A pro football league that essentially bans all SEC players

I'd never heard about this league until now, even though Deadspin did a quick thing on tryouts for it in July, but apparently there's a for profit pro football league that's looking to start up next April called the All American Football League. We'll go into more detail on it here, and naturally rip it of course. The reason why it's popped up again is because there are tryouts at Ford Field on Sept. 13th. The league is pretty unique in that to compete in it you have to have received at least a 4-year college degree - with no exceptions.

The purpose of the league is to raise graduation rates for college football teams, you know, so that way we can have even more assholes out there with a Leisure Management degree. There will be six teams based in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee and Florida. One of the proposed steps is to have games held at major college universities and to have players suit up for the team hosted by their alma mater. Here it is directly from the site:

League teams will employ only those players who have both completed their college football eligibility and earned a four-year degree. This policy is expected to have a very positive impact on universities’ NCAA Graduation Success Rate and their Academic Progress Rate. To the extent practical, graduates of host universities will play for the team hosted by their alma mater.

I can't be the only who thinks Alabama might have a hard time fielding a team.

Anyway, the proposed league has many ties to the NCAA and is scheduled to run on a spring schedule so it doesn't interfere with the pro or college football seasons. Probably most notable though, is that the league says it won't skimp on the paychecks. Yearly compensation for players is supposed to be in the $100,000 range. Where exactly this money will be coming from is a huge mystery. I'm hoping bored crooked boosters. Or game-fixing gamblers. Definitely two types of people you want hanging around college campuses.

The owners of the league also seem to be a tad overconfident. On the FAQ page there's a question about why will the league be different from the USFL or the XFL. The answer:

Among other things, neither the USFL nor the XFL started out with a format designed to capitalize on an established fan base. Also, it's interesting to note that many observers feel that the USFL would have been successful if it had maintained its original spring season format.

That seems a bit presumptuous to me. The USFL and XFL were looking at the pro football fan base and were trying to grab a piece of it, which they didn't manage to do. Does the All American Football League really believe that suddenly University of Florida fans (provided the university theoretically decides to host a team) are suddenly going to be drawn to a game featuring washed up players from their school like Chris Leak and other various rejects? Yes, yes they do:

The League desires to have many players who are remembered and loved by the fans at the particular school/region, but it’s not a requirement that a player must have played for the university hosting a League team.

Well hot diggity damn, I can't see how this could fail! Yet somehow my gut doesn't agree with me. After all, I had enough of the Reggie Ball era, I really don't need to see more of it.

If you've got a four year college degree - which I'm assuming about 15% of you have - and you've got some free time, you should try out at Ford Field. Also if you want to put your name down to try out for the league at some other future date, you can do so here.

Godspeed gentlemen. I give this experiment, oh, one year. Max.

-WCK