SAN FRANCISCO -- The A11 Professional Football League has become a reality for a pair of former Piedmont High coaches with lofty goals, which now includes luring quarterback Tim Tebow.

Kurt Bryan and Steve Humphries, co-founders of the league that will launch later this year with two showcase games, on Thursday officially announced the creation of a new spring football league they've spent more than three years pursuing.

The A11FL will play its first full season in the spring of 2015 and have eight teams, including the San Francisco Bay Area Sea Lions. ESPN will serve as the broadcast partner for the two showcase games -- May 17 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., and June 5 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas -- and will broadcast games weekly during the inaugural season in 2015.

Six of the eight teams were announced Thursday, with the final two host cities to be determined. The league purchased names from the old USFL, giving a familiar feel to several of the teams. There will be the Los Angeles Express, New Jersey Generals, Dallas Wranglers, Chicago Staggs and Tampa Bay Bandits.

Scott McKibben, a former executive director of the Rose Bowl, will serve as the league's chief executive officer and commissioner. Former NFL player, scout and football executive Michael Keller is the president and chief operating officer.

Their goal is to create a league that's complementary to the NFL and provides an affordable alternative for football fans with average ticket prices of about $30.

"We want to be able to make it available to young sports fans, boys and girls, and everybody who doesn't always get a chance to go to a major league game and tailgate and have that great experience that we as Americans kind of look at now as our right," McKibben said.

A home venue for the Sea Lions has not be determined but McKibben said they've explored the possibilities of playing at Stanford Stadium, Cal's Memorial Stadium and the new Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara.

The only venues already in place are the Bandits at Raymond James Stadium, also home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the Wranglers' site at the Cotton Bowl.

The league will allow, but not require, use of the A11 offense that Bryan and Humphries co-created in 2007 when Bryan was the head coach and Humphries was the offensive coordinator at Piedmont High.

The offense utilizes two quarterbacks in a scrimmage kick formation (one quarterback lined up at least seven yards behind the line of scrimmage). That allows every player on the field to wear an eligible number (1-49, 80-99), and through a variety of pre-snap shifts, all 11 players are potentially eligible to catch a pass.

The offense's effectiveness at the high school level was later limited by a 2009 rule change from the National Federation of State High School Associations that required at least four players numbers wear 50-79, thus making them ineligible to catch a pass. Piedmont appealed for the California Interscholastic Federation to not adopt the NFHS change, but was rejected.

Two years later, Bryan and Humphries stepped down at Piedmont to pursue an "amazing football opportunity," Bryan said at the time. He had a 52-43-1 record in two stints at Piedmont. The Highlanders went 15-7 during the two seasons the A11 was fully utilized and 8-14 in the two seasons after the NFHS effectively banned it.

All of that made Thursday a particularly satisfying day for Bryan.

"With the amount of national support that the A11 offense had built up to that point and for us to present that and then get shut down was extremely disappointing," Bryan said. "To be here today, a new spring pro football league centered around the A11 offense, is a great thing for everybody, including the NFHS and the CIF."

Bryan remembers hearing that innovation such as the A11 needed to "come from the top" to be accepted at the high school level and on Thursday said, "we'd be glad to help."

The league would also be more than glad to sign Tebow, the former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback who fizzled out in the NFL and recently signed with ESPN to be a college football analyst.

"We have made an offer to Tim Tebow," McKibben said. "We've had probably three or four discussions with people in the Tebow camp. We'd love to have Tim Tebow join our league. we think that if Tim came to play in the spring, he could still very much honor his obligations to ESPN."

Bryan, who will be a candidate for the Sea Lions head coaching job, and Humphries agreed that Tebow would be a great fit for the league and the offense.

"With everybody spread out, you have a 230-pound quarterback who can run and throw and run the speed option and the read option," Bryan said of Tebow. "He is the ideal A11 quarterback."

The league will look to fill its rosters from the surplus of college players who can't find a spot in the NFL. The first step is compling 150 players to play in the two showcase games. Those players will later be assigned to rosters through a dispersal draft. Teams will have rights to regional players so, for example, the Tampa Bay Bandits would have rights to Tebow, a Jacksonville, Fla., native.

The league hopes to line up its eight head coaches soon and they will all be part of the staffs for the showcase games before taking over their respective teams.

The A11FL could become a competitor for players, fans and broadcast rights to the Arena Football League, which also plays in the spring. A request for comment from the San Jose SaberCats did not receive an immediate response.

Sounds like it could be fun.

That's pretty cool.


And that's pretty smart.

But the name is pretty weird!

As a USFL fan I am pumped for this and will go to a Generals game for sure.

But I agree Linda, the name stinks, although it is the name of the formation the founders came up with which should be interesting to say the least.

Spring football baby! I hope Philly gets one of the other 2 teams but I doubt it.

Yet another attempt at a USA Football minor league. Don't know why only baseball has ever succeeded........... the colleges maybe ($$$$$$$$$$)?

Probably Geff, but we shall see. This league isn't minor league -it's a Pro league but they will develop guys for the NFL at the same time.

By the way, minor league hockey is very successful.

Yep, and we've even got a minor league hockey team less than 20 miles from Geff...

We shall have minor league hockey coming to LI soon (and it will be Islanders who?).

Assuming you're talking about the Seattle Thunderbirds, then technically not Minor League, but Junior League. The players are mostly in high school.

They're also secretly a rescue organization with cool vehicles.

This is a pretty cool idea.

I think the idea of a developmental league for players not ready for NFL level competition is a great idea.

Perfect place for Tebow.

When do the Tampa Bay Tebows kick off?

I'm also not really into Soccer & Hockey. I feel somewhat similar to them as Pete does to the WNBA, which I moderately enjoy.

I'd watch Tebow in this new league, he is fun to watch.

I didn't even see that part!

The USFL did territorial rights too which I think is why Reggie White was on Memphis (although I might be wrong on that).

This league could work although I'm not 100% sold on that offense. Nonetheless, it is a league primed for a guy like Tebow.

Lost me at the 2 QB, 11 eligible receivers part. Doesn't sound like something I'd watch.

Realistically they will only throw to the usual suspects-you're not gonna want to do too many fly patterns with an offensive lineman.

I have to see what it looks like-these guys did it in high school in CA.

It would be great to tell the guard to go out a run a down and out!

Sounds a bit like flag football, everyone go,out and run routes.

I didn't see that part.

Why do they do this? Why not just adopt the same rules as the NFL?

It's the one part I'm not fond of, but I need to see it first.

I think they are trying to not be another failed football league playing by the same rules as the NFL.

Might be too gimmicky, but again until I see it I will wait to judge it. But I'd prefer regular old football.