Gerry Dinardo suggests football kids go pro at 18

Submitted by Six Zero on

Angelique tweeted about this article, and it was a fairly interesting read.

BTN analyst (?) and New York Times contributor Gerry Dinardo discusses the climate of NCAA football, and thinks he has a solution:  Let the kids go pro at 18.  He suggests that if the NFL created a developmental (aka minor) league system, the kids who are only in it for the money would bolt for the minors, thereby cleaning up all the riff-raff eroding the college game today.

But perhaps the recent N.C.A.A. investigations into major college football programs have given us a wake-up call. If 18-year-olds could develop into professional football players in an organization other than universities, everyone would win. Athletes would not be forced to go to college to pursue an N.F.L. career, and the universities could eliminate those who did not want to be in the classroom.

He even name-drops Mary Sue, who was involved with the Knight Commission during her tenure at Iowa.  Gerry does counter himself to some degree by pointing out the obvious, that the NFL has no need to spend the massive amount of money, time and legal proceedings to develop a minor league system, because it already has a free one in place called the NCAA.

He stresses that the universities would benefit by removing all of the student athletes that are uninterested in being students.  But I think he's missing most the obvious point, which will happen at every gate on every campus this Saturday.  Removing the stud players will reduce the overall quality of the product, which will reduce demand for the product, which will reduce the financial gains of college football.

The biggest problem right now, Gerry old boy, is that regardless of whether or not the system is working, it is bringing in tectonic gobs of money.  And so forgive me if I just can't see the NCAA breaking the whole thing up on the conventional wisdom of Gerry Dinardo.

Link to Original Story on New York Times

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CRex

August 29th, 2011 at 10:35 AM ^

Why would the NFL want to pay to set up a minor league when it gets it for free currently?  Even he admits that's a problem and he doesn't answer it.  I can't see it being profitable any more than minor league baseball or hockey is profitable.  I care about Michigan ball because of my ties to Michigan.  I'm not going to go watch the Detroit Lion's farm team.  You can fill the Big House with walkons and I'll still go watch it (or enroll in grad school to get in on the action).  

Joined: 09/28/2009

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Tater

August 29th, 2011 at 10:40 AM ^

The NFL would be fools to dump money into a minor league when they already have a de facto one that is not only self-sustaining, but makes a lot of money.  Neither the NCAA nor the NFL would touch this because both would lose.  The NCAA would lose players, which are their biggest assets, and the NFL would lose money, which is their biggest asset.  

I predict that the NCAA and NFL will continue to sit on their assets.

Joined: 08/13/2008

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Waters Demos

August 29th, 2011 at 10:44 AM ^

"You can fill the Big House with walkons and I'll still go watch it (or enroll in grad school to get in on the action)."

This is my thing too - the "quality of the product" would obviously go down.  But at least you'd know that these were unqualifiedly students of the school who were admitted under ordinary procedures, instead of mercenaries.  Unfortunately, money will always prevail. 

Joined: 08/19/2010

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JohnnyBlue

August 29th, 2011 at 10:37 AM ^

I don't think with the way rosters are setup in the NFL that this would work.  besides a few skill positions where an exceptional guy could maybe step in after a year of "seasoning" most spots really need 3 years of strength and conditioning alone to be able to play in the NFL even in a backup role.  I don't think teams would consider taking a chance on a HS senior

Joined: 01/18/2011

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gmoney41

August 29th, 2011 at 10:40 AM ^

Creating a minor league system would be the only way it would work,  No 18 yr old should be playing in the NFL, they would get killed.  On the other side, I think this would destroy the quality of College Football.  No one gives a rats ass about college baseball, because of the minor leagues.  College Basketball has been hurt kids bolting to the NBA or Europe. 

The only benifit I see to minor league football would be to get the rif raf out of college football, but the college game would suffer because of it.

Joined: 07/13/2009

MGoPoints: 3938

ijohnb

August 29th, 2011 at 10:45 AM ^

has gone and gotten to big for its own good.

This (pro at 18) is not the answer.  In fact, there is no answer, but that does not mean there is not a problem.

The NCAA has one option.  Stall.  See if the excitement of the product on the field makes people forget about what is going on off the field.  Possibly the shit storm will go away.

Joined: 09/21/2009

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jg2112

August 29th, 2011 at 10:53 AM ^

People wouldn't pay too much attention to a minor league football system, and they'd have no allegiance to any team. Why would I root for Denard or Mike Martin if they were playing in some backwoods place like Wyoming?

Also, then these dudes don't get college degrees.

Finally, college football would be terrible, and athletic departments wouldn't be able to support other programs because the networks wouldn't pay for it. As a result, other sports would get hurt or Hoke'd (cut).

Decent idea, but unworkable.

Joined: 11/24/2008

MGoPoints: 9925

WolvinLA2

August 29th, 2011 at 10:57 AM ^

I'm cool with kids going pro whenever they want.  They wouldn't all go at 18, but some would go at 19 ro 20, earlier than they can now.  If they don't want to be in college, let them go pro.  If they're not good enough, it's their fault.  However, most of the guys who will go will be studs who would at least get a spot on a practice squad for a year or two before they're NFL ready.  And for guys like Adrian Petersen or Patrick Peterson or Calvin Johnson who were NFL ready before the three years they had to wait, they win and so does the NFL.  That way, if AJ Green is pissed he can't sell his jersey for money, he can just go pro and sell his jersey for whatever he wants.

I also don't think it would hurt the college product.  In any given year, there would be 50 kids spread out over every team that would be in the league instead of the NCAA.  That's not even one kid for every BCS conference team.  The product won't be that much lower. 

Joined: 11/13/2009

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maizenbluenc

August 29th, 2011 at 11:16 AM ^

all stud players would bolt to an NFL farm team, versus getting a college education and playing in the national spotlight?

While I don't like how you can go one and done in basketball, I think football coaches sell a little bit of their soul (not to mention add significant risk to their jobs) every time they pick up a stud who's sole objective is to make millions int he NFL, and could care less about college.

I am thinking for at least some of the stud players, this represents the first opportunity for a member of their family to go to college, and that is a big deal. Then there are the ones that you know, actually want to go to college. And finally there are the ones that may need the national exposure college football provides to get on the NFL radar.

I don't buy the argument. I think college football would still have stars like Desmond and Denard, while maybe avoiding many of the Pryor's out there.

As scary as it sounds, I happen to agree with Dinardo. I don't see it happening though.

Joined: 07/21/2009

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MilkSteak

August 29th, 2011 at 11:23 AM ^

The thing about a farm league is that for every guy that gets into the bigs, there's going to be 5 or 10 that don't. At least with the current system kids who aren't NFL type players leave the system with a degree in hand and doors open for careers. A farm league would just kick them out on the street with nothing. 

Joined: 04/18/2011

MGoPoints: 3070

bluebyyou

August 29th, 2011 at 11:37 AM ^

I can think of a couple of reasons why this might not work, even beyond the money.

Some kids actually want to get an education, as strange as that may sound.  If you get messed up physically, which happens, and an NFL career is not in the works, you have something to fall back on.  Four years in college, although hard work for serious student athletes, is also a lot of fun.

While the NFL has lots of moolah, having the quality facilities found at the better college programs, along with the high quality coaching, S & C people, etc. etc. would cost a fortune.  Many players need years of physical development before they are ready for the NFL.  Does the NFL want to pay for those years with no guarantees? 

Would you rather play your games in some scrubby stadium in front of a thousand people, or at the Big House?

I like things the way they are.  If you want to fix things, give the NCAA  some form of long arm statues where players always have to respond to their questioning and have penalties run over to the NFL, as was done with Pryor.

Joined: 09/07/2009

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Seth

August 29th, 2011 at 11:40 AM ^

The "why can't they go pro" concept has a value problem. Take Terrelle Pryor as an exempli gratia of a player who at 18 knows he wants to be a pro football player and doesn't really want to get a college degree. There's a valuation problem: his value as a quarterback at Ohio State is far higher than the value to him of the education Ohio State is supplying in return. However, if he's not the quarterback at Ohio State, his value is way, way, way lower. Now it's just projected value as a quarterback or receiver in the NFL.

To parse, few people give two shits about 18-year-old Terrelle Pryor, starting Flanker for the Scranton-Wilkes Barre Bulldogs. That is, unless the NFL allows the Eagles to draft an 18-year-old and put him on their AAA affiliate Bulldogs for development. Even then Pryor's not going to be paid just for his personal future value to the Eagles, because his valuation needs to also account for all the Eagles' minor leagues who don't ever make it to Philadelphia.

NCAA Football's cachet is actually responsible for the majority of a college player's apparent value. It earns that cachet in part by having its players take a lifestyle that is similar to that of their audience, the same kind of fandom that baseball lost when its players were no longer living in the same row houses as their fans.

The option to go pro at 18 rather than play college football is available. There are plenty of semi-pro leagues out there that would make 18-year-old Pryor their highest paid player. The thing is the market has established developmental leagues as low value. The NFL isn't interested in paying for player development, and fans arent' interested in a sub-pro league that's basically college ball without the pageantry, tradition, huge stadia, good cause support ($$$ going to universities, education, local charities), and player accessibility/likeability.

NCAA could do with giving more of the takings to the players. However it's not the cabal of rich fat cats in fancy rooms who represent the main hurdle for a developmental league; it's the highly questionable financial viability of a developmental league.

Joined: 10/14/2008

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Tha Quiet Storm

August 29th, 2011 at 12:14 PM ^

John U. Bacon talked about this on WTKA a couple weeks ago, after the Miami scandal broke.  He really convinced me that minor leagues for the NBA and NFL would be a good thing:

-Guys who aren't cut out for college and who colleges don't want as students (such as Willie Williams, Demar Dorsey, Marques Slocum, etc.) can use their talents to pursue professional careers, just as any other H.S. graduate has the freedom to do.  i.e. someone shouldn't be forced to go to college for a job that doesn't require a college degree.

-Some elite athletes would obviously choose to go pro right away rather than go to school, but people aren't going to Michigan Stadium/The Swamp/DKR to see the best athletes, they are going because they love their school.  If we only cared about watching the top players play, we would all be watching the NFL and ignoring CFB.

-Relating to the last point, college hockey and baseball have minor leagues to compete with.   Has anyone here stopped being a fan of Michigan hockey and going to Yost simply because some of their recruits choose to go pro from time to time?  The team on the ice might be better with some of those guys, but as long as everyone is on the same level playing field, does it really matter?

-The obvious main obstacle is money - the NFL and NBA don't want to spend money on minor league systems when they've always had a stream of players for free. 

I'd really like to see some kind of minor league system formed because I think it would greatly benefit a lot of guys who are athletically gifted but just may not be cut out for post-secondary education, and because I think it would help clean college FB and BB up.  Granted, hockey and baseball aren't the same type of revenue generators that FB and BB are, but off the top of your head, can you think of a major college hockey or baseball scandal in the last 10-20 years?

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