Probowl: Old School vs. New School?

After delaying and pushing the 2008 Probowl into the first week of April, the CFL finally scheduled this year's CFL Probowl for Sunday, April 6, at 5pm at Mr. Toado Field (Vittum Park). While many players have been looking forward towards having the top players from what we'll call the "Old School" (players from the Raiders, Titans and Eagles) play against the top players from the "New School" (players from the Ravens and Patriots), that may not be the case after all because of a conflict of schedule with players from the New School. It should be made clear that this conflict of schedule was not an attempt by the New School players not to play in the game because "they were supposedly scared of losing" because that was clearly not the case.

The New School players were very willing to play, and indeed are still very willing to play, but their soccer season that begins this weekend (and that will continue in the coming weeks), conflicts with the scheduled date and time of the CFL Probowl. So maybe one day this friendly and historic battle for momentary bragging rights will take place, but until then the show must go on. The CFL has fallen behind from certain standpoints, and really can't afford to delay things much longer as many players have expressed their sheer displeasure at the speed in which preparations for the Draft have been made.

So without further delay, the CFL will hold the '08 Probowl this Sunday with the Captains, more importantly, discussing and determining the specifics around the '08 Draft either before or after game. Based on the Tentative '08 Player List compiled below, the "Old Schoolers" can field 5 teams of five-players or 4 teams of six-players, with the latter probably being more realistic. But of course this depends on whether the "New Schoolers" want to have their own draft or just have one league-wide draft. The New School has alluded to possibly bringing in 4 teams and having their own conference, but that's still up in the air. All those details will definitely be resolved in the next week or two, but in the mean time preparations for the Draft must be made where they can, so this week the CFL will check with the players on the list below to confirm their status for the '08 season.

Tentative '08 Players List (Old Schoolers*):
Armando Vega
Daniel Alas
Daniel Garcia
David De Leon, Jr
David Sanchez
Edder Nava
Edgar Alas
Ernie Mac
Ernie's Cousin
Emmanuel Ramirez
Hector Aranda
Jamal
Jesus Menchaca
Jesus Valencia
Jonathan Alas
Juan
Marco
Meño Morales
Naser Musleh
Pancho Garcia
Rene Menchaca
Robert
Roque Favre
Roque Menchaca
Rudy
Sergio Ramirez

*While it may be easier to refer to the players from their corresponding teams as SDA Players or Vida Players (denoting the respective church players attend or are associated with), the CFL does not want those phrases to connote a church-vs-church mind set or an us-verses-them mentality as some Captains have noted last season. Yes, the fact of the matter is there are predominantly two groups of players that come from mostly two churches, but we hope using the terms "Old School" and "New School" will reduce division while helping to describe what group of players the CFL refers to in the two-component structure of the '08 Draft/Probowl at this time.