Abstract
The teams in the National Football League are bound by a set of agreements that restrict the competition and divide the market for playing talent. This article analyzes one of these agreements: the draft, its effects on player salaries, the League's justifications for it, and its impact on team performances. There is evidence to suggest that the amateur player draft system has a restrictive effect on player salaries. Yet, the owners have argued that the draft helps equalize team strengths and is therefore essential to the League's financial well-being. The statistical study described in this article attempted to determine the relationship between a team's priority position in the draft and its change in performance in subsequent years. The actual correlations between these two variables, although statistically significant, were rather low and, thus, undermine the League's arguments.
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