What If…

… Teams could only draft from their own neck of the woods?

By Sam Page

NOWADAYS, THE PHRASE territorial rights in sports usually refers to a dispute over who gets to play on what TV station. Or, sometimes it comes up during relocation battles. The Oakland A’s didn’t consider San Jose as a possible new home last year because the franchise had previously ceded the territory to the San Francisco Giants in 1989. Back in the day, these rights meant a lot more. Before MLS loosened its rules in 2022, teams had first dibs on certain players in their “homegrown territory.” In 1960, the AFL draft started with a territorial round, in which teams could try to nab a college player already popular with their home fans. (The player only had to be locally famous, not homegrown, as the Los Angeles Chargers and New York Titans…

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Sports Illustrated Kids (Digital) - 1 Issue, July/August 2024

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