I sometimes wonder how each sport has evolved, and how players are developed.
For example, baseball runs its own farm system. Top high school players often do not go to college, but instead, go right into the minor leagues of baseball, to develop and gain experience to make it to the major leagues someday. But in football and basketball, the top high school players go to college, and develop and gain experience in the college game, in the hopes of making it to the NFL or NBA someday.
I think hockey runs its own farm teams as well, don’t they?
1. In baseball and hockey, there were professional sports teams around for years before the modern versions of the NHL and Major League Baseball were established. It was almost inevitable that some of these would continue functioning as “minor leagues” even after the major leagues were established.
2. Football and basketball were different because of an unusual historical fact in the development of these sports. Up until somewhere around the post-WW2 years, college football and basketball were actually more popular than the pro leagues. There was never a network of small professional leagues for these sports because a normal “career” for these athletes involved a college scholarship, a couple of years in collegiate sports, and then moving on to something else for a career.
Yes, hockey does have an extensive farm system that runs junior leagues in all the countries that play regularly hockey. It is weird how they have a tenuous relationship with the NCAA- the most promising players actually skip college altogether and go through the junior hockey system. The NCAA attacts players that need more development and also want a backup plan.