The XFL won’t compete with the NFL for players, but the league could still gain high-end talent by not being obligated to follow the NFL’s draft-eligibility rules, CEO Oliver Luck told ESPN’s Outside the Lines (Tweet by ESPN’s Kevin Seifert). 
The NFL’s draft rules are well known, as any player who wants to put his name in the pool must be at least three years removed from high school. By not adhering to the long-held practice, the upstart league could be an option for any notable freshman or true sophomore who doesn’t want to wait.
It’s hard to fathom a top quarterback testing the waters, but a high-profile running back trying it out to make the most out of a relatively short professional shelf life is much more feasible. It will definitely be an interesting caveat to watch in the coming years.
In more XFL news, WWE chairman Vince McMahon sold more than three million shares of WWE stock in March with the intention to use the proceeds to fund the new football league, Sports Illustrated’s Dan Gartland writes. The sale netted McMahon just under $272MM.
Obviously, with that type of investment, McMahon is not worried about the failures of the AAF, which recently suspended operations. In response to the league’s folding, the XFL issued a statement (Via Pro Football Talk):
“We have said all along the success or failure of other leagues will have no impact on our ability to deliver high-quality, fast-paced, professional football,” the league owned and operating by Vince McMahon said, via Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Journal. “The XFL is well-funded, we have time before kick-off to execute our business plan, and we will soon announce a national broadcast and cable TV schedule that makes it easy for fans to find our games consistently every weekend when we launch next February. There is no doubt that avid football fans want more and we’re excited to get going in 2020.”
People don’t get that the NCAA is the farm league for the NFL. Free of cost for player development. No one paid attention to the Europe league, the AAF, or XFL for the first time. That’s why 3 went bust and the XFL will again next year.
bingo
Not entirely sure about that. If the XFL pulls some high-end talent from draft ineligible players, then they could be successful.
As long as the XFL plays during NFL offseason, and works out something with Draft Kings/Fan Dual, then they could survive for at least a few seasons.
The USFL pulled high end talent and ended up w/ a $1 settlement.
There’s a Robert Kraft joke in here somewhere.
Something about a hand full of rings I’m sure…
The USFL thought they could compete with the NFL, they obviously couldn’t. This league has no desire to go that route, they just want to be a feeder for the big boys, there could be a place for one of these leagues to take off if run properly. Every other sport has minor leagues here and foreign pro leagues to keep going. football practically has nothing and every season there are fringe players that are oh so close to making it but hit a numbers crunch and then go away never to be heard from.
There’s a difference between these other feeder leagues and the XFL. The other leagues are owned by the big league franchises so they move players back and forth. The only sports with strong college games, football and basketball, will not have successful minor leagues until they are able to pull high school talent. If your getting the guys fresh out of high school and paying them to play they have a chance. If they just try to pull washed up nfl guys they will follow the AAF down the crapper.
I mean did you watch Hackenberg…
The NCAA is the main minor league, and the CFL is an option. A feeder league might be able to work, but none of the minor leagues in the other sports survive without major league subsidies, and the NFL just hasn’t been convinced they need to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into such a venture with college football meeting most of its needs.
On the other hand, the fact that the NBA is now subsidizing a minor league is an interesting development.
That’s because Donald Trump was able to convince some of the other idiot owners to move the season from the Spring to the Fall and then sue the NFL to try to force a merger. It might have survived as a Spring league, although player costs would have probably eventually run up against the smaller Spring audience for football and forced them to either reduce spending or try a more friendly major.
See “How Donald Trump Destroyed a Football League” at link to esquire.com
The only way any league survives is to have a huge TV contract signed !
LOL
What people don’t get that?
Oliver Luck is the XFL CEO? Vince has someone who knows what they’re doing, at least.
“It will definitely be an interesting caveat to watch in the coming years.”
Years??
I think I will be cutting the cord before the XFL starts up. The substandard NFL product of late isn’t even worth my time, let alone the high cost of my satellite subscription — because of the ever rising prices to cover the TV rights to the games. Time to watch on a cheaper streaming service…
Yea… the NFL games, which require no satellite subscription to view, are the reason your satellite bill is high.
Well said.
Not just satellite packages, and not just football. You’re a true moron if you don’t realize that all of the sports league’s TV contracts are the biggest reasons the cable & satellite prices are so high. Maybe you still live in your parent’s basement. Next time you cry because your Mommy buys an off-brand name of a food you like, she can explain to you that she couldn’t afford little Justin’s favorite name-brand because they jacked the price up at the supermarket – all because that product was featured in a 30 second spot during a game of the aforementioned sporting leagues.
Marcus Lattimore. Rawleigh Williams III. Darius White. Few guys that may have wished they could have come out early and banked on their success as Freshman/Sophs.
I’m not sure how Vince McMahon figures that raiding the college ranks for freshman and sophomores is going to be a positive public relations move but I still think he would be a better NFL commissioner than Goodell.
You don’t get how better players will make for a more entertaining football league?
Or you don’t get how people will forgive the league for offering jobs to guys colleges thought they could force to play for free?
Forced to play for free? The free education worked for so many over the years. The facilities and things available to student-athletes is incredible at the big schools, locker rooms, club rooms, training table, weight rooms, tutors, educational training centers, travel etc…something these kids would never see elsewhere.
Players who are going into a professional sports league aren’t there to get an education. Take Zion Williamson for example. He’s going to be a one and done player. He can’t finish his degree in 1 year. But in that 1 year he brings in millions in revenue that he will never touch. On top of that, he can’t sign any endorsements to make any of his own money. You can’t not pay these players or give them the opportunity to make money when you’re a multibillion dollar organization and the student athletes ARE the product and the reason you’re making money in the first place. It’s unpaid labor in exchange for room, board, and maybe food? Not fair at all
Nothing like picking the 1% of the 1% to make a case. Thousands go to college every year, very few make it to that next level.
Why force the players who have talent play in a system where they are used as cheap labor. Let the schools play using players who only want to have a degree and have zero desire to play professional sports at all. Of course that wouldn’t bring in billions of dollars. Stop smoking the drugs that the NCAA and the 1% are feeding you.
These student/athletes who are on full scholarships can’t even work to make extra money while they’re sports are in season! That’s insane
Not too mention the billions of dollars they bring in while not being allowed to make additional money or capitalize on their pictures and names being used as marketing. Or being kicked out of school because their knee blew out.
I bet they’d prefer a full fridge and an apartment over anything a college provides.
They’re athletes, not lawyers.
A free education was one thing when coaches were making a middle class salary, but when “student athletes” see coaches making millions of dollars per year, and coaches and schools raking in millions of dollars from sneaker and sponsor deals, and schools divvying up tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in TV deals, suddenly that free education doesn’t seem to be nearly enough compensation.
And they’re right. Their LABOR is the foundation on which the whole system rests, and their compensation pales in comparison to the coaches, the administrators, the conference officials and media figures who rake off 99.9% of the cream before the workers get jack. Add in the little indignities like not even getting a salary comparable to a work study job, and you’ve got a system that is inherently unjust and unstable.
Seems like more unnecessary garbage that is bound to fail. What a pathetic waste of money…..
Let me know when you own a professional sports league…
To all the people saying this league will fail, you just don’t get it…
Their terrible football players that no one has ever heard of or cares about will stand for the anthem before the games.
So, they have a business plan.
LOL!!!