{"id":781082,"date":"2026-02-28T01:12:36","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T01:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/781082\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T01:12:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T01:12:36","slug":"legislative-resolution-could-bring-back-junior-college-football-in-alabama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/781082\/","title":{"rendered":"Legislative resolution could bring back junior college football in Alabama"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA<\/a>) – Governor Kay Ivey has signed House Joint Resolution 17<\/a> into law, paving the way for junior college football to make a comeback in Alabama after more than three decades.<\/p>\n

The last time a junior college in Alabama fielded a football team was Marion Military Institute in 1990. Now, Republican Representative Chris Blackshear is trying bring the sport back to community colleges statewide.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe we\u2019ve got a kid that thinks they\u2019ve run their course as far as being able to play football, well now you know what? Let\u2019s take that career path, let\u2019s now give you an opportunity to play football at a two-year [institution] and at the same time well now you\u2019re gonna continue your education when you never thought that was possible,\u201d Blackshear said.<\/p>\n

Blackshear\u2019s legislative resolution establishes the Alabama Community College Football Study Commission, made up of members from the Alabama House and Senate, along with high school, junior college, and four-year university athletic directors and coaches.<\/p>\n

The commission will hold its first meeting in May and deliver its findings by Nov. 1. The study will examine everything from infrastructure and funding to implementation timelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the feasibility? And the feasibility starts with, what\u2019s the cost? You know that\u2019s the number one thing. My particular opinion is, we start maybe with 6-10 schools, a couple of divisions. I think you really have to dig in and analyze what we already have in the junior college ecosystem in the state,\u201d Blackshear explained.<\/p>\n

The Alabama Community College System already supports 15 different sports across more than 180 teams, serving over 2,200 student-athletes. A junior college football program could open new doors for high school athletes looking to continue their football careers while pursuing higher education.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community college system is really open to sitting down and having the conversation. Because it hasn\u2019t been had in so many years. We\u2019ve had college coaches, college ADs, high school coaches and ADs have reach out saying \u2018Thank you for looking at this… Y\u2019all aren\u2019t promising anything, but at least we now see that there is a group that truly is trying to understand what opportunities are still there,\u2019\u201d Blackshear said.<\/p>\n

With the study commission now in motion, Alabama could potentially see junior college football return within the next year.<\/p>\n

Not reading this story on the WSFA News App? Get news alerts FASTER and FREE in the Apple App Store<\/a> and the Google Play Store<\/a>! <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WSFA. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) – Governor Kay Ivey has signed House Joint Resolution 17 into law, paving the way…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[52,110544,110545,110542,339,7,110540,110541,45258,110543,14349,9,88841,88840],"class_list":{"0":"post-781082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-alabama","9":"tag-alabama-community-college-football-study-commission","10":"tag-alabama-community-college-system","11":"tag-chris-blackshear","12":"tag-college-sports","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-gov-kay-ivey","15":"tag-house-joint-resolution-17","16":"tag-junior-college","17":"tag-junior-college-football","18":"tag-montgomery","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-wfsa","21":"tag-wsfa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116145602209599750","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}