Why the NFL should forge a stronger partnership with college football

The NFL and college football have enjoyed a long relationship dating back to the first NFL Draft in 1936. Every April, NFL fans gather around the country to tune in and see where their favorite college football players are selected in the Draft and where they will be playing the first years of their professional football career.

Josh Pate discussed the relationship between the two American sport juggernauts during an appearance on the Aug. 19 edition of the ‘Bussin with the Boys’ podcast hosted by Taylor Lewan and Will Compton. There, he revealed how he would bring the NFL and college football even closer if he were to ever become college football’s Commissioner.

“I would also love to work with the NFL,” Pate said. “The NFL benefits a lot from college football. From a marketing and development perspective, the NFL gets ready-made assets handed to them on Draft night that have been developed on college football’s dime. The NFL hasn’t had to pay a dime for the development piece and they have been marketed on college football’s dime.

“When you draft Taylor Lewan, I know about him because he played at Michigan. I know about him because I watched him start at left tackle for all those years. You drafted him, but I already know who he is. So you don’t have to tell me who he is and you don’t have to develop him to the degree that you have to in college. The NFL never has to foot the bill for that, yet when it comes time to decide the broadcast schedule, that’s the one area where I wish the NFL would work with college a little bit to make sure college football’s postseason is in a good spot.”

Pate reveals he’d do a good job uniting CFB and the NFL

“Instead, it feels like you have to fight the NFL on every bit of that. So, that’s probably because the people running college football have no clue how to work with the NFL. I think I’d do a better job working with the NFL.”

If you were to take a look at last season’s College Football Playoff and NFL Playoffs, you’d see that their schedules were all over the place. One suggestion that Pate hinted at was maybe setting up a College Football Playoff/NFL Playoff doubleheader, which would bring more eyes to both products from both demographics.

Instead, all games were played on separate days spread out through the month of January.

For years, the NFL has been taking advantage of the free publicity for its incoming players (as Pate pointed out), so now should be the time more than ever to unite the two in order to expand the sport even farther.