Minor league football (gridiron)

Minor League Football
SportGridiron football
No. of teamsVaries
CountriesUnited States and Mexico
TV partner(s)
Related
competitions
UFL, LFA, GDFL, RPFL and Indoor football leagues

Minor league football, also known as alternative football or secondary football, is an umbrella term for professional gridiron football that is played below the major league level.

The National Football League and Canadian Football League are both designated as major leagues, but contrary to the four other major sports leagues in North America—Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League—no formal development farm system was in use after the NFL severed ties with all minor league teams in 1948.[1][2][3] The developmental league concept was shuttered again with the cancellation of NFL Europe in 2006.[4]

Since 2018, the CFL has had a partnership agreement with the Professional American Football League of Mexico (LFA) for player development,[5] but does not consider it a minor league in the traditional sense.[6] In 2023, the NFL signed a collaboration agreement with the XFL on rules, equipment, and safety testing, but the agreement does not cover sharing players for developmental purposes.[7]

There have been professional football leagues of varying levels since the invention of the sport, and over the years there have been attempts to organize development or farm leagues such as the Association of Professional Football Leagues[8][9][10] and the World League of American Football, later known as NFL Europe and then NFL Europa, but they failed to produce profits and were eventually shut down.[11] As a result, over time the North American leagues settled into an informal hierarchy, with many aspiring entrepreneurs trying to establish rival, alternative, or supplemental leagues to the NFL, similar to baseball's independent leagues. Apart from the All-America Football Conference and the American Football League, which merged with the NFL, none of the other leagues have succeeded,[12] particularly because the leagues' inability to generate television revenue to keep them afloat in their first years of existence.[13][14]

In modern times, the NFL has developed players not ready for the active roster through each team's practice squad, or relied on college football[15][16][17][18] and separate entities like the now-defunct Arena Football League[19][20][21] as their feeder organizations. Since the beginning of the 21st century, three fledgling pro football leagues—the United Football League,[22] the Fall Experimental Football League[23][24] and the Alliance of American Football (AAF)[25][26]—had hoped to create a relationship with the NFL as developmental minor leagues, but all folded without any such connection being made. Nevertheless, some players did find a path to the NFL through those leagues, especially the high-level ones like the AAF, XFL, and United States Football League (USFL).[27]

Currently, there are four active minor leagues in North America: the United Football League (UFL), the Gridiron Developmental Football League, the Rivals Professional Football League, and the Liga de Fútbol Americano Profesional, with the latter the only Mexican league. The UFL is considered a high-level league, and the rest are viewed as low-level leagues.

  1. ^ "The AAF Failed Because All Minor League Football Does". The Ringer. April 4, 2019.
  2. ^ "FOOTBALL PACT ENDED; Bell Reveals That N.F.L. and American Loop Have Parted". New York Times. February 10, 1948.
  3. ^ Surdam, David George. The Big Leagues Go to Washington: Congress and Sports Antitrust, 1951–1989, p. 95. The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, 2015. ISBN 9780252039140. "At January 1948 meeting, Bell stated that, "the NFL agreement with minor league affiliates meant very little to the NFL...he would agree to any request for cancellation of our agreement with our minor league affiliates."
  4. ^ "NFL Europa failed to produce players, profits". ESPN. June 29, 2007.
  5. ^ "Future promising for growing Mexican LFA league". 27 February 2020.
  6. ^ "CFL holds combine in Mexico City in effort to grow football worldwide".
  7. ^ "What is the agreement between the NFL and XFL?". AS.com [en]. February 17, 2023.
  8. ^ Gill, Bob (November 1, 1989). "All for One… The Minor Leagues' "Big Three" Make History in 1946" (PDF). The Coffin Corner.
  9. ^ Gill, Bob (December 1, 1990). "Nothing minor about it: The American Association/AFL of 1936–50" (PDF). The Coffin Corner.
  10. ^ "3 Top Minor Football Leagues In Alliance to Combat 'Jumping'; Pacific Coast, American and Dixie Circuits to Ask N.F.L. to Join – Plan Protection of Clubs' Territorial Rights" – New York Times, 24 March 1946
  11. ^ "10 years after NFL Europe's demise, alumni remember league fondly". ESPN. June 23, 2017.
  12. ^ "UFL: A major challenge to stay minor". ESPN. April 27, 2009.
  13. ^ "Professional Sports Antitrust Bill (1965): Hearings Before the Subcommittee". Washington, U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1965. February 24, 1965.
  14. ^ "To Avoid AAF's Fate, XFL Must Have a Better TV Deal". InsideHook.com.
  15. ^ "NFL needs a developmental league and rebooting the XFL is the perfect fit to improve league diversity, depth". CBSSports.com. 27 May 2020.
  16. ^ Russo, Ralph D. (August 10, 2019). "NFL at 100: How college football became the pipeline to NFL". AP. Retrieved August 10, 2019.
  17. ^ "The real reason college football players don't get paid". CNBC. August 23, 2019.
  18. ^ Kacsmar, Scott. "Where Does NFL Talent Come From?". Bleacher Report.
  19. ^ Jozsa, Frank P. (November 28, 2017). Sports Capitalism: The Foreign Business of American Professional Leagues. Routledge. ISBN 9781351148627 – via Google Books.
  20. ^ Chiari, Mike (November 27, 2019). "Arena Football League Files for Bankruptcy, Will Cease Operations". Bleacher Report.
  21. ^ Phillips, Gary. "Arena Football League Closes Shop After 30-Plus Years". Forbes.
  22. ^ Writes, Tobi. "Is The UFL "The Mirror Of Erised" For Frustrated Pro Football Fans?". Bleacher Report.
  23. ^ Clayton, John (December 23, 2016). "Spring league kicking off 4-team, 3-week development plan in April". ABC News. Retrieved August 30, 2017.
  24. ^ Seifert, Kevin (October 8, 2014). "Inside slant: FXFL set to debut, ready or not". ESPN.com. ESPN. Retrieved October 8, 2014.
  25. ^ "AAF co-founder Bill Polian suggests startup could be legitimate minor league for NFL". sports.yahoo.com. 7 March 2019.
  26. ^ Smith, Michael David (April 3, 2019). "AAF executives thought there was a 2–3 year plan to be an NFL minor league".
  27. ^ "Pro Football Players Reaping The Benefits Of The XFL And USFL". xflnewshub.com. February 12, 2023.