How Can the UFL Succeed?

Last night there was a really interesting documentary on who was to blame for the USFL folding in the 80’s, and it got my thinking of way that the new UFL could survive and succeed like so many thought the USFL was going to. The way for the UFL to flourish is to quite frankly copy what the USFL did but don’t get too greedy too quickly.

The UFL makes it a point of saying that they are not competing directly with the NFL or College Football for that matter by airing their games on Thursday nights, the problem is that it is still going up in the fall where there is already so much football going on that it’s hard to keep up. The first suggestion is to play the games in the Spring. There’s no secret that ESPN loves football and by playing in the Spring there would be no direct competition with any other football league which in turn could give the UFL more exposure on SportsCenter and other sports outlets. The USFL was successful during this season and ESPN didn’t have the power then that it does now so the possibilities for success seem endless.

The USFL was great at generating publicity by signing the reigning Heisman winners, Herschel Walker, Mike Rozier, and Doug Flutie immediately after they won and kept them from the NFL. They were also able to sign players like Steve Young by throwing a lot of money at them. Now I don’t think the UFL has the resources to throw money out at top college players to get them to pick the UFL over the NFL but there is a rule that they could develop that would lead to a lot of publicity. The USFL was able to get Walker because there was a rule that didn’t allow juniors to enter the NFL, so Walker took the payday that the USFL offered him and became a pro football player. The NFL currently only lets 4-year Juniors and Seniors enter the NFL Draft every April, if the UFL adopts a rule that allows Freshman and Sophomores to enter their league they could really develop a fan base by signing some of the top college players who aren’t old enough to enter the NFL yet. Could you imagine the fan fare if a UFL team signed Tim Tebow the year after he won the Heisman as a sophomore? ESPN would have a crew on that team 24/7 based on how much they love Tebow.

Those are just two ideas that came to me while watching that documentary last night on ESPN, they don’t seem too crazy or out of the ordinary but I doubt they ever happen.