New football league in works

NEW YORK – Former NCAA president Cedric Dempsey is ready to give a new pro football league that ol’ college try.

Dempsey and 12 other people from the worlds of sports, education and business have teamed up to form the All American Football League, which is scheduled to start play next spring. The league plans to field eight teams based in college towns.

Though Dempsey declined to say where the teams will play, he said the cities will feature colleges from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Southeastern Conference and Big Ten. The league already has stadium usage agreements in place, he said, and now needs to find investors willing to spend between $2-3 million to buy franchise rights.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the league: a player must have graduated to participate.

That diploma will guarantee a healthy paycheck. AAFL players will earn about $100,000 a season, Dempsey said, better than minimums offered in the Arena Football League and NFL Europe. The league, not teams, will pay the players and coaches.