Former Cougars represent as the Alliance of American Football kicks off

The state's newest professional football team started their existence with a win on Saturday, thanks in part to some famous former Cougars:

The San Antonio Commanders defeated the San Diego Fleet, 15-6, on Saturday at the Alamodome to win the franchise's first game in the Alliance of American Football. 

And although the game was played about 200 miles away, the win had plenty of Houston flavor. 

Former University of Houston players Kenneth Farrow and Greg Ward Jr. made big impacts in the inaugural win. 

Farrow, a former UH running back, scored the first touchdown in Commanders history. His 3-yard rush in the first quarter gave San Antonio a 12-6 lead and was the only touchdown of the game. 

Ward, a renowned quarterback during his days with the Cougars, made his presence felt at wide receiver. He finished the game with five catches for 65 yards.

In addition to Farrow and Ward, former UH WR Demarcus Ayers and DL Joey Mbu also play for the Commanders.

The Alliance of American Football is an eight-team league trying to make a go of spring football where other leagues (the USFL, the XFL, and even the NFL-backed WLAF/NFL Europe) failed. The league is arranged such that teams are assigned players from nearby colleges, which is why San Antonio has so many former UH players on their teams. It also features some tweaks to the rules of the game, to wit:

No extra points.Teams have to go for two. There are no kickoffs, either, and teams will instead get possession on their own 25-yard line. Kickers are barely involved. Speaking of which...

Onside kicks are replaced by one fourth-and-12 play on the team’s own 28-yard line.This is a terrific idea that I endorse wholeheartedly. 

Overtime is kind of similar to the college system.Except each team gets the ball on the 10-yard line, and they aren’t allowed to kick field goals. 

The play clock is 35 seconds instead of 40 seconds.There will also be no TV timeouts. The aim is to keep games under two-and-a-half hours. 

There will be a “sky judge.” (This is not a euphemism for God.)The officiating crew includes a ninth referee who sits in the booth and constantly reviews game action. The sky judge has the power to make calls or overturn penalties in case the on-field officials miss them. This is perhaps the AAF’s most intriguing wrinkle. Assuming it works as intended, it seems like it could be a common-sense solution to some of the NFL’s most glaring officiating issues. New Orleans would have certainly appreciated the presence of a sky judge during the NFC Championship game.

The AAF also argues that it has tapped into a broad array of football talent and experience that will allow it to succeed where previous spring football leagues have failed.

The cast of decorated and respected industry veterans involved in this venture is robust, beginning with AAF co-founder and CEO Charlie Ebersol (whose father, Dick, is a former chairman of NBC Sports) and co-founder Bill Polian, a six-time NFL Executive of the Year. 

Pittsburgh Steelers legends Hines Ward and Troy Polamalu are heads of football development and player relations, respectively. Mike Singletary (Memphis), Steve Spurrier (Orlando) and Mike Martz (San Diego) are among the league’s head coaches. Three-time Super Bowl champion Daryl "Moose" Johnston is general manager of the San Antonio Commanders. 

And the first season will begin with plenty of name recognition filling out each teams’ roster (including former Heisman winner Trent Richardson, ex-Titans starter Zach Mettenberger, and Aaron Murray, who threw more touchdown passes at Georgia than anyone in SEC history). 

Mike Perreira and Dean Blandino are listed as officiating consultants. Shaquille O'Neal, former Minnesota Vikings pro bowler Jared Allen and The Chernin Group (which owns Barstool Sports) are among the known investors.  

The AAF has also gone out of its way to identify one critical difference between itself and other leagues like it that have failed to last very long: It's not interested in competing with the NFL.  

"Our whole goal is just to be complementary (to the NFL)," Ward told CBS Sports last year.

The league has television contracts with CBS, CBS Sports Network, the NFL Network and TNT. In fact, last Saturday night's games on CBS actually got better ratings than an NBA game on ABC. That could be a good omen for the upstart league, although it's also worth remembering that the original XFL had good ratings in its debut weekend as well, and we know how that turned out. I'm also noticing that the AAF is placing a lot of focus on smaller, "second-tier" football markets such as San Antonio, Memphis, Birmingham, Orlando, and Salt Lake City, which seemed to be a losing strategy for the USFL, the WLAF, and the XFL.

And speaking of the XFL: if the AAF does make it through its first season and returns in 2020, it will be competing head-to-head with the second iteration of the XFL (which is expected to place a team here in Houston). This is where things will get very interesting, because it's difficult to assume that there will be enough quality players (or eyeballs) to sustain two spring football leagues. How long will this situation last before one or both leagues fail (or perhaps merge)? And if one or both leagues do succeed, what might it mean for the NFL and for college football?

Time will tell. In the meantime, I will continue to follow the San Antonio Commanders this spring, because I enjoy football and because I want to see folks like Ken Farrow and Greg Ward Jr. do well and perhaps find their way back into the NFL. I'm also looking forward to Houston's XFL 2.0 team next season, and will probably attend some games.

I'm skeptical that either league will succeed long-term. But I hope to be proven wrong.