The NFL Needs a Minor League

For years the college football ranks have been the main feeder system for the NFL providing the pros with player ready to take the next step in their football development. The popularity of college football predates that of football at a professional level which makes it a bit of an oddity in sports. While it’s true the NBA draws most of its players from the NCAA they still have the D-league and international leagues to scout and develop players. For the most part college football has been fine at feeding players to the pros, till about a decade ago.

The draw back of college football is that the main point of the teams and the coaching staff is to win games. College football is a billion dollar industry and coaches are payed tens of millions of dollars to put together an on field product that will fill massive stadiums and that means winning games. The problem arises when coaches put winning games above expanding the knowledge and skill set of their quarterbacks.

In the last ten years the quarterback play has taken a nose dive. With the spread offense and domination of the shotgun set quarterbacks don’t seen different offenses and formation. Last years first overall pick was Jared Goff who had never taken a snap under center. How are young quarterbacks supposed to deal with the amount of variation in NFL defenses and complex offense if all they know is one system and a couple formations.

The NFL should buy the CFL and transform it into their minor league. Paying young players gives you an advantage in competing with the NCAA and you can groom these QBs in an a way that better prepares them for the NFL. Model the new minor league on the juniors hockey system and organize them by age.

It’s probably a long shot that this will happen because of how big college football is but with all the hate for the NCAA and their refusal to treat student athletes like adults despite the fact that they generate billions of dollars in revenue if you were ever going to compete with or replace the NCAA now is the time!

Written By: Jason MacKinnon (@ohhkillemjason)