WI - UK and European versions of American Collage Sports

What if the UK and Europe established their own Football / Soccer and Rugby, etc versions of American Collage Sports akin to American Collage Football (yet including relegation) played by teams of student athletes fielded by universities, colleges, and military regiments / etc?
 
We already have a lot of inter-university sporting competition. It's just nowhere near as high profile or relevant as college football is in the US because it doesn't feed into the professional game. Well, for some disciplines it kind of does, but not for the main national game. Football/soccer development is a completely separate in-house thing for football clubs. Professional football players do not come into the game through 'football scholarships'.
 
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TruthfulPanda

Gone Fishin'
The semi-pro/lower level professional levels of sports are well served in Europe by the lower levels of the various sports' pyramids.
 
The semi-pro/lower level professional levels of sports are well served in Europe by the lower levels of the various sports' pyramids.

And not only are there several lower leagues in all popular team sports, there are also dedicated youth leagues.

Take ice hockey in Finland, for example: we have altogether seven league tiers for adult athletes, four national tiers for junior players of 18-20, and even more national tiers for younger juniors. Typically, the U20 (and other junior) teams are part of the organizations of the higher-level hockey clubs - each more or less significant club has their own youth organizations that churn out talent for the top level team, "farm" teams and other teams besides.

For many smaller top-level teams, having a robust youth organization of their own is a must - they don't have enough money to keep their top talent for long: richer teams in Finland and abroad (NHL, KHL, continental European leagues) snatch them away pretty soon. So, if you don't have a lot of money to buy outside talent, you need to have new players developing in the pipeline to keep your top-level team competitive. This is essentially the picture of the ice hockey team I support, KalPa Kuopio. They have an organization and economic "catchment area" strong and big enough to make it in the top tier, but given the limits of their economics, they are absolutely dependent on their high-class youth organization that has in the past produced many KHL- and NHL-level players.

In Finland, this is the system young ice hockey players go through to develop into (potentially) professional athletes. Universities don't really come into it - here universities are about education and academic achievement, not a support organization for professional sports.
 
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as others have pointed out there were well established lower leagues in Europe and as many nations domestic soccer championship had an FA cup analogue as well as the leagues the lower league teams havign a chance to progress right through keeps them relevant. BUSA in the UK is not about elite sport, although the level of players in football and rugby is probably on a par with lower leagues...

Cricket, Football and Rugby in the UK had established scouting and youth provision from early teens again removing something which drives college sports in the US , add in the the fees and student support systems in Europe and the 'full ride' of a sports scholarship is less of a draw , that's before considering that part time attendance modes are not really something that are or have been popular for school leavers entering higher education vs the numbers i nthe US who appear to draw out their undergraduate studies for a number of years and the none terminal nature of associates degrees vs europe sub bachelor awards
 
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