(01-30-2018 03:28 PM)Hallcity Wrote: (01-30-2018 02:18 PM)ChrisLords Wrote: Even if participation in High School drops by 90%, there will still be enough for universities to give scholarships and run their programs. The talent level won't be the same but there are plenty of kids still willing to play.
Do you really think that high schools will still sponsor football teams if participation drops by 90%? The sport is kind of expensive. Don't you think that state legislatures would start banning the sport if participation drops like that? That won't happen in Texas anytime soon but I could imagine it starting to happen on the West Coast and in the Northeast in the next few years and spreading from there. And that's not even considering the very real threat that litigation will make football at all levels impossibly expensive.
Denial isn't a river in Africa.
Boxing has not gone away and is not going to and UFC is more popular than ever and it's not going away. If those sports can't be litigated out of existence, I don't see why football would. No, I don't expect legislatures to start banning the most popular sport in the history of the United States.
If there was a 90% drop off at your school, sure that high school's football would probably be dropped, but that doesn't stop the athlete that wants to play from going to a nearby school. Football magnet high schools attract the top talent in there region already. So if the more affluent schools or the smaller schools drop football there would be even more athletes to draw from.
I don't expect the national average to drop 90% maybe 20-30% and that won't effect college football except for a slight drop off in talent.
If any thing, college football is becoming more popular because of the political issues that are turning off pro fans to the NFL. I have a friend who is a lifelong Eagles fan and veteran who has not watched the NFL since the protests started and is not going to watch the Super bowl out of principle.
Litigation may be a problem but that's usually mitigated by having the participants sign a letter of consent form. If those consent forms don't hold up on court, then there might be an issue but like I said before, boxing and UFC are not going away and I don't see why football would.