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Message: [QUOTE="Art Vandelay, post: 3081512, member: 8304"] I think the American college sport system produces some incredible athletes, but there's a bunch of reasons why it can't work in Australia. 1. US College sports attract huge broadcasting deals that simply wouldn't happen here. Lower population, lack of genuine rivalries and no history. I mean we have the uni games but my understanding is that they are just a thinly veiled drunken orgy. 2. A lack of facilities. Australian universities don't have there own stadiums, and lack the space to build them. You could play in existing stadiums but that would bring us to point 3: 3. Low crowds - you'd never fill a stadium. People in Australia don't care about their alma mater, not even when attending, and the student body is largely dependent on foreign students from countries who don't play league. 4. It doesn't make sense for the athletes. Major league US sport stars get paid way more. Having even a journeyman career would set you up for life so patience pays off. In the NRL only the top 10% of players would get this, so sacrificing 20-25% of your playing career is much more of a gamble. 5. Fewer incentives to attract the best talent. A college scholarship is less of a deal with the HECS/HELP system and as this would be a new system no college would have a pedigree for giving the best chance of making it professionally. Having a university education is also more commonplace here and has a reduced impact on employability compared to the USA. 6. It doesn't make sense for the clubs. This is basically bringing back the Toyota Cup, which is a much worse facsimile for the NRL than the state comps are. 7. It deprives the players of top level coaching. US College coaches are government employees - the highest paid government employees in many states. Funding a professional coaching set-up for each team would be political suicide in Australia. 8. Most of the major universities in Australia are in major cities that already have a plethora of sports and other activities to draw in attention, fans and money. The vast majority of US colleges are outside their major cities, where the college itself is the lifeblood of the town. In some states like Iowa, Nebraska, Alabama and Mississippi their college teams are the highest level of sport in the state. 9. It's an American system. By sheer virtue of its origin you're going to have the majority of the public viscerally opposed to it. 10. This one is mostly opinion but I wanted an even ten points. Australia is not as sports-mad as we claim to be. Our national basketball and soccer leagues both completely collapsed in the last twenty years, the super rugby is anything but when it comes to tv audiences and crowds and the NRL and AFL both have half their competition based in a single city. This country is not crying out for more sport to throw money at. Our saturation point is low, and we've pretty much reached it already. [/QUOTE]

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