Future of Football in America and potential impact on College football

[kameltoez102]

Was reading some news this morning and there was a story about a team in New Jersey that was cutting their football program. I currently coach my son's 5th grade team and have coached for the past few seasons here in the twin cities. The association that we belong to and our associated conference has seen a pretty big decrease in enrollment numbers with most teams in our league going to only one team this year as compared to two to three per city age group the prior year. The interesting thing is that flag football in some recreational leagues have huge numbers (in the several hundreds).

There are obviously many factors as to why that is happening and I don't want to get into that at this point. My main question is with the smaller numbers playing tackle football do you feel that the kids that are really committed and enjoy the game will be able to sustain the college football ranks with high quality players or will the amount of players and their talent levels get diluted down where the overall product of college football will be lessened. What I foresee is ultimately the smaller colleges will feel the impact as the big schools will be offering scholarships to the kids that in today's football may not have gotten a chance.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

Was reading some news this morning and there was a story about a team in New Jersey that was cutting their football program. I currently coach my son's 5th grade team and have coached for the past few seasons here in the twin cities. The association that we belong to and our associated conference has seen a pretty big decrease in enrollment numbers with most teams in our league going to only one team this year as compared to two to three per city age group the prior year. The interesting thing is that flag football in some recreational leagues have huge numbers (in the several hundreds).

There are obviously many factors as to why that is happening and I don't want to get into that at this point. My main question is with the smaller numbers playing tackle football do you feel that the kids that are really committed and enjoy the game will be able to sustain the college football ranks with high quality players or will the amount of players and their talent levels get diluted down where the overall product of college football will be lessened. What I foresee is ultimately the smaller colleges will feel the impact as the big schools will be offering scholarships to the kids that in today's football may not have gotten a chance.

Don't be surprised if, down the road, we see more players from overseas/beyond our borders...

 

[MelroseHawkins]

Was reading some news this morning and there was a story about a team in New Jersey that was cutting their football program. I currently coach my son's 5th grade team and have coached for the past few seasons here in the twin cities. The association that we belong to and our associated conference has seen a pretty big decrease in enrollment numbers with most teams in our league going to only one team this year as compared to two to three per city age group the prior year. The interesting thing is that flag football in some recreational leagues have huge numbers (in the several hundreds).

There are obviously many factors as to why that is happening and I don't want to get into that at this point. My main question is with the smaller numbers playing tackle football do you feel that the kids that are really committed and enjoy the game will be able to sustain the college football ranks with high quality players or will the amount of players and their talent levels get diluted down where the overall product of college football will be lessened. What I foresee is ultimately the smaller colleges will feel the impact as the big schools will be offering scholarships to the kids that in today's football may not have gotten a chance.

I see the talent diminishing a bit in the future. I read an article a while back that was comparing concussion rates with tackle vs flag football. That article noted more injuries and concussions in flag football than in tackle. I also have twin boys in 5th grade just starting their football season and actually had their first practice last night. But, opposite of you, they are playing "flag football" for one more year. Next year they along with a handful of friends will move on to tackle.

I am definitely going to tell them to always protect their heads and reinforce techniques to protect.