Can ambitious Prep Super League coexist with high school football? 'We're not here to rob the henhouse'

In a Q-and-A with SBLive, founder Brian Woods goes in-depth on spring 11-on-11 league's plans to attract top prospects

In June, the former president of the United States Football League announced ambitious plans to launch a spring 11-on-11 Name-Image-Likeness-friendly, independent high school football league in 2024 that will go after the nation's top prospects.

The Prep Super League is planning a six-week season with NCAA rules that runs April 19 through May 24 across 12 cities in eight states. He's said it will help players navigate the NIL landscape at a time when not all states and high school associations are welcoming to the topic — and those that do come with blanket stipulations and red tape. 

The league says it is targeting Miami, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, New Jersey, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Tampa as locations, and hopes to coexist with high school programs.

As it prepares for its first season, the league also hopes to make itself an attractive product to football viewers.

"We feel like in due course, we can put a product on the field that's commensurate with college football," Founder and CEO Brian Woods told SBLive.

SBLive sat down with Woods for a one-on-one interview to go in-depth about the league's plans to bring in talent, how it is positioning itself in relation to high school and high school state associations and more. Below is a transcription of the interview, which has been edited for length and clarity.

SBLive graphic | logo courtesy of Prep Super League

SBLive: Let's start with Name-Image-Likeness, one of the most widely covered issues in amateur sports. Some states allow athletes to profit off of NIL. Some don’t. Those that do, do so with stipulations. School names can’t be involved. Coaches, programs can’t use NIL as an advantage. How will this league be different? Is there something high schools are getting wrong about this new era of player autonomy?

Brian Woods: I can't speak to the individual state associations and the high schools in terms of what their mindset is, when they're either legislating or not allowing this sort of mechanism whereby a player can can monetize their name, image and likeness. But what I'll tell you is from a standpoint of our league existing, it's a first of its kind. So it's a national high school football league. That in itself, I think, for all the participants brings a level of visibility that a player participating in a school sponsored program, and playing more or less a localized schedule doesn't benefit from so I think, even in a state where NIL isn't currently allowed, there's there's several avenues here for a player. A, they come into the prep Super League, they are one of 600, versus one in a million that play the game nationally, so that in itself raises their visibility, increases their personal brand and makes any sort of NIL value that they may or not have either presented itself or increase exponentially. In any state where NIL is currently allowed, I think that first and foremost, any sort of deal that that player is looking to procure, those sorts of deals are only going to be worth more again participating in a league like the prep Super League, where they're getting national exposure.

• High school NIL rules in every state: Permitted, prohibited or under consideration?

I think one thing that's important to differentiate ourselves is the fact that there wouldn't be restriction. So if you're in a state where NIL is currently allowed, most of those states have some level of restriction, whether it be you can't do it in conjunction with your high school team. You can't wear your uniform in conjunction with the promotional appearance. Those restrictions would not exist in the prep Super League, because we are not a member of any state association, so they could come into the prep Super League and take a deal that should be actually worth more because they can do more with it from a visibility standpoint, and just they'd be free of any sort of restriction.

Going back to my first point, what about the state that doesn't currently allow NIL, right? The other possibility is a player decides, I'm looking at X as my NIL value, I have an opportunity to sign an NIL deal by participating in the prep Super League, monetizing my name, image and likeness, potentially jeopardizing my eligibility with my local state association. But again, this is not necessarily something we're going to be leading the charge on, it's only a scenario where a student athlete that's currently in a state that doesn't allow it might want to venture into the Prep Super League because of the monetary component to that. That's going to be a decision left up to the individual student athlete and the parent, not something that we're going to use as a ’recruiting tool,’ if you will.

I would also tell you, too, we're being advised by probably one of the best attorneys in the business right now as it relates to NIL, Mit Winter. He is kind of an authority on NIL right now in that space. And we feel just based on some of his guidance in our conversations, we feel very confident that some of the states that don't currently allow it by the time we're in operation next year will in fact allow it. We do believe, under good information that as soon as September, the state of Georgia, for instance, will be allowing NIL. And I think it's very difficult if you're a state that has a has bordering states that are allowing it and you’re not, I think you're at risk. This is when you're asking about the high schools and how they're potentially getting it wrong. Well, if you're a state that has a lot of talent, and their bordering states are allowing NIL to occur, you could be at risk at losing some of your best players. So that's why I think it's important. And I think part of my goal with the Prep Super League was trying to establish a national platform, that no matter what jurisdiction you resided in, you would be able to participate in an NIL program. I think our lead by merely announcing might serve as a catalyst to some extent, to accelerate some of these states and what their current position is on as it relates to NIL.

SBLive: What do current efforts look like to bring in players? Do you have target dates in mind when you want to have a certain number of commitments and rosters built out?

Brian Woods: A lot of our priorities right now really rest upon outreach with some of the state associations and high schools, which is to say that we want to inform these high schools and their respective coaches that we should be viewed as a complementary entity to traditional high school football. We're not here to rob the henhouse. We're not here to protect your star players. We really want to be seen as supplemental and fashion. So that's a big part of our next few weeks, few months. Because of that, we're also being very sensitive to active recruiting. We are not actively recruiting players right now.

However, what I will say is those players have been recruiting us to some extent. We are getting calls from parents, we are getting calls from some of the top players in the country inquiring about the Prep Super League, making it known to us that they're very interested in participating. We feel like that, in itself puts us in a good spot already, that we're getting that sort of positive feedback from the parents and players, because at the end of the day, this is who we're here to serve no matter what our relationship is with the high schools in the state associations, and other like organizations, we want to have a positive relationship with everybody, but at the end of the day, our customers, the people that we want to serve and do right by really are the players and their and their parents. So we've gotten a lot of good feedback from from that group alone. And our priorities right now are really kind of outreach to to coaches and letting them know here, you know, we're here to help.

We also understand there's a there's an incoming fall football season, that's not too far away. The last thing we want to do is to be actively recruiting players at this moment, and have them announcing even before they go into their fall football seasons. We wouldn't want that to be a distraction from their traditional high school football season. But I can tell you that we do plan to announce some players, but during the fall. We’re now at a point now where we're going to be announcing players, we still feel like that's a little premature and we want to be sensitive to to their high school, their traditional high school football schedules.

SBLive: You talk about the league positioning itself as a complementary piece to high schools and those ongoing conversations with coaches, with state associations. How would you describe the tenor, the temperature, the receptiveness of state associations? They’re certainly not a moonlit and the way different states and regions operate differs, but was there kind of a broad overtone?

Woods: Coaches we've had an opportunity to speak to and be able to kind of really explain our positioning, the feedback we've gotten has been very positive. I think it's more of the the misinformed coach or the one that doesn't have enough information about our organization right now, there have been a few of those that have might have might have already gone out to the press and made their feelings known publicly. But I'm not so sure that all of them have the requisite information they need to, you know, to make an informed decision in terms of how they view us. So that's what I feel like is one of our big mandates right now is getting out there and explaining our league and how it exists.

Look, we know there's a disruptive component to it on several fronts, but we but we also believe that we can coexist and coexist very well with with traditional school-sponsored football. So, again, the ones that we've spoken to thus far, feel like the feedback has been very positive. We're hoping to, you know, continue to make the rounds even maybe go into some coaching coaching conventions this summer. And, you know, kind of informing coaches where we can about our intentions.

SBLive: What have been he biggest misconceptions about the Prep Super League that you’ve seen?

Woods: The big concern or the one that's the most important to me is as it relates to player safety, and the idea that, if a player comes in, they're going to be playing extra games, and we just don't think a player could deal with that. And, again, I think those programs are thinking more in the sense of, well, we have a regular season, we have a training camp, in July and August, some high school teams might be playing games in the middle of December, just depending on how deep you go into the playoffs. So the argument would be a little bit contradictory that we play 15 games, because our high school is so good, you might have a high school that doesn't make the postseason and plays nine, but yet still has really good players on that team. I also think there's enough time from when the fall football season ends to when our season begins for recovery, recuperation. From our positioning that's really important to us, player health and safety.

Look, we are being advised by the very best one of the very best sports medicine practices in the country, in terms of our medical protocols. We are planning on integrating and incorporating as much technology that's out there right now as it relates to concussions, as it relates to equipment, anything we can do to put the player in a better position we're going to do.

We're going to utilize NCAA rules, but we've also looked at modifying the kickoff using a running clock. A running clock over a traditional maybe two and a half hour three hour window for a football game could equate to a game that only lasts for an hour and a half. If you look at it cumulatively, I think that the wear and tear on the body and the kind of safety measures that we're going to make sure in place should be very much a reinforcement to some of these coaches that are maybe concerned or any sort of parent that may be concerned about player safety, that's something we don't take lightly. And it's something we want to be on the forefront of on in a lot of ways.

Finally, I would also tell you that our practices will not look like traditional high school football practices. They will mirror the sort of strict policy that's in place as relates to contact with the NFL. They will look like an NFL mini camp. They will look like an NFL regular season practice. We will not be taking players to the ground frequently like they do in traditional high school football and spring practices. So the practices are going to be lite, they’re going to be very big on instruction and development, but they're going to be very light in terms of full contact. We will have the amount of contact that's necessary to make sure we have good instruction, especially with our linemen. But we want to make sure that the player is staying safe. And if he does get injured, it only occurs in a game environment. So that has been one of the biggest questions. This is not the Wild West. If anything, it's going to be safer. We’re going to make sure that it's safer, in some ways, than traditional high school football. So that's been the one question I think a lot of people have had their mind, that's the one topic that we're trying to get out in front of and make sure people understand exactly how this is gonna work. And this is gonna be this is gonna be done at a very professional level.

SBLive: You have talked about the Prep Super League’s superior helmet technology, you’ve mentioned data collection as a separator for the league. And yeah, I know when we last talked, there was some talk. You’ve spoken about incorporating live player data and broadcasts in ways that haven't been done before. Could you elaborate on that a little bit? Is there's any connection to player just in terms of like what you guys are doing with data collection?

Woods: The sort of data collection that we'll be doing — the sensor and the football, the sensor on the shoulder pads — will be able to help measure a lot of key elements as it relates to player performance. But it will also be able to measure impact and things of that nature. It serves is twofold: one to ensure that our players are safe, and two to grab that valuable data that they may be able to use in terms of recruitment, especially in the kind of environment we're going to put them in, where they're going to be going against arguably the very best talent in the country. And now you're going to have these measurements taken when an A player is playing against another A player. We feel like that's pretty valuable data on a lot of fronts.

(Woods adds that the league is finalizing a partnership with a company he says is “a leader” in the data collection business but doesn’t disclose the company.)

We're excited about working with them. And I think it's going to revolutionize how people view … this is going to be real time data. You're going to see our games in real time, which is to say that we're working with a company that allows us to stream our games with sub second latency, which is something that even the professional leagues aren't doing right now. And the reason for that is because most professional leagues, whether it be the NHL, NBA Major League, baseball, the NFL, they're still tied to their linear contracts. And linear doesn't allow you to have that real time effect with your with your streaming. So ESPN plus you're looking at a 45 second delay, traditional television, maybe 20 to 25 seconds, someone's gonna be able to download our app, and watch our games and what they're going to see as it's going to be happening in literally real time, which is sub second latency. They're also going to be able to view data in real time. They're going to be able to see all kinds of really key measurements and things like that. So this will be this will not look like a traditional high school football broadcast is state of the art technology. And it's one that I think it's going to really differentiate ourselves as a property and not just purely a football league.

SBLive: Is the league looking for a broadcast or streaming partner — or some combination of the two? What’s the ultimate goal?

Woods: We are building out our own direct-to-consumer platform. We have no real need, at least for the time being, to go out and broker a deal with somebody to just distribute our games. I think what's unique about us is that you can download an app, you can pull that app up and within a matter of seconds be watching a game, you don't have to go to another app and search between multiple games and sports properties to try to find what you're looking for. And it's also going to be a place where we put all of our shoulder programming, our ancillary content that we think it's going to be as equally compelling and a great complement to our live games. Furthermore, we will certainly entertain the possibility of working with traditional broadcast partners. But we feel like we've got a unique property. We feel like we can connect well with the young consumer with some of the things we're going to be doing — real time watch parties, game, prizes and things of that nature that that you wouldn't be able to do if you're watching a traditional linear broadcast because of the latency issues. We feel like we have a very valuable platform, we have an opportunity to attract a very, very intriguing consumer to most sponsors and brands out there. And we want to be able to own that data, and retain that the customer information that's really hard to do when you go out and kind of deal with a third party. And so we're interested right now in trying to create as much value that we can with our own direct-to-consumer platform. But certainly as we get into this, we will entertain offers from other potential media partners.

SBLive: Who is the Prep Super League’s audience?

Woods: We already know that there's a rabid fan base out there that loves college football. We also know that there's a good deal of individuals that keep up year in and year out with the On3s, the 247 Sports’, (SBLive Sports), etc. We think there's a really intriguing fan base out there for us to capture that follows the top recruits. Now imagine an environment where you can have all the top recruits playing against one another in a league. We feel like that's really compelling, especially when you're trying to get a gauge for one three-star player versus another four-star player and a five-star against a five-star. So we feel like that just adds another element. And by the way, we're doing it at a time of the year when all the NCAA schools are actively recruiting players. So from mid-April to late May each year, you know that the staffs of these colleges are all out the road. They're doing recruiting, they're doing their visits, they're also making offers during that time. And so while they might not necessarily attend our games, they don't have to. They just need to be out there in their hotel, visiting one player. And then that evening, pulling up an app and watching our games. The one thing that's going to be cool about our technology, too, that I didn't mention is that we have iso cams. So a person can come in and watch a game and focus on one angle, one player, that kind of thing.

We just feel that the college football fan will be one that should be interested in our product. Because at the end of the day, we are rounding up the very best players, the kids you're gonna see at Florida, Texas and Michigan. We feel like in due course, we can put a product on the field that's commensurate with college football. And that should in fact, attract a really meaningful fan base. And not just the the the ones that follow recruiting, but the ones that also love college football and want to see what is it going to look like when Texas plays Michigan next year? Well, now you're seeing the players that are going to be on these teams playing against one another. So I think I think there's some really interesting storylines within that but I think more importantly, we're going to have a first class product out there on display which I think should attract a meaningful viewership.

SBLive: I’ve seen the Super Prep League described as AAU football. Is that a fair moniker? Is it comparable in the sense that the league is pay-for-play?

Woods: No, it's not. So here's what I would tell you on two fronts. One, I also was not pleased with the AAU comparison. AAU is still not 100% exclusive. There are a multitude of teams — there's probably 300 AAU basketball teams just in Long Island, New York alone. We are really strategic about where we're putting our teams in every city is only going to have one team. At some point, we might look at a situation in certain markets, meaning, you know in Los Angeles, and Houston, Miami, Fort Lauderdale. These markets that have not only dense populations, but also year in and year out, produce the most amount of talent. Those markets are ones where I could see us maybe putting more than one team just because those potential markets could support it. But ultimately, AAU is not exclusive and AAU teams, no matter what discipline or sport you're talking about these days in the United States, probably number in the thousands. Our league is definitely very exclusive. So the AAU comparison is probably not even close to what our property is going to resemble … more of a college football conference or hopefully a professional sports property done in a very professional way — everything from execution to the level of coaching that these players are going to — a far cry from what you would see in a traditional traveller club option available to to a player. That's number one.

Number two, in terms of pay to play, that might be the only comparison that travel and clubs sports charge for player participation we have simply included it as part of our financial model in the early years of operation to promote sustainability. By no means do I see it operating as a long term revenue stream. And by no means do I see it leading the way in terms of our revenue in general. As we continue to grow this, as we continue to bring in more meaningful partnerships, whether that be on the media side, or in the sponsor and brand side, I could likely see a scenario where the player development fee, which by the way really only applies to about half of a team or a little over half of the team. Not every kid there would be paying to participate. But I can see that revenue stream or I could see the player development fee being eliminated completely at the end of our first season, maybe maybe even before that depending on what our partnerships look like so it's simply meant to promote sustainability. It's not meant to be a long term revenue stream for us whatsoever.

SBLive: Anything else I haven’t mentioned?

Woods: At the end of the day, the four and five-star player is certainly our target and that's exactly how we're looking to create a very exceptional product and in short order, but I would also tell you that this league could also benefit a lot of players outside that four and a five-star guy.

There might be a high school senior that for whatever reason either reclassified and found themselves ineligible for their senior year. And that could happen in a situation like in Texas, where a student reclassifies, whether it be the public or private school, you can have a scenario where a student misses your senior season. So he needs the Prep Super League just to help have a senior season. You could have a current senior who was a great player, and was really coming into his own as a junior, but for whatever reason, either academically or through injury, either missed his season in its entirety or missed a good portion of the season, and because of that maybe doesn't have the offers that he was anticipating. So in those instances, those could be cases where a player could come into the prep Super League. And that's a player that, by the way, no longer has eligibility to play traditional school sponsored football, but it's still not reached an age where he wouldn't be ineligible for the prep super late. So I think that's important to note.

There's also a pipeline of international talent that's out that's out right now, players that are playing American football at a very high level. And the only way they're going to really get exposure be seen in a light positive to the recruitment process, in my opinion, is by being able to evaluate those players against better American talent in a real football context. We are having conversations, even with some of the international bodies right now, as it relates to having some of their top players come over, because again, we're not looking for a long commitment and maybe some of these players come over and don't take part in the entire season. Maybe they're coming over for five or six weeks, or whatever it may be. But the international player that right now is not in any of the American schools, but wants to be evaluated against American players. That's another player that could benefit from the from the Prep Super League.

Finally, again, the developmental player. So this is a player that what we're trying to do is maybe they're a three-star guy, or maybe they're just teetering on the verge of being a three-star guy. And we're hoping that by exposing him to to better competition, by giving him access to really good top level instruction, we can develop that player into something better, we can turn that three star into a four star players. So it's not just the traditional four or five-star player that can benefit from this platform. We can help those players as well, not just the four or five-star guy.