"Overtime will launch the league, Overtime Elite (OTE) in September, targeting top-ranked players ages 16 to 18 who are willing to forfeit their remaining high school eligibility and future college eligibility to earn six figures."

The league will operate out of one city and will have up to 30 players, all of whom are guaranteed a $100k salary. They plan on playing not only one another, but also foreign teams and prep schools like IMG.

In lieu of a traditional high school curriculum, the league will offer an academic program that it says will focus on "financial literacy, media training and social justice advocacy," according to a news release.

I'm speculating what this new leagues business model is.

Shoe companies must be knee deep in this.

Still will not get the top players. KENTUCKY pays much more !,,,

I believe Penn State has expressed interest in joining the league.

Almost certainly. Farm system for them too.

I struggle to see how this will work. There aren't enough fans willing to pay to watch what are essentially glorified AAU games.

HoosierDawg said:

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I struggle to see how this will work. There aren't enough fans willing to pay to watch what are essentially glorified AAU games.

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I don't see it either. It has NBA backers like Carmelo Anthony, but that's a large payroll for a basketball league no one is going to care about.

They don't need fans. MLB will finance the league, and players under a contract will be available in the draft. Essentially, a 17 year old signs into a 100k/year 3 year contract, but on the next draft the Astros (or some other team) take him in the first round....in stead of the kid getting the millions, the minor league entity gets all the money in excess of the 100k for whatever time remains on the original minor league contract.

This is just my assumption, but essentially this league will be a means to pull kids from education institutions, ultimately hurting those long term that never make big-time MLB $, and also reducing the lifetime earnings of those that do get to a second (big money) contract in the show.

Smails v Czervik said:

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They don't need fans. MLB will finance the league, and players under a contract will be available in the draft. Essentially, a 17 year old signs into a 100k/year 3 year contract, but on the next draft the Astros (or some other team) take him in the first round....in stead of the kid getting the millions, the minor league entity gets all the money in excess of the 100k for whatever time remains on the original minor league contract.

This is just my assumption, but essentially this league will be a means to pull kids from education institutions, ultimately hurting those long term that never make big-time MLB $, and also reducing the lifetime earnings of those that do get to a second (big money) contract in the show.

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Overtime Elite is a professional basketball league that will launch in September:

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31002105/over-elite-pro-basketball-league-launching-september-compensate-high-school-aged-players

Sorry, you're right. Basketball not baseball.
I'll still stand by the theory that the new "system" will likely have negative consequences for most kids regardless which sport it is.

Agree. They aren't doing this "for the kids." Many hours of research was done to figure how those few can maximize profits.