So if there was an NFL minor league system how should it go?

[rams80]

Aww man that was my Idea

The NBA has an NCAA too but they have a D-League

And the D-League is still primarily a tax shelter. Not a player development league.

[bosrs1]

Technically in addition to the NCAA for young players as their "minor league" the NFL kind of has two more for the fringe guys who would be the equivalent of major-minor league jumpers in baseball in the form of the CFL and the Arena League.

The CFL in particular as an added benefit acts as an almost AAA+ league for football like Nippon Professional Baseball does with baseball. Guys who would otherwise be journeymen or simple roll guys can go up north sometimes and make a name for themselves. And other guys can go north and use it as a defacto AAA type league until they catch on with an NFL team again.

[JH42XCC]

Thought I'd put out my idea for an NFL Minor League

NFL Minor League

AFC

East

Hartford, CT (New England Patriots) - Connecticut Colonials (Rentschler Field)

Long Island, NY (New York Jets) - Long Island Jets (James M. Shuart Stadium)

Nassau, The Bahamas (Miami Dolphins) - Nassau Tropics (Thomas Robinson Stadium)

Rochester, NY (Buffalo Bills) - Rochester Rush (Sahlen's Stadium)

North

Canton, OH (Cleveland Browns) - Canton Bulldogs (Fawcett Stadium)

College Park, MD (Baltimore Ravens) - Maryland Clippers (Byrd Stadium)

Dayton, OH (Cincinnati Bengals) - Dayton Bengals (Welcome Stadium)

Wheeling, WV (Pittsburgh Steelers) - Wheeling Ironmen (Wheeling Island Stadium)

South

Austin, TX (Houston Texans) - Austin Generals (Jim Wacker Field at Bobcat Stadium -- San Marcos, TX)

Louisville, KY (Indianapolis Colts) - Louisville Stallions (Papa John's Cardinal Stadium)

Memphis, TN (Tennessee Titans) - Memphis Pharaohs (Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium)

Tallahassee, FL (Jacksonville Jaguars) - Tallahassee Storm (Bragg Memorial Stadium)

West

Las Vegas, NV (San Diego Chargers) - Las Vegas Aces (Sam Boyd Stadium)

Sacramento, CA (Oakland Raiders) - Sacramento Marauders - Hornet Stadium

Salt Lake City, UT (Denver Broncos) - Utah Mustangs (Rio Tinto Stadium -- Sandy, UT)

Wichita, KS (Kansas City Chiefs) - Wichita Chiefs (Cessna Stadium)

NFC

East

Albany, NY (New York Giants) - Albany Giants (Bob Ford Field)

Allentown, PA (Philadelphia Eagles) - Lehigh Valley Yellow Jackets (J. Birney Crum Stadium)

Norfolk, VA (Washington Redskins) - Virginia Renegades (Foreman Field)

Tulsa, OK (Dallas Cowboys) - Oklahoma Marshals - H.A. Chapman Stadium

North

Champaign-Urbana, IL (Chicago Bears) - Illinois Legends (Memorial Stadium)

Des Moines, IA (Minnesota Vikings) - Iowa Vikings (Drake Stadium)

Milwaukee, WI (Green Bay Packers) - Wisconsin Warthogs (Horlick Field -- Racine, WI)

Toledo, OH (Detroit Lions) - Toledo Engineers (Glass Bowl)

South

Baton Rouge, LA (New Orleans Saints) - Baton Rouge Rivermen (Ace W. Mumford Stadium)

Birmingham, AL (Atlanta Falcons) - Alabama Vulcans (Hoover Metropolitan Stadium -- Hoover, AL)

Orlando, FL (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) - Orlando Blazers (Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium)

Raleigh-Durham, NC (Carolina Panthers) - Raleigh-Durham Racers (Carter-Finley Stadium)

West

Portland, OR (Seattle Seahawks) - Portland Lumberjacks (Jeld-Wen Field)

Reno, NV (San Francisco 49ers) - Reno Miners (Mackay Stadium)

Springfield, MO (St. Louis Rams) - Springfield Rams (Plaster Sports Complex)

Tucson, AZ (Arizona Cardinals) - Tucson Copperheads (Arizona Stadium)

[The_Admiral]

Whitewater is like 50 miles southwest of Milwaukee.

[BBTV]

Princeton isn't really that close to Trenton, and they have nothing in common.

[IceCap]

There's just no room to make an NFL minor league system work. It's an idea that's dead on arrival.

[Ran815]

The league should be named NFLDL.There will be teams in non NFL cities .16 team league 2 team affiliate .EAST DIVISION : Ohio Glory ,Birmingham Bolts , Florida Tuskers , Raleigh Rhinos , Memphis Hound Dogs ,Connecticut Blizzard ,New Jersey Knights , Omaha Nighthawks. WEST DIVISION : Anaheim Piranhas , Sacramento Gold Miners, San Antonio Stampede , Utah Snowbears, Hawaii Islanders, Arizona Scorpions , Mexico City Toros , Los Angeles Avangers

[tetris1983]

Alright, take two:

NFC East: Virgina Bucks (WAS), Harrisburg Colonials (PHI), Albany Warriors (NYG), Fort Worth Outlaws (DAL)

NFC West: San Antonio Marshals (SEA), San Jose Condors (SF), Kansas Coyotes (STL), Scottsdale Vipers (ARZ)

NFC South: Birmingham Rebels (ATL), Raleigh Nighthawks (CAR), Shreveport Crawdads (NO), St. Pete Pirates (TB)

NFC North: Dakota Wolves (MIN), Kenosha Muskies (GB), Lansing Wheels (DET), Springfield Grizzlies (CHI) (or maybe Isotopes?)

AFC North: Appalachia Miners (PIT), Annapolis Owls (BAL), Kentucky Bobcats (CIN), Toledo Bulldogs (CLE)

AFC East: Atlantic City Mariners (NYJ), Bridgeport Colonials (NE), Rochester Reds (BUF), Orlando Pythons (MIA)

AFC West: Albuquerque Scorpions (KC), Aspen Mustangs (DEN), Santa Clara Sabres (OAK), Oceanside Lakers (SD)

AFC South: Evansville Colts (IND), Tallahassee Wildcats (JAX), Galveston Oilers (HOU), Chattanooga Blues (TEN)

Magnus, Dayton is closer to Cincinnati, so I'd say that Bengals' affiliate would be called the Dayton Event Horizon; also, the Browns' affiliate would be moved to my hometown of Columbus and be called the Krytpon Factors.

[pianoknight]

There's just no room to make an NFL minor league system work. It's an idea that's dead on arrival.

Agree completely. And, as others have pointed out, there are other "sister leagues" like the CFL where a guy can make their case.

I think if this idea was to catch on, the NFL could look at combining some amalgamation of the various Arena Leagues and or the UFL, which largely uses the same rules, field size, etc, as the NFL/NCAA do. There have been numerous players that have had great arena careers and then built off that skill set to have NFL success as well. Kurt Warner is obviously the poster child here, but you could make an argument for a tighter alignment between NFL and Arena.

The game is ruled and governed differently, but key skills (blocking, tackling, passing) can still be honed in the arena game. Plus, it would be different enough from NCAA football to not just come across as white noise. If Americans didn't have such a love affair with college football, then perhaps a true farm league could take off. If you took the four playoff teams (Ducks, FSU, Ohio State, Bama) and pitted them against the Buccaneers, I wouldn't be surprised if at least two of the college teams won. Or, in terms of fanbase, consider that practically every Big Ten team has a larger and more dedicated group of followers than teams like Jacksonville or Tennessee. It's easy to see why a typical D-League doesn't make sense.

[MJWalker45]

Here's my thought:

8 team league, no divisions. Everybody plays home and away. All games on Wednesdays, NFL Network or TNT/TBS. Top two teams play in the Championship game which will be during Week 17 of the NFL season at the team with the best record. Teams would need to be in the next 8 markets not currently with NFL teams, with the exception of LA. The only reason being is that eventually someone will move there and require that team to leave, no use paying to move them somewhere else. I'd suggest for cities:

Tucson, San Antonio, Sacramento, Birmingham, Orlando, Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Las Vegas. If possible I'd bring back some of the old WLAF and WFL team names.

[JackieMoon]

The NFL will never waste the time on committing to a minor league system. The NCAA suffices enough.

[Sec19Row53]

Thought I'd put out my idea for an NFL Minor League

NFL Minor League

North

Milwaukee, WI (Green Bay Packers) - Wisconsin Warthogs (Horlick Field -- Racine, WI)

I missed this 18 months ago - sorry.

Seating capacity at Historic Horlick Field is 5000.

[illwauk]

I thought Horlick was closer to 8,000.

Either way, if Miller Park can host soccer, it could host football.

[Sec19Row53]

I thought Horlick was closer to 8,000.

Either way, if Miller Park can host soccer, it could host football.

Oh, it hosts football. I expect it to have something in the neighborhood of 5000 fans on July 11 later this year when the Raiders host the Threat. That will mean people standing behind either end zone and likely temporary bleachers brought in, as well. No chance we could pack 8000 in there.

[JH42XCC]

There's just no room to make an NFL minor league system work. It's an idea that's dead on arrival.

Agree completely. And, as others have pointed out, there are other "sister leagues" like the CFL where a guy can make their case.

I think if this idea was to catch on, the NFL could look at combining some amalgamation of the various Arena Leagues and or the UFL, which largely uses the same rules, field size, etc, as the NFL/NCAA do. There have been numerous players that have had great arena careers and then built off that skill set to have NFL success as well. Kurt Warner is obviously the poster child here, but you could make an argument for a tighter alignment between NFL and Arena.

The game is ruled and governed differently, but key skills (blocking, tackling, passing) can still be honed in the arena game. Plus, it would be different enough from NCAA football to not just come across as white noise. If Americans didn't have such a love affair with college football, then perhaps a true farm league could take off. If you took the four playoff teams (Ducks, FSU, Ohio State, Bama) and pitted them against the Buccaneers, I wouldn't be surprised if at least two of the college teams won. Or, in terms of fanbase, consider that practically every Big Ten team has a larger and more dedicated group of followers than teams like Jacksonville or Tennessee. It's easy to see why a typical D-League doesn't make sense.

The NFL will never waste the time on committing to a minor league system. The NCAA suffices enough.

I see what you're saying. But what if the NFL established their own D-League and played it in the spring time (akin to the old World League of American Football/NFL Europe/Europa)?

If it did, I don't think it would be a 32-team league like the NFL (because, hypothetically, that would be bordering on overkill). Just make it an 8- to 16-team league.

Though I see that proposition is unlikely to happen either.

And while many think college football is the de facto "minor league" of the NFL, a recent New York Times article says otherwise.

So, hypothetically, if done right, an NFL D-League could work. Though I doubt that we'll be seeing one in the immediate future.

[rams80]

Careers are too short and injuries too common to justify an NFL feeder league.

[dfwabel]

There's just no room to make an NFL minor league system work. It's an idea that's dead on arrival.

Agree completely. And, as others have pointed out, there are other "sister leagues" like the CFL where a guy can make their case.

I think if this idea was to catch on, the NFL could look at combining some amalgamation of the various Arena Leagues and or the UFL, which largely uses the same rules, field size, etc, as the NFL/NCAA do. There have been numerous players that have had great arena careers and then built off that skill set to have NFL success as well. Kurt Warner is obviously the poster child here, but you could make an argument for a tighter alignment between NFL and Arena.

The game is ruled and governed differently, but key skills (blocking, tackling, passing) can still be honed in the arena game. Plus, it would be different enough from NCAA football to not just come across as white noise. If Americans didn't have such a love affair with college football, then perhaps a true farm league could take off. If you took the four playoff teams (Ducks, FSU, Ohio State, Bama) and pitted them against the Buccaneers, I wouldn't be surprised if at least two of the college teams won. Or, in terms of fanbase, consider that practically every Big Ten team has a larger and more dedicated group of followers than teams like Jacksonville or Tennessee. It's easy to see why a typical D-League doesn't make sense.

The NFL will never waste the time on committing to a minor league system. The NCAA suffices enough.

I see what you're saying. But what if the NFL established their own D-League and played it in the spring time (akin to the old World League of American Football/NFL Europe/Europa)?

If it did, I don't think it would be a 32-team league like the NFL (because, hypothetically, that would be bordering on overkill). Just make it an 8- to 16-team league.

Though I see that proposition is unlikely to happen either.

And while many think college football is the de facto "minor league" of the NFL, a recent New York Times article says otherwise.

Bill Rhoden is a sports columnist. He basically writes sports editorials and voices an opinion.

Again, nobody wants to see spare football. Crowds don't heavily attend the early NASCAR series (even while paying for them), or the D League, or web.com golf tour, or other "off-brand" sports leagues.

[BBTV]

Re: Spring D League - can't happen. With a focus on safety, there's no way a player could play a full spring season and then be asked to play for the parent club in the fall. Also, a guy having a great spring season would probably choose to shut it down so that he doesn't get hurt and risk his chance of being "called up".

As mentioned, it simply can't work unless it competes directly with NCAA (which I'd be totally fine with).

Here's how it could work:

There could be more than than 32 teams (if there's enough players that want to sign, of course). The players are signed either out of high school or college BY THE NFL ITSELF, NOT INDIVIDUAL TEAMS. There would be a scouting committee that evaluates and offers contracts to HS and freshman or sophomore college players.

The draft pool would consist of D league players and any eligible college players (since a player might choose that he actually wants to earn a degree and not simply play professionally). The D-League players would become eligible earler than college players (maybe after two seasons?) in order to encourage HSers to sign there instead of go to college and wait 3 or 4 years. Of course, being eligible doesn't mean you'll be drafted, so unless it's a total prodigy, I don't think you'll have a situation like basketball where kids that aren't ready get drafted just so teams can sit them on the bench and wait for them to grow up.

[DDR]

I don't think a Spring league makes all that much sense, either. If a developmental/supplemental league can work, I think it's gotta run concurrently with the NFL season and be a "street free agent" league, with guys who were cut from training camps and didn't land on a practice squad, being paid by the NFL (not any one team). After rosters are set, D-teams spend a week or so assembling their teams and then a couple weeks of "soft" training camp mostly to learn plays/systems. Team's offensive/defensive systems would, by design, be fairly generic "pro style" systems. The goal would be to start play in week 4 and run to the quarter pole of the NFL season, with two bye weeks mixed in to keep players as healthy and fresh as possible. So 9 weeks (NFL weeks 4 thru 12). 8 teams. 7 games. No playoffs. That's not the point of this league. The point is to keep guys in football shape should an opportunity on a main roster present itself.

Perhaps, in an increasing effort to keep players healthy and safe, the NFL could consider late-season roster expansion like MLB does. So beginning in Week 13, active rosters expand from 53 to 58, the extra 5 guys presumably coming from NFLD.

Would any this work? I have no idea.

[BBTV]

Re: Spring D League - can't happen. With a focus on safety, there's no way a player could play a full spring season and then be asked to play for the parent club in the fall. Also, a guy having a great spring season would probably choose to shut it down so that he doesn't get hurt and risk his chance of being "called up".

As mentioned, it simply can't work unless it competes directly with NCAA (which I'd be totally fine with).

Here's how it could work:

There could be more than than 32 teams (if there's enough players that want to sign, of course). The players are signed either out of high school or college BY THE NFL ITSELF, NOT INDIVIDUAL TEAMS. There would be a scouting committee that evaluates and offers contracts to HS and freshman or sophomore college players.

The draft pool would consist of D league players and any eligible college players (since a player might choose that he actually wants to earn a degree and not simply play professionally). The D-League players would become eligible earler than college players (maybe after two seasons?) in order to encourage HSers to sign there instead of go to college and wait 3 or 4 years. Of course, being eligible doesn't mean you'll be drafted, so unless it's a total prodigy, I don't think you'll have a situation like basketball where kids that aren't ready get drafted just so teams can sit them on the bench and wait for them to grow up.

I don't think a Spring league makes all that much sense, either. If a developmental/supplemental league can work, I think it's gotta run concurrently with the NFL season and be a "street free agent" league, with guys who were cut from training camps and didn't land on a practice squad, being paid by the NFL (not any one team). After rosters are set, D-teams spend a week or so assembling their teams and then a couple weeks of "soft" training camp mostly to learn plays/systems. Team's offensive/defensive systems would, by design, be fairly generic "pro style" systems. The goal would be to start play in week 4 and run to the quarter pole of the NFL season, with two bye weeks mixed in to keep players as healthy and fresh as possible. So 9 weeks (NFL weeks 4 thru 12). 8 teams. 7 games. No playoffs. That's not the point of this league. The point is to keep guys in football shape should an opportunity on a main roster present itself.

Perhaps, in an increasing effort to keep players healthy and safe, the NFL could consider late-season roster expansion like MLB does. So beginning in Week 13, active rosters expand from 53 to 58, the extra 5 guys presumably coming from NFLD.

Would any this work? I have no idea.

It will never work as a street/FA league, because the quality just won't be there. The only way I could see it being a "call up" kind of thing is if (in my scenario for example) teams could sign"call up" players who had previously been draft eligible, but went unpicked (and were therefore playing in the league as FAs), or MAYBE if teams drafted a player and just kept him in the league to get more experience (though that may not work because the teams have no affiliations and the NFL team wouldn't have a say in how their guy is used).

I really think the only way it could work is if it was no affiliations, and the players were a mix of young kids (for whom a few years in the league replaces college) who are competing to be drafted once eligible, "left overs" who were eligible but not selected and want to stay I the league in hopes of earning a FA contract, and (a few) old vets who sign so they can prove themselves again.

The lifeblood of the league would have to be what is currently D1-a college ball today. Enough of those players are smart enough to skip the charade of college and all of the "rules" so they can earn dollars legally in this D League. I think it could compete with, and eventually overtake NCAA.