I recently rewatched the 30 for 30 ESPN documentary on the former United States Football League that played spring American football from 1983 to 1986. The league became very well known for its fun, exciting play and many notable players like Jim Kelly, Herschel Walker, Doug Flutie and Steve Young. Now today it would be inconceivable that college players who wanted to be professional football stars would go anywhere else but the NFL, but what if it wasn’t?

Now hear me out. I know that there have been other leagues after the USFL that did not work out like the XFL, the UFL and even the CFL tried their hands at American expansion and it failed.

But I do think in a time period where NFL ratings have declined a tad, and college players are constantly always bringing about the idea of how much they do not like the mixture of football and school, it begs the question 'Could there be another league that could compete or at least be an alternative to the NFL today?'

To create this opportunity, this league would have to learn from leagues of the past and have owners who have money, but also have structure and organization, which the USFL and XFL lacked.

If this league did have money, I do believe that in addition to playing in the spring the one thing the league could do is allow college players to come out after two years out of high school. Similar to how the USFL signed players out after three years in college.

It is plausible that just like back in 1983 when Herschel Walker signed with the New Jersey Generals, that college stars who did not want to wait a year to be draft eligible and risk injury could sign with this league and turn professional?

Just imagine Jameis Winston and Jadveon Clowney not having to wait an extra year after their breakout seasons and turning professional immediately. This year included we also see names like Josh Rosen or Saquon Barkley, who no doubtly would have been first round draft picks last year if they didn't have to wait because of the NFL rules.

Signing players like that would immediately give a new league credibility and give this league the star power that the XFL lacked.

This is just theoretical thinking and it would simply take the right people, with the right minds, money and gull to attempt such a league.

One worry that I would also have about this league is its ability to get on television. Without television it would falter, and what has changed since the 1980’s is that the NFL is much more spread out on several networks compared to then. So naturally getting on a TV network that is in plenty of homes may not be as easy.

At the end of the day if there is anything I've learned about business is that competition is good for it. It makes businesses go above and beyond to do make their customers happy and that is the most important thing in the end.