AHC: college upsurge from GI Bill + earlier knowledge of CTE = phase out of college football?

Unlikely. What we would see instead is a series of rule changes designed to keep anyone from participating in too many plays. Earlier adoption of the two-platoon system, clock starts on the ready signal (or a switch to a fixed number of possessions per game), mandated substitutions/maximum "pitch count" for any one player, much earlier ban on the head slap, tackles must be made in the strike zone, etc.
 
There’s a saying in the American South. College football is not a sport, it’s a religion.
And become a part of the chasm politicians have to bridged if the want to win seats in the South?

If things go very, very wrong in this timeline, I expect college football to become a casualty of the Civil Rights; too tainted by segregation support in the south to ever become as popular as it was in the northern state.
 
. . . Earlier adoption of the two-platoon system, clock starts on the ready signal (or a switch to a fixed number of possessions per game), mandated substitutions/maximum "pitch count" for any one player, much earlier ban on the head slap, tackles must be made in the strike zone, etc.
As well as significant limiting hits in practice sessions.

And some rule changes might increase strategic possibilities, for example, you can win as either a running team or a passing team.

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I still think some schools might realize the worse thing they can do is whittle the sport down step by step, where you get significant opposition at each step.
 
And become a part of the chasm politicians have to bridged if the want to win seats in the South?

If things go very, very wrong in this timeline, I expect college football to become a casualty of the Civil Rights; too tainted by segregation support in the south to ever become as popular as it was in the northern state.

I think such a scenario is possible, maybe even likely in the future in the US.

Most likely scenario is you see football become a very black sport in the US, whereas white athletes switch to basketball and baseball. Boxing would be more likely to get a ban, probably replaced more by wrestling, and perhaps shoot wrestling makes a Comeback in the US. If early enough, there's also a chance of soccer becoming a summer to fall sport in the US as a replacement as well. It won't match the European schedule, but a March to November or December league with an August recess could work.

The NFL is in trouble. The NFL didn't start getting big until the late 50s, there's plenty of time for public opinion to derail the NFL, even if college football will have more inherent popularity. The NBA might benefit.

Rugby might become a thing if marketed as safer, passing wasn't a huge deal in the 40s and early 50s.
 
. . . Most likely scenario is you see football become a very black sport in the US, . . .
That’s today, with African-American being a somewhat good approximation of low-income. But please remember, Jackie Robinson didn’t play MLB until April 1947, and professional football also had a color bar (if you or anyone else wish to jump in with the dates, I’d appreciate it)

And I’m not talking about a ban of football. In my perfect universe, the game becomes both safer and more strategic, and age 18+ in leagues unconnected to schools. As the evidence accumulates, colleges just can’t justify continued participation, not even to themselves.
 
. . . If early enough, there's also a chance of soccer becoming a summer to fall sport in the US as a replacement as well. . .
Yes, I think the fact that football takes place at the beginning of the school year when everything is new and fresh and people are trying to participate in school activities and trying to meet and socialize with fellow students is a HUGE advantage.
 
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We must look at the timing of the popularity of sports. Baseball was America's pastime through the fifties and for good reason. Once the dead ball years ended in the twenties, it was a sport married to radio, as live broadcasts filled the air. Every play was described as a one-dimensional move easily envisioned by any fan with a knowledge of the game. People could work, talk and drive with the game in the background. When television came along, the broadcasts, with limited cameras, seemed drawn out and less exciting compared to football. So, if you introduce concussion awareness in the fifties, along with earlier substitutions and play limits, you kind of water down the sport's appeal as a gladiator event. Does it make basketball, baseball and soccer more popular? Maybe. After all, not until the sixties did we see the AFL and its expansion of football into more markets and more broadcasts, culminating with a Super Bowl and the merger of the AFL and NFL.
 
Black History Month: Desegregating college football

Los Angels Sentinel, Jason Lewis (Sports Editor), February 9, 2012
https://lasentinel.net/black-history-month-desegregating-college-football.html

‘ . . . the first black player at USC in the 1920s. In the 1939 UCLA had an all-black backfield, which featured Kenny Washington, Jackie Robinson, Woody Strode, and Ray Bartlett. . . ’
Yes, that Jackie Robinson, multi-sport athlete that he was. :)

In the American south, desegregation would not really get started until a Sept. 12, 1970, game in which Alabama hosted USC. And yes, it may surprise many of our readers that desegregation did not really, truly start in U.S. southern schools until the early 1970s.
 
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Why would something that makes so much money, football be phased out bc ofa little brain damage? They haven't phased out the 40 hour work week IRLdespite it basically being a thing only for social control.
 
That’s today, with African-American being a somewhat good approximation of low-income. But please remember, Jackie Robinson didn’t play MLB until April 1947, and professional football also had a color bar (if you or anyone else wish to jump in with the dates, I’d appreciate it)

And I’m not talking about a ban of football. In my perfect universe, the game becomes both safer and more strategic, and age 18+ in leagues unconnected to schools. As the evidence accumulates, colleges just can’t justify continued participation, not even to themselves.

1934-1949.

The inaugural Steelers (Pirates) had a black player. Art Rooney wasn't allowed to keep him in 1934.

Rooney eventually won out and was able to reintegrate. He also hired the first black assistant coach in 1957, the first black starting quarterback* in 1974, and the first black coordinator in 1984.

* Marlon Briscoe predated Joe Gilliam but it was the AFL.
 
. . . So, if you introduce concussion awareness . . .

Why would something that makes so much money, football be phased out bc ofa little brain damage? . . .
and what’s a little brain damage between friends! :p

I think a lot hinges on whether it’s viewed as a risk, or as more of a sure thing. If we focus on ‘concussion,’ then we can concussion-management. If, on the other hand, we focus on the fact that a steady diet of sub-concussive blows often but not always leads to a build up of tau protein, which we can stain and see at autopsy, then pretty much the only thing left to do is to respectfully phase out football.

For example, if we focus on the fact that 30% of these guys are likely to have real problems down the road, well, it might not be my friend, but then it might be your friend. And it is going to be someone’s friend and family member.

I don’t see how an educational institution supports that.
 
Yes, that Jackie Robinson, multi-sport athlete that he was. :)

In the American south, desegregation would not really get started until a Sept. 12, 1970, game in which Alabama hosted USC. And yes, it may surprise many of our readers that desegregation did not really, truly start in U.S. southern schools until the early 1970s.

Quite a difference in the north, where my grandparents, who were white in a mostly white part of Canton Ohio, had several black classmates including Marion Motley. Yes, the Marion Motley who starred for the Cleveland Browns and who made the Hall of Fame. Really nice guy, I talked with him a few times in the 1980s when my grandpa and I went to the Hall of Fame luncheon Club.
 
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