How much would the NFL pay? Right now there are about 625 colleges and universities that have football teams. Obviously most of them do not produce NFL caliber talent, but occasionally tiny no-name schools send a person to the NFL. So believe me, the NFL pays attention to *everything*. How many teams would the NFL have in their minor league system, do you think? The more teams, the more players, the more expensive it is for each franchise. If you're just going to have, say, two minor league teams per NFL franchise, you're still going to have college football be a *major* thing, and the problems do not go away. In order for the current, broken, system to go away, you'd need to have a TON of minor league teams. How much would each guy make? In baseball, here's the rough pay scale (per month...figure about 5 months...they don't get paid during spring training or in the off-season):
Level 1st Year 2nd Year 3rd Year
Rookie $1150 $1200 $1250
Short Season A $1150 $1200 $1250
Low A $1300 $1350 $1400
High A $1500 $1550 $1600
Double A $1700 $1800 $1900
Triple A $2150 $2400 $2700
The average out-of-state costs for Alabama is about $20,000. So if you are a star, you might move up to Triple A right away out of high school, and you could make, what, $13,000 about? You have to find and pay for your own housing and food, etc. And you have to figure out what you're gonna do to make $$ the rest of the year.
If you go to Alabama, your food, clothing, housing, tuition, gear, you name it, is covered. You stay in the nicest dorms and get state-of-the-art facilities. You are big men on campus. You are taken care of year-round and don't have to figure out what to do with yourself for the other six months of the year. You are stars at Alabama...you are not stars in the minor leagues.
Tell me why a kid would choose the minor leagues instead of Alabama, given these facts? Some might, but most won't, unless you pay them a LOT.
It wouldn't work.