Hard to see new football league appealing to fans or players

Set to debut in the summer of 2018, it will focus on developing players for the NFL but not be connected with the NFL officially.

Four teams are set to employee a total of 200 players who can expect to make about $50,000 in total compensation.

Here’s the kicker:

• Players can participate only in their first four years out of high school. This is an alternative to college. While the NFL still requires a draft-eligible prospect to be three years removed from his final year of high school, Pac Pro will allow players to join right out of high school, or after a year or two at a major college, junior college or whatever.

While the NFL is in need of a developmental league, and it would be nice if there was a viable alternative to college for players who just don’t want to go that route, it’s hard to see this generating enough revenue to survive.

There’s not much reason to think a large number of fans will pay attention to this at a time when NFL training camps are starting up, and it looks like a much worse overall deal than a college scholarship, which includes living expenses and a stipend, free training and promotion and of course the opportunity to earn a four-year degree along with the general benefits that affords.

The compensation in this league wouldn’t seem to be enough to entice many, if any, athletes who find the idea of college in any way tolerable and can stay eligible.

It would be great for the group that doesn’t fit that description to have another option, but it’s hard to see this succeeding as it has been proposed.

So the idea’s most likely impact is to provide one more push to the NFL to start its own supplemental league (perhaps in the spring?) to give the hundreds of players on the cusp of making its 53-man rosters another chance to develop their games and hopefully help the on-field product improve by providing more reps for young players who are good enough to make the final cuts.