Besides having a college draft, the United States Football League

United States Football League

The United States Football League was an American football league which was in active operation from 1983 to 1987. It played a spring/summer schedule in its first three seasons and a traditional autumn/winter schedule was set to commence before league operations ceased.The USFL was conceived in...

 also practiced an annual Territorial Draft, in which teams from the USFL

United States Football League

The United States Football League was an American football league which was in active operation from 1983 to 1987. It played a spring/summer schedule in its first three seasons and a traditional autumn/winter schedule was set to commence before league operations ceased.The USFL was conceived in...

 would have “protected” colleges from their respective states, whom they could draft college football

College football

College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 players from.

Objective

This process was coceived by USFL

United States Football League

The United States Football League was an American football league which was in active operation from 1983 to 1987. It played a spring/summer schedule in its first three seasons and a traditional autumn/winter schedule was set to commence before league operations ceased.The USFL was conceived in...

 founder David Dixon

David Dixon (businessman)

David Dixon was an American businessman and sports executive who helped create the New Orleans Saints NFL team, the Louisiana Superdome, World Championship Tennis and the United States Football League...

, in order to keep geographic interest in the franchises. With the Territorial Draft, local college or professional football players

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

, would end up playing for the state's USFL

United States Football League

The United States Football League was an American football league which was in active operation from 1983 to 1987. It played a spring/summer schedule in its first three seasons and a traditional autumn/winter schedule was set to commence before league operations ceased.The USFL was conceived in...

 team.

Eligibility

Each team was assigned a five college pool that were deemed to be in the team's region, from which it could select a predetermined number of players.

Process

The territorial selections were conducted by the teams, who communicated their choices to the league's office in writing. Once "drafted", a player's USFL

United States Football League

The United States Football League was an American football league which was in active operation from 1983 to 1987. It played a spring/summer schedule in its first three seasons and a traditional autumn/winter schedule was set to commence before league operations ceased.The USFL was conceived in...

rights belonged to that club, and were ineligible from selection in the regular college draft.

The league's office in turn would send out these lists to all teams, prohibiting them from drafting these players in the regular college draft.