4 The Daily Tar Heel Football 82-83
By R.L BYNUM
Staff Writer
Spring football is nothing new. Up until
now, it has meant those off-season practices
of college football programs, capped by a
single-intra-squad game.
But this spring, a group of adventurous
businessmen will launch a professional
league that will play football during the
unseasonable March to June period.
The; United States Football League won't
have to compete for gate receipts with the
well-established NFL like the ill-fated World
Football League did. Without that burden,
football junkies who can now feast on 11
months of football should be;able to support
the 12 USFL franchises. Their' only competi
tion will be basketball and baseball.
As the story seems to be in all sports.
television will be the stabilizing force of the
leaguer Before it even signed its first player,
the USFL had put together a lucrative con
tract with ABC and ESPN (which is owned by
the league's commissioner, Chet Simmons).
ABC will pay $20 million over two years
for a Sunday game-of-the-week, while ESPN
will telecast live games every Sunday and
Saturday at a biannual cost of between
$14-16 million.
Further legitimizing the league are the
proven winners that it whisked from the
NFL's coaching fraternity. Successful
coaches wooed by the challenge of molding
their own teams have gained some measure
of success for the league. Among them are:
George Allen (Chicago), Chuck Fairbanks
(New Jersey), Red Miller (Denver) and John
Ralston (Bay Area).
The USFL is a hot subject with some col
lege coaches, particularly Michigan Coach
Bo Schembechler, because of its initial no
tion of holding a college draft in the middle
of December. Schembechler threatened to
bar USFL scouts and coaches from
Wolverine practices If the idea was carried
out.
Commissioner Simmons cooled the issue
by moving the draft to January 4V allowing
, every college team to first finish its season.
: Schembechler, who hasn't offered many
kind words about the league, still -believes
that the legue will lull his seniors away from
their final semesters and their degrees. It
should be a concern for him, considering a
recent study in Sports Illustrated revealed
that more than 40 percent of the Wolverines
in the NFL didn't graduate.
The league has, in- theory, N covered
themselves on that issue also. Public Rela
tions Director Lorraine Ragusbo said"" that
each franchise will "encourage its players to
finish (school) during the (USFL's) off-season.
"We will be providing a college incentive
program where we will help with expenses,"
she said. "Upon completion of the degree,
there is talk of naming scholarships after the
players at their former colleges."
Ragusbo said the USFL would only sign
players after they have completed their four
years of college eligibility, even if a student
athlete is able to finish his academic load.
Thus, if a player is red-shirted for one season
and is an academic senior, the USFL will not
sign him until he either plays or decides to
bypass his extra season of eligibility.
. Although the league has signed a handful
of NFL and Canadian Football League
veterans like quarterback Greg Landry, the
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