There are many professional football leagues set to start play in the coming months, and the first one up probably has the best chance of making it.
First, the Alliance of American Football is up first, giving them the first crack at all the playing and coaching talent that isn't in the NFL at present.
Second, any upstart football league is only as good as the people running it, and the AAF has Bill Polian running the football side and Charlie Ebersol handling TV. Polian, the former Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers and Indianapolis Colts general manager, recruited a well-known roster of coaches including Steve Spurrier, Rick Neuheisel and Mike Riley to give the league three months of their year.
Ebersol, the son of longtime NBC sports chairman Dick Ebersol, was charged with lining up the Alliance's TV contracts, and according to Sports Business Journalthose deals have been lined up.
CBS will carry the AAF's kickoff game on Feb. 9 and the championship game in April, while CBS Sports Network will show one game each week. Additionally, Turner has signed on to show two games on TNT -- including one leading into TNT's NBA All-Star Saturday Night coverage -- with weekly broadcasts on Bleacher Report Live.
Finally, SBJ reports that NFL Network will carry two games a week as well.
Between CBS, Turner and NFL Network, the AAF will have four games a week broadcast to a national audience through a major outlet. Four games may not sound like a lot until you consider the AAF is an 8-team league that plays -- you guessed it -- four games a week.