Quote:
Originally Posted by WVRed
Here is where I see the problem for that, a kid coming out of high school who scouts would be salivating over could literally pick and choose which NFL team he wants to play for.
If that kid has an ego the size of Manhattan, he will be at Syracuse or Rutgers for three years and then off to the Jets or Giants. If its a kid on the west coast: Cal, Stanford, UCLA, and USC would dominate the talent pool and if LA ever gets a pro team, the latter two would be the top schools.
OTOH, schools like Ohio State and Michigan would be cheapened as it would mean top prospects would play for the Bengals, Browns, and Lions.
Ultimately, it would favor the bigger cities and the draft would be meaningless.
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Or look at the flipside. How do you determine which teams get which colleges? For example, Columbus is actually closer to Cincinnati than it is to Cleveland. The better college football programs in Ohio are all located toward the southwestern part of the state. I'm sure the Bengals would take issue with the Browns getting dibs on Ohio State players considering how much better the Buckeyes are compared to the rest of the programs in the state. Even if you declare the Buckeyes a dual territory team, I'm sure the Browns would cry foul at Cincinnati having UC and Miami as their additional teams while Cleveland gets Kent State and Akron, whose programs have been terrible more often than not.
Another issue would be potential fan unhappiness. I'm sure Bengals fans who are Buckeyes fans won't be happy seeing the Browns get the first choice of Buckeyes stars year after year.
The only way you could have a "homegrown" talent program in the NFL is to promote a kind of academy program similar to what the MLS has. Basically, teams have a youth academy where they identify young talent in high school and college and invite them to participate in the academy during their schools' offseason. Then, each season teams can sign a certain number of players from their academy to "homegrown" contracts. Of course the problem with doing something like that for football is that players run the risk of injury and exhaustion. Soccer is more of an endurance sport, so more play is beneficial. Football is played by exerting maximum effort in short bursts with periods of rest in between, so I don't know that year round play would be beneficial.