This is a wild idea that I came up with just now because I'm bored, and I haven't really conisdered all the results of it but wanted to get it out there. I don't ever want or think it would happen but just think... What if NFL teams drafted college players earlier or even high school players but left them in school as kind of a minor league. Maybe schools would even be affliated with teams. Players would be required to complete degrees but they would be getting paid for playing football like jobs, like every other student can have. The NFL teams would have a greater knowledge of players coming up in their systems and could develop them over time. Keep the salary cap idea, it would have to be greatly increased of course but keep the fair playing field. College football programs would become more of the responsibilty of their parent NFL teams, leaving the schools to focus on education. Or maybe there would be only 32 college affliated teams, one for each franchise and the other schools would produce players that could simply be drafted like now but the special 32 would be sole property of their parent franchise and would run schemes and plays like the NFL team and so they could grow and learn the system for four years before they even reach the NFL. I don't know, the things you think about when you are bored at work
Realistically, could LSU and the Saints enter into a pact that the Saints recommend coaches and LSU run the Saints system and the Saints have a hand in LSU's football program, not that they have a guarentee that they get all of LSU's players but they could have detailed injury reports and character insights of players. Would that even be legal, forgetting all the stuff about the Saints signing and paying the players? And if LSU's program is too sacred to touch for some of you, let's say the Saints did that with Tulane, who actually has little funding for football. I would also think it would be a big attraction for kids to go to Tulane to have a better chance to join an NFL team. They even play in the same stadium, and could share facilities and knowledge.
