Go West Young Man - That's Where The Money And Opportunity Are

I HAVE long been fascinated by North American sport, not so-much the actual playing of games such as American Football, Baseball, Basketball and Ice Hockey – the big four sports across the pond, but, rather in the way their sports are organised.

The 2017 Crimson Tide, the University of Alabama American Football squad

Coming as I do from a former mining area, I have long been acquainted with the belief that boxing and football were the best routes out of the pits for locals. Well, in the USA, being good at one of the big four sports is the quickest way out of the ghetto. Although I should perhaps modify that statement slightly, ice hockey squads at the professional level continue to be largely-populated by Canadians.

I have a BT TV subscription, which has given me access to the wonderful ESPN Sports films – in particular their 30 for 30 series. How I wish we could get similarly high-quality sports documentaries over here – although to be fair, BT is starting to produce some quality stuff.

Any way, a recurring theme in these films is how prowess in American football, baseball or basketball is often the difference, particularly for young blacks, between joining a local gang, getting into drugs and being dead or in prison by your mid-twenties, and getting a college education; then either a good job, or, for the very-good, very-dedicated and extremely-lucky, being one of that elite few who make it to the ranks of professional sportsmen (and women) at the end of their college courses.

Those who make it to the pros are the lucky ones, however, to re-hash an old Gary Player line, getting to the pros is often a case of: “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”

College sports in the USA is a multi-billion dollar industry, overseen – for better or worse – by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the NCAA.

The NCAA, which has its headquarters in Indianapolis, looks after 480,000 student athletes, at 1268 colleges, playing a variety of sports. But, when it comes to players likely to advance to the pros, they play mainly for the 299 Division 1 schools which play baseball, the 347 Division 1 schools which play basketball and the 251 Division 1 schools which play American Football in their local conferences such as: The Ivy League, the Big 10, the Pac12 and the South East Conference.

The goal for these student-athletes is a professional career, but, the odds are slim indeed. Only 224 American Footballers will be drafted each season, attempting to fill one of the 1696 player spots over the 32 NFL franchises.

The NBA draft takes in two rounds of 60 places, making 120 student athletes, chasing one of the 450 player slots over the 30 NBA teams. However, because basketball is a world-wide sport, the NBA draft is also open to international-class players from outwith North America.

The draft for Major League Baseball extends over 40 rounds, involving 1214 slots for players seeking one of the 750 player places across the 30 MLB franchises. However, with baseball, only the very best will go straight to a major league club, most newbies will be sent to learn their trade in an affiliated minor league club.

As can be seen from these figures, simply getting a pro contract, a foot on the lowest rung of the ladder, is very-difficult. In American Football, the 251 Division 1 colleges each has a 105 man roster, over 26,000 players. On average, some 26 of these players will leave their college each year – over 6000 wannabees. Now, they may not all wish to declare themselves available for the draft, but, there will be Division II and Division III players declaring. So, you have at least 6500 players chasing 224 vacancies, which means, only 3.5% will be offered the chance to play in the Big Show. And, when you include the players from the lower divisions, the successful percentage drops even further.

For the rest, forget it, there is no club grade of American Football, as there is in rugby. If you don't make the pros – you get a job and find another sports outlet for your energy.

In America, whether in the professional or the collegiate arena, the Head Coach is God, the top guys, such as Nick Saban Head Coach of Alabama University's Crimson Tide American Football team earns over $11 million per year. In basketball, Mike Krzyzewski, Head Coach at Duke University earns over $9 million per year – salaries which are right up there with those earned by the Head Coaches in the professional NFL.

Coack K - Mike Krzyzewski of Duke University

earns a good bit more than.....

Remember, the players Saban and Krzyzewski are dealing with are still learning their trade – they are unpaid amateurs, who will earn nothing from their talent, if they do not grab a pro contract.

Let's put it this way, the Scottish Rugby equivalent of Saban and Krzyewski are the six Super-6 coaches – Peter Murchie, Graham Shiel, Rob Chrystie, Ben Cairns, Fergus Pringle, and whoever gets the Heriot's job, are definitely not on anything like that money.

Coach Pete - Peter Murchie, who does basically the same job at Ayr

Although I don't know about the amount of pressure they will be under to make the thing work, but, they have to take a bunch of young players and prepare them to be potential professional players with Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Each of our two full-time professional teams has brought six new players into their rosters for the new season (plus one or two others as temporary World Cup cover). Not one of the 12 permanent newcomers has come out of the Tennent's Premiership. (although, it should be noted, three players – Kyle Rowe, Johnny Matthews and Ross Graham, who were Premiership regulars last season, have been called-in among the temporary cover players).

So, the above information demonstrates, it is easier at the moment to get a starting professional contract in one of the major sports in the USA than it is for a young Scottish rugby player to get a full-time professional contract in Scotland.

That cannot be right – time to give our young players a proper grounding, and a fair crack of the recruitment whip I think. Will Super-6 do this?