wear off for the school that started it if successful, but who knows. And of course, the offensive schemes taught in the coaching classes would always coincidentally be those run on the field.
I'm pretty sure that already exists on many campuses, just under various fancy names. Isn't that more or less what our Sports Management and Communications major entails?
one of the banner ads on this site is for a Master's Degree in Coaching Education and Athletic Administration from Ohio University. West Virginia also has a Master's program in coaching. Coaching is definately a profession and one that athletes are particularly well suited for, and often go into after their careers are over.
Why wouldn't Michigan be allowed to offer a B.S. in Education with a concentration in Coaching. Teachers get certified in Biology, English, Math, and Phys. Ed...why not?
Carr would be a GREAT prof (for many subjects really). Any former coach or assistant could at least provide high level coaching/administrative theory as part of the program.
I really don't see any reason why something like this wouldn't be kosher. Why make a kid study something they have no interest in?
While I'm no expert on NCAA rules and all that, it seems to me that they may have the ability to completely shut down an entire athletic-department's participation in NCAA activities; not just one sport (football, in this instance). And even if they "can't" do that, it seems that they would find a way, if it came to that.
current state of the Detroit Lions
This essentially already exists. Pretty much every school has some kind of sports-related major (ours is Sports Management and Communications) to which academically-weak athletes are steered. I've never taken a SMC course but I would imagine that the coursework is designed to help athletes in their post-university careers, at least to some extent.
There are several schools that have degree programs to be a PGA professional (Ferris State). Students are not allowed to enter the program without at least a 2 handicap or better I believe. How is that different?
I would want to see how hard they would come down on that program.
I like it a lot! My 2 cents would be that each state would have a team and the players had to graduate High School from that state. Lets add to that all the coaches and personnel that make up the administrative side. Nice random thought Blazer.
Quick point of clarification on the Ferris PGM (professional golf management) program: it basically is a marketing degree. And, IIRC, that 2-handicap rule is not exactly strictly enforced, at least it wasn't when I was there.
I don't know if you could have a College of Football, but to offer some classes to educate athletes about agents and future career options should be added. It would help a student-athlete see what they can do with their future.