Photo by Stew Milne/USFL/Getty Images for USFL
Could AAU for football work? The ex-USFL president is trying to make it happen.
Prep Super League founder Brian Woods is no stranger to ambitious plans. Woods is formerly the president of the USFL, and his next major project is a super league for elite high school football players, independent of state high school athletic associations.
The Prep Super League is intended to be somewhat like an AAU program for 11-on-11 football, with 12 teams in major markets across the country, from Los Angeles to Miami. The six-week season would be streamed for people to watch and follow along closely, with development and growing each individual players’ brand at the forefront of the league. The league would operate with NCAA rules and could supplement the 7-on-7 and prospect camps players go to now.
SB Nation spoke with Woods about the Prep Super League, and what their plans are when it comes to player safety, Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) and streaming plans.
J.P. Acosta (JA): How did this idea for the prep Super League come to be?
Brian Woods (BW): I think it was really looking at the current landscape. I’ve been in the business of creating sports properties for the better part of the past decade, so I think for me, it’s always about creating something that solves a problem. The current landscape is as such, there is no travel or club component out there for American football, while one has always existed for many years for the other sports. The transfer portal, or the proliferation of the transfer portal has led to a substantial reduction in scholarships that are being offered to high school seniors each year, as colleges are electing to go in and sign more experienced players out of the transfer portal and win now, that’s kind of the mentality. Finally, my concept was looking at just how big college football was getting that was part of the catalyst as well, and seeing the colleges and the major conferences and the kind of rights fees they could generate.
When I looked at the Big Ten deal, I thought to myself, “[w]hat if you could go into the talent rich markets, and try to assemble the best teams” because as we know, there’s a set number of markets each year that produce an overwhelming number of the best players in Division 1 college football, produce the greatest number of players on opening day rosters in the NFL. And so my idea was, we could create something that could solve for the developmental issue. There’s a lot of players out there. Whether it be they were injured academically ineligible, play other sports, need additional repetitions, just need the opportunity to kind of work in the offseason on their their trade or craft, which in this case of football that was absolutely lacking. I also felt like we could have something that would really engage the the rabid football fan base, especially the modern younger fan and the collegiate football fan with a product that they were going to watch. It is going to basically the the future of college football and the future NFL players. These teams would be assembled, you know, in the markets that obviously produce the greatest number of talent. So we could put a product in the field that potentially could look like the collegiate football product and, you know, warrant media consideration.
I also felt like with NIL and the opportunities out there within NIL that didn’t exist five years ago, that we would have some catalysts or mechanism in some markets to attract the top players.
JA: I wanted to clarify: is this league for seniors who have finished their last year of high school football or juniors who are going to be seniors?
BW: The league is intended for the rising junior and the rising senior, not necessarily the graduating senior and I would tell you that the majority of our roster is going to be made up of players that are not seniors at the time. However, as you know, in a lot of instances, a lot of things can happen, but we will certainly not preclude a graduating senior from participating. But we’re going to work with players at all levels. So we are going to have a developmental pipeline of middle school players, probably 30 to 40 per team that worked with our varsity coaches, three to four days a week during the season. They wouldn’t travel necessarily but they would practice you know take part and intrasquad scrimmages and the like and have the advantage of working with the high level of coaches that we’re going to provide them. But our wheelhouse to your point is really going to be the rising senior and the rising junior.
JA: How would the league help to mitigate the wear and tear on the student-athletes’ bodies, especially coming off a grueling high school football season?
BW: Yeah, so look, I mean, the bottom line is most high school football seasons are over with in November. It’s only the teams that are really involved in the postseason, they’re going to go into the you know, the month of December. We don’t start our first games don’t take place until almost the end of April. So we feel like we have a good medical advisory team that’s already on board that feels very comfortable in the amount of time that’s elapsed from the fall football season to the spring season. I would also tell you that our practices are going to resemble NFL mini camp practices, the kind of practices you would see in season where players are going to be on their feet. There’s going to be the necessary amount of contact that we need to accomplish the the teaching and proper coaching and instructing that we need to do. But player safety is of utmost importance in this league.
We’re definitely sensitive to the fact that some of these players are going to come in, play with us and then go back into summer training and eventually return to their school sponsored team in the fall. This season is only six weeks, the amount of practices we’re looking at, is spanning over the course of two to three weeks leading up to that first game. So we’re talking about a window of not even 60 days that they would be with us. So it’s not the long grueling season that you alluded to, that a traditional player is going to encounter in the fall. And as a matter of fact, there will be less wear and tear because our season is shorter. Because of all the things that we’re putting in place to ensure player safety, one being the format of practices so our practices as I mentioned, we will not be tackling and taking guys to the ground in our practices we will have you know tackling dummies, we will have all the modern equipment, we will be accomplishing what we need to accomplish but with players up on their feet and practicing just like they’re a high level college or professional player and I think that’s a big thing. Because if you go around the country and you look at spring football practices, there’s a lot of teams out there that once they get into pads, they’re taking players to the ground on almost every practice and so we’re being very mindful of our approach and that respect.
We’re also looking to do some things with our rules. We are going to use NCAA rules, but we’re also going to look to modify the kickoff, maybe even look at potentially a running clock in some instances, to make it so that the game is not a long format and it’s it’s condensed. But it’s still real 11-on-11 football, but with all the caveats that we need to to, you know, look out for the best interests of the player.
JA: How would the coaching staffs be assembled? What are your ideas for where you think you’re going to head with when it comes to getting these coaching staffs for this league?
BW: That’s a really good question, because I think that’s something that’s not addressed enough. Why do parents seek out traveling clubs sports for their son or daughter why is that become such a big industry? Why is why is there such a need for that? And my position is, it’s really instruction, it’s supplemental, sometimes in the traveling club teams have better coaching, to be quite frank. They’re providing a more competitive environment. You’re not playing a localized schedule. You’re seeing people from other parts of the state that you wouldn’t traditionally see in a in a school sponsored high school setting. You’re seeing players in some instances from other states. So I believe that that’s something that to some extent, you know, first and foremost, we want to make sure that coaches we bring in are the very best teachers and instructors, because I think that’s going to be a selling point to some of the developmental players that we bring in.
That means for me that our head coaches, every one that we hire, will be a former NCAA head coach or a former NFL head coach, but the preference is former NCAA head coaches and coaches that have spent most of their time coaching college football, because I really want the players to get the sense of the schemes that are going to be employed at that level and the kind of coaching they’re going to receive at that level. And then those staffs will be supplemented by other coaches that are just as experienced, if not more so. And we are looking to bring in the top high school coaches from each market as well. We want to bring the top the top high school coaches that are in those markets that we’re going into, we’d like to establish a relationship with some of those guys. And I’ve actually had over the last 24 hours, some of these kinds of teams, coaches rather reaching out to me and expressing their interest and getting involved. So I think we’re on the right path.
JA: In the press release, it said that the league would act independently of high school athletic associations, and a major concern that people had was how would these athletes retain their eligibility going from the prep league back to their high schools to play in the upcoming season. So how do you plan on working with a high school athletic associations so kids can continue to play their high school football and fall?
BW: I think that that’s a really interesting question, and I think that there were some comments that were made yesterday and some of the articles where they had gotten some feedback from for instance, the Ohio High School State Athletic Association, and I think there might have been one other but the point I’ve made and been very clear about is that this is no different than other travel and club sports and any other additional activities that you put your son or daughter and that are not part of a school sanction or don’t happen in conjunction with a school that belongs to a member association. The high school state association should have no sort of jurisdiction over that. That being said, there was also a lot of information out yesterday as related to NIL. I made it very clear that in the state where NIL is allowed, obviously, these will be additional opportunities for the top players that are coming in to to explore and I can get into that in a little more detail later. But that’s one possibility.
The other possibility is, well what happens in a situation where you’re in a state where NIL is not allowed. Outside of Texas, the only states that do not currently allow NIL that legislation or that enforcement is left up to their local State High School Associations. So the state association could come in and say he played in the Prep Super League, we’re in a state that currently doesn’t allow players to accept NIL. But this player chose to accept NIL as part of his playing in the Prep Super League, and therefore we have the ability to rule him and eligible for future school sponsored sports. Now, would that apply only to the sport that he took the NIL deal? And would that apply to other sports? I don’t know. Because to be quite honest, I don’t know of any sort of enforcement along those lines that’s taken place thus far.
I would also tell you that the landscape is rapidly changing. So even in states where it’s currently not allowed, they are still debating, and they’re still planning to present new bills. That’s why I think the pendulum is swinging in favor of the athlete or the high school athletes who explore those opportunities. But I think the only concern that a parent should have about the Prep Super League would be in the states where NIL is not currently allowed and maybe the player wants to explore and NIL opportunity feels like they’ll get more exposure in the prep Super League—which they will—and wants to take that deal. And maybe as an example, use their junior year to play in the prep Super League in the spring and then forego their senior season. That could be a scenario. It’s not something that we’re going to advocate for, but it’s something that ultimately a player and parent would have to make the decision on.
Anything outside of the NIL, I don’t believe any of the state associations can step in and say if this player participates in the Prep Super League they would now be ineligible to play fall football. Somebody would have to show me how that could actually take place because there’s many clubs and travel sports outside of the school sponsored sports that take place every year and to single out football just because it might be you know, a source of a very sensitive topic, I think that just is is illogical on a lot of fronts.
JA: What kind of NIL opportunities do you see players receiving by being a part of the Prep Super League?
BW: I think if you go and look at an example would be the On3 website. I think that’s a pretty good website in terms of accurately evaluating the NIL value of any given student athlete right now and the athletes know this. They go and they register. They look up their value. So I think for them, and a lot of these values really are subject to a deal that would take place later in the athletes’ future. Meaning the athlete is valued at x, but maybe some of that value is really tied to where they ended up going to college and then their college years where maybe they could see additional dollars. What I would tell you is we have partnered with a very reputable company, NOCAP Sports, that’s been working for the last couple of years exclusively with college athletes, and now is going to be working with us as well to broker some of these deals for the elite players that would would entertain coming into the Prep Super League.
So, my position is that two things can happen. One, any sort of NIL value that athlete presently has attached to their name, image and likeness, would be increased or could increase exponentially by their involvement in a national league simply for the fact that any sort of NIL deal they do that involves or any sort of NIL deal they take while they’re in the Prep Super League, we’re going to allow them to do it in conjunction with the Prep Super League wearing their uniform. Most states even the ones that allow an IPL have a lot of restrictions as it relates to how the player can monetize their name, image and likeness. You can’t do it in conjunction with your team and you can’t do it with wearing your school uniform. I think these are all very overly restrictive and also limit the value of that deal. And so I think we’re going to bring more value to the player that decides to participate in the Prep Super League for obvious reasons. And I think that the sort of deals that the players could get for coming into the Prep Super League would be very competitive, and a very compelling situation for a player that might be entertaining coming into the Prep Super League and earning additional income. I have all the confidence in the world in the attorney that’s advising us in Mit Winter, who is probably one of the best NIL attorneys out there right now. And we have a lot of confidence in our partnership with NOCAP sports to make sure that they’re helping our student athletes in a third party relationship navigate those, those waters.
JA: How would the Prep Super League offer advice or advisors to these students and families who might be seeing NIL offers and valuations during their time in the league?
BW: There will be a curriculum program in place for all of our players so that we can educate not just the player but the parents directly in terms of you know what the NIL landscape is all about. So we do plan to conduct seminars within each market as it relates specifically to NIL and try to provide the proper guidance, bringing in obviously, some of the partners that we’re working with right now in that space that are pretty much experts, so we feel good about offering those kinds of services.
The other thing that we plan to do is really help players in terms of growing their personal brand, their social media followings getting them to understand exactly how some of your NIL and what your NIL is tied to. So I think again, they have a unique opportunity with the Prep Super League to come in, get more exposure playing in a national league—first of its kind, mind you—and really increase their brand value and our digital team is going to kind of help them along the way with that.
JA: In the press release it was mentioned that there would be a lot four and five star prospects. Would this league only be for the elite prospects of high school football?
BW: No, I think it’s a fair point. I think that’s a headline grabber. There will be four and five star kids in this league, that I can guarantee you, but will they comprise the majority of our rosters? No, they will make up a key component of our rosters and they will probably received more attention than maybe certain players would receive. But we’re here not just for the four or five star player. We’re here for the student athlete that’s involved in other sports but has never played school sponsored football and they excel in other sports. We’re here for the international player. We’re here for the kid for him from Germany, Japan, Mexico. that wants to come in and compete against American talent and be evaluated in a real football context in front of Division 1 programs. We’re here for the middle school player, there’s no middle school spring football anywhere. So we’re here for the middle school player to try to give them developmental repetitions and bring them along a little faster.
We have an application process to get into this league. We intend to vet our players very carefully. We’ll obviously be targeting some of the top players in each market. But we really want to look for that developmental kid that we feel like we can bring in, get exposed to the level of coaching that we’re going to provide and see if we can make that player a four or five star guy. We really believe we can do that especially given you know the kind of coaches that we’re intending to bring in. So to your point, the core of this league is really going to be the developmental prospects. These are still going to be competitive players don’t don’t get me wrong. These are guys that are already starters on their high school football team and maybe younger starters. But these are guys that we feel like we can we can bring along and make superstars.
