Football, Minus the Pretense

When I first heard about the All American Football League, I thought we needed another football league the way we needed another Ashlee Simpson album. Then last week happened.

The start of college football’s training camp and the release of the first coaches’ poll were pancaked by headlines about Oklahoma’s star quarterback being dismissed from the team for getting paid not to work at a car dealership, a quarterback at California pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge for a bar fight, Tennessee players being charged with drunk driving and aggravated assault, two Auburn linebackers being suspended after their arrests and alcohol-related charges, four Miami players being suspended for the opening game against Florida State, a Utah State linebacker being kicked off the team for allegedly using marijuana and a USC defensive back testing positive for steroids.

It felt like a breaking point for college football. It always took some naivete to believe that college football was about students going out to represent dear old U. Now it’s impossible to watch without thinking about the game’s underside, the agents crawling around trying to get an “in” with the next top draft pick, the players defying NCAA regulations and the law and coaches bending the recruiting rules and practice guidelines.

Last week’s bad news made me revisit a story from last month that was largely overlooked. A group comprised mostly of former college sports executives -- including former NCAA president Cedric Dempsey, former Athletic Coast Conference commissioner Gene Corrigan and former UCLA athletic director Peter Dalis -- is starting the All American Football League for college graduates that will play at college stadiums in springtime, and in most cases carry the school name.

This is the right idea: Use the emotional bond created by a college but don’t pretend this is about the pursuit of higher education. If you could have eight-claps, Traveler, Script Ohio, Go Blue, Roll Tide and War Eagle without phrases such as “extra benefits” or “lack of institutional control,” you’d be on to something.

The league’s website tries to channel the school spirit by playing rah-rah marching band music, but it clearly states that this is “a for-profit, professional football league.”

“Most of the other leagues that have been attempted have felt that it was critical to be in large metropolitan areas,” said Dempsey, the All American Football League’s chairman. “This concept doesn’t have that. By going to college campuses, many times you’re not in large metropolitan areas at all. A key is that we will still have that spectator base from college.”

They’re counting on that fervor -- particularly in the Southeast, where the only sports that matter are football and spring football practice -- to bring a built-in attachment. Teams will be filled mostly by players from the local school. The most interesting twist: All players must have a college degree.

Dempsey made it clear that the league is not competing with the NCAA. It has consulted with the governing body and its schools at every step. It plans to bring revenue to the colleges by leasing their facilities during what normally will be down times, and in most cases the teams would carry the school name or nickname.

It also wouldn’t be a feeder system for the NFL. The league is “for those young people who still would like to play the game and yet have demonstrated they want to have a life after football, that gives them a good transition period,” Dempsey said.

In college football, most NCAA violations are for things that aren’t even an issue in the real world. A player rooming with the most popular player on campus whose father helps cover the rent is applauded for his fortune by most people but investigated by the NCAA.

The punishment for “extra benefits” is all because the colleges can’t make the final philosophical leap of paying athletes for performance, something that always bothered Dalis.

“Intercollegiate athletics, they worry more about somebody getting a competitive edge than anybody I’ve ever seen,” said Dalis, an AAFL board member. “It’s kind of contrary to what America is all about.”

Dalis talks of the “benign tension” between athletic departments and the universities, forced by an unnatural union that makes as much sense as a Ludacris-Billy Ray Cyrus duet.

“It’s a niche within the higher-education culture that really doesn’t have to be there,” Dalis said. “It doesn’t do anything, but in America, historically and culturally, it’s something that’s become part and parcel and associated with it. If you didn’t have intercollegiate athletics, it’s not like the universities would go away.”

The group has about $5 million of the $50 million Dempsey says it needs to get eight teams going next spring and he’s confident they will clear the financial and logistical hurdles.

Oh, and there’s one other concept the league plans to employ that would make college football less frustrating and more enjoyable: playoffs.

*

J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com. To read more by Adande, go to latimes/adandeblog.