College Football

[CC]

Has this Clarett ruling ruined college football?
Depriving the NFL of its "farm system" can't do any good for the NFL or for the NCAA.
In comparison, I love watching college basketball, but would college basketball not be more enjoyable if Lebron and Carmelo and countless others were still in it.
I don't want the NFL Draft to end up like the NBA Draft because of one selfish kid.

[Canacuna]

I agree that it's bad for the quality of the NFL. Football players need that additional training in college because at every level the skill of the competition increases dramatically (HS-College-Pro).

I read that the entire NFL had agreed to not draft anyone who wins a case like Clarett's, although that's probably just another crazy NFL conspiracy making its rounds.

[TTTBone]

Okay, I was about to start a new thread on this, but noticed there are already too many. My thoughts: It looks bad, I mean, this is not MLB or the NBA, it's obvious the vast majority of these kids are simply not ready for the NFL. Hell, half the first rounders are already not ready for the NFL.
However, what I was going to start my new thread about was the future of NFL Europe. NFLE has already developed into a pretty credible NFL farm system, and I think teams would be willing to take some chances on young talent, and allow them to develop in the NFLE "farm-system". I don't neccesarily think this is a bad thing (okay maybe for college ball it is). Still, I think for the most part it would operate more like MLB, where very few of the really young guys can actually make the immediate jump to the majors, and would have to work their way up through the ranks; and a lot of these young talented players may be better served to develop in a system which greater challenges their talents and skills, rather than through playing college ball.
That being said, I still don't like the ruling, it will cause too many unproven players to forego their educational opportunities to chase the dream of NFL glory, and ultimately leave far too many of them high and dry.

[Canacuna]

...Maybe start a draft for those without the three years of post high school that would send them to Europe to make very little money and to develop their skills, rather than have them enter the NFL and degrade the quality of the league? Sounds better than allowing for something like what is happening with the NBA. I don't want "projects" like Maurice Clarett coming out every year (although hopefully he'll stay in school).

[KingGhidra]

I think the amount of younger players who would actually succeed in the NFL would deter most of them from declaring too early. I think the majority of them will stick with the norm of 3-4 seasons of playing time before they make the jump.

I also agree with TTTbone with NFL Europe developing into a farm type system. The only real problem is NFL Europe starts 3 weeks before the NFL draft. They'd have to either move the draft up, move the season back, or a combination of the two.

[moochman]

I don't think it will have as big as an impact on football that it has on basketball. The physical presence in football demands a physical maturity that most players don't have in high school. If the ruling stands and the NFL doesn't find a loophole to keep inhibit player freedom, the NCAA should smell the roses and stop pretending that these are student-athletes. Those that are-great, those that aren't-give them an education in a football related future.