With college football season around the corner everyone is trying to find some angle to get into the action. Forbes.com tried doing it’s part by posting a special feature on the business of college football. Due to the mediocrity in this decade the Bruins didn’t break into the list of most valuable college football teams. However, Bruins figured in prominently in the lost of top college football programs cranking out the most pro athletes dubbed as "Champion Factories." Bruins finished number 4 in that list and it’s impressive considering 1 of the 5 sports categories Forbes.com used to compile this list happened to be ice hockey:
Football powers dominate our list, for several reasons. First of all, football teams are significantly larger than those of most other sports, so any non-weighted aggregation of pro athletes will contain more football players than, say, basketball players. Also, the NFL operates no minor league system like that of Major League Baseball; nor does the NFL allow its teams to draft players directly out of high school. The college football teams effectively function as farm clubs for the pros. Case in point:
, which earned the No. 3 spot on our list largely on the strength of its gridiron program. (The Hurricanes currently boast 50 alums in the NFL, more than any other school.) Miami Other schools succeed with a more diversified approach: No. 4 UCLA scored well in four of our five sports categories. (The California-based Bruins are laggards in ice hockey.)
Moreover, the listing doesn’t count UCLA’s success in the latest NBA draft. So not too shabby and not shocking to any of us:
UCLA: Champions Made Here (via BBRVideos)
Given the promises we see in football (in the long term future) and baseball, there are good reasons to hope we are going to move on up.
GO BRUINS.