League for graduates proposed

Play would begin next spring in eight college cities.
NEW YORK (AP) -- 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, playing in stadiums on campus or nearby.
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 million to $3 million to buy franchise rights.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the league: a player must have graduated to participate.
Healthy paycheck
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 -- about $30,000 -- and NFL Europe for example. The league, not teams, will pay the players and coaches to control spending.
Dempsey and the board of directors view the league as a continuation of the college game, hoping fervent fans will support a pro team in their town.
"It was an intriguing idea from the beginning, and I wouldn't have had an interest in this if it was just another football league," Dempsey said at a news conference Wednesday. "But it had such a close tie back to higher education ... and it gives an incentive to finish school."
Not competition for NFL
Unlike the XFL, a spring pro league that failed, the AAFL has no plans to compete with the NFL.
Instead, the AAFL, which will play under college rules, is aiming for a regional audience.
To that end, teams will feature players who have starred in that college town, and from surrounding areas and conferences. The league hopes to sign players who haven't latched onto an NFL team.
"I don't think these are going to be people that think of themselves as great football stars, but I think they're going to be people who enjoy the game, enjoy playing and would like to play a little while as they're beginning to start their careers," said board member Charles Young, former chancellor at UCLA and president at Florida.
Dempsey said the league has gotten financing from a small group of investors but declined to specify an amount. Another source of money could be a television deal, but only preliminary talks have been held. Tickets to games will cost $30.
"We're going to have to generate the money to make it work," Dempsey said.
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