College football vs the NFL

I like both, but lean mostly towards college. But it really depends on how close you live to a NFL team, how good they are, and what geographic quadrant you are in to really like it is what Ive found. I know a lot of folks in Bama despise it. But the main factor is location. The NFL is biggest in the Northeast, and North west. Sure Dallas is huge, but the South doesn't generally support teams like the Jags, Titans, Saints (to a degree), and Texans. The South's product in the NFL is basically Dallas and Atlanta. Its like the Northeast states don't really support Rutgers, Syracuse, BC, and Pitt, but they really support NE, Steelers, NYG, and Philadelphia. Winning carries support

College advantages:

Broadcasting: look at how NFL broadcasting is set up compared to college. There are only 2 main channels (Fox and CBS) and they broadcast regionally, then you have NBC and ESPN for primetime. So its quiet possible that you only get to see the Steelers, Patriots, Packers, and Seahawks maybe 4-5 times a year, and get stuck with the Jaguars and Dolphins like 10-13 times. Alabama is on 13-15 times a year.

Edit: You can get Sunday Ticket and Redzone, but this adds to the big broadcasting turnoff as well.

Location: Also consider that the NFL teams are mostly located in big cities compared to college towns. There are few stadiums in which I know that have that tradition that you speak of. Pittsburgh, New England, Oakland, Green Bay, and Dallas are either away from the main part of the city or are in a small suburb/ city itself. So those generally feel like bigger events than your average Vikings game. The city atmosphere really limits the feel of the game. College campuses are built for the party atmosphere, and its acres upon acres of festivities. Pro is just basically maybe a city block or two.

Politics: No I'm not talking about Mr Flag, I'm talking about Goodell. A rouge commissioner can be very damaging for professional sports because he can steer the league into to some very controversial territory, and really take away from the game. Like the James Harrison and Ray Lewis fine club, Deflategate, mary jane policies, and the Ray Rice situation. Like it or not, the commissioner is at the top of the NFL, and every thing he does speaks for the NFL as a whole. Compare it to college where each conference has a commissioner instead of one overall commissioner. Each conference is affected individually, and not the sport as a whole. Just compare Sankey's approval rating on the issue of domestic violence to Bowlsby's (Big 12).

Stadium sizes: more people can go to a game at BDS than the three biggest NFL stadiums by 20k. No I'm not counting USC's stadium because its temporary for LA rams.

Alcohol- You are going to call me a hypocrite in a minute but bare with me. The SEC doesn't allow alcohol in stadiums in an effort to promote a family friendly environment.

Students- they play a huge part in the appeal of college football

Many others.

NFL Advantages:

Best players- This is pretty obvious

faster play- I actually love this rule of a running clock with a two minute warning because its super intense.

Oregon like blowouts rarely happen- this goes back to the first two advantages, but 63-17 games don't happen that often

Mickey Mouse offenses don't work- NFL players and coaches are two good for the Gus malzhans and Chip Kellys of the world to succeed in

Fantasy football is way better in the NFL- Its way harder to play college football fantasy than NFL. NFL has more known players to form a good team around

The schedule rotation is way better- In college schedule rotations are way longer and unpredictable, but in the NFL you know the Packers and the Patriots will play every 4 years.

Alcohol- If you really need some secret sauce during the game then the NFL is the place to get it.

Super Bowl and playoffs are done better- I still maintain that the Super Bowl is a perfected idea, and the wild card round is still a work in progress. I believe that the NFL playoffs as a whole are better games. I think college has the same problem as the NFL Wild card round does in that there are two teams that clearly don't belong there. Plus playing on a Sunday vs a Monday is way better.

Again I love both

Football is football mostly. I just have a more personal stake in college. The game is changing big time though.


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The NFL doesn't even come close to college football.

I can watch any college football game. The NFL it has to be the Falcons or Chiefs or the playoffs/Super Bowl, otherwise I don't stay focused.

To be honest I have a hard time watching anything other than SEC College football!
Just like right now I've watched Clemson, Iowa, Penn St., Missouri, none are very interesting to me!

Now I'll wait for UF vs Michigan BUT with McElwain suspending 10 players that might turn out to be just as bad a watch as these early games!
Maybe WV vs VT will turn out to be a good game...
Although I'm old fashioned and don't usually watch BigXII football...

As for the NFL I just can't watch something like the Rams and say the Jets...ugh!
Now put the Steelers and maybe the Ravens up against each other and I'll probable watch the whole thing...
Mainly just don't like watching a bunch of millionaire cry-babies on a football field, especially like the felons Cincinnati has...

It's all about geography really. The NFL is predominantly in northern big cities whereas college is nationwide although it is slowly changing, but still in large cities. Personally, I prefer college

colbysullivan said:

The best thing about college football is it just means more, IMO.

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Again its all about geography and success. Very few teams in the NFL live off of tradition alone. Sure you have bad boy fan clubs like the Eagles and Raiders, The committed like the Browns, and the loveable losers like the Bills, but there isn't that much fan support for teams like the Jags and Titans outside of those that live around them. Go to see teams like the Steelers, Packers, Cowboys, Patriots, and Seahawks and youll see something similar to serious college football atmosphere because these are fanbases that expect to win, and are not just happy their city has a team.

But if you are strictly going off the question of " What is better?" it is a matter of opinion that usually depends on where you live. For me personally I like college better. I think the only thing I would totally choose the NFL over college is if you gave me a choice between tickets to the Super Bowl or a National Championship without telling me the teams.

I would say there's more passion in the college game and you don't have to worry about getting stabbed or shot by a fan of the other team.

However, I believe the NFL's postseason is slightly better because I'm not a huge fan of watching meaningless bowl games between two 5-7 teams

Wait, what about high school football? I love all 3.

Roll Tide!!!

I think - to a point - it's an environment thing.

WHAT made SEC football so popular in the first place? Lewis Grizzard had a theory about it that I'll summarize.

Except for Vietnam - which he said was like getting tied by Wake Forest - the Southern white man is the only American (at the time he wrote this) to ever lose a war. The shame has been handed down for generations combined with Northerners thinking most of us are miniature Jed Clampetts. We can't go get a gun and open up war once again - but we CAN line up and beat the living mess out of 'them Yankees' on the gridiron.


I don't agree with all of that, but it's fun reading.


My take is a tad bit different.


1) SEC football was all MANY folks had back in our more rural society.

Football was a distinctly Northeastern-Eastern Midwest game from 1920 until 1960. In fact, it took a second league (the AFL) to put teams in LA, KC, Denver, and Oakland. (The exception to this was the San Francisco 49ers, who came into the NFL from the old AAFC).

The NFL did not put teams in the Southern USA - Miami (hardly southern except geographically even then), N'awlins, Atlanta - until 1966. By that time, the SEC had watched Auburn, LSU, Ole Miss, and Alabama all win national titles within about a 5 to 6-year span. And back then, the Interstate system wasn't like today so it was a LONG TRIP to go from western Alabama to Atlanta.

Add in the fact that the PRESS was virtually East Coast based. To those of you who deny East Coast bias exists - just go live for an entire football season in California (as I did) and THEN tell me. Granted, it might be somewhat different today with I phones, but I lived there in 2003 and it was amazing how little coverage was given of games going on right then where I was living (national coverage I mean).

Keep in mind that USC won the national title that year - and the coverage we got save for locally was about Oklahoma and LSU even before that match was set.


2) The pageantry of college football.

EVERY team wears their colors. And unlike the NFL, where it tends to be confined to the stadium (with rare exceptions like Pittsburgh), the colors are ALL over. Just walk down Bryant Drive on game day.

And then it goes INTO the stadium, and it's beautiful.



And finally, passion........as in...........


I'll GUARANTEE you there have been MANY TIMES more babies conceived in the aftermath of a college win than in the aftermath of an NFL team winning the Super Bowl during the cold weather season. I realize that part of this is because the NFL dynamic skews older (e.g. 60-year olds aren't having but a few babies as a result of this - just seeing who is actually reading this).


I'd be VERY interested in the childbirth stats for Ames, Iowa in August 2012, which is delivery date after their most amazing game ever, the upset of Okie State on a Friday night.


I'll bet it was one of the highest they ever had.



RTR

81usaf92 said:

Again its all about geography and success. Very few teams in the NFL live off of tradition alone. Sure you have bad boy fan clubs like the Eagles and Raiders, The committed like the Browns, and the loveable losers like the Bills, but there isn't that much fan support for teams like the Jags and Titans outside of those that live around them. Go to see teams like the Steelers, Packers, Cowboys, Patriots, and Seahawks and youll see something similar to serious college football atmosphere because these are fanbases that expect to win, and are not just happy their city has a team.

But if you are strictly going off the question of " What is better?" it is a matter of opinion that usually depends on where you live. For me personally I like college better. I think the only thing I would totally choose the NFL over college is if you gave me a choice between tickets to the Super Bowl or a National Championship without telling me the teams.

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Agreed. If you live in Chicago, New York or Boston you love the NFL. Being from Alabama, I prefer the college game but I picked the Packers as my team as a kid and have followed them fairly passionately throughout the years and buy Packer merchandise and watch their games on Sunday. Playing fantasy football also keeps me somewhat interested about the rest of the NFL.

College FB is much more exciting and meaningful for me. Anything can happen on any given weekend and 2 losses ends most anyone's chance for a Title. Until the playoffs if you lost ONE game you no longer controlled your own destiny.

Then there is the NFL where teams with 9-7 regular season records can get on a hot streak and win the SB. A WORLD Champion.....with SEVEN losses.

tusks_n_raider said:

College FB is much more exciting and meaningful for me. Anything can happen on any given weekend and 2 losses ends most anyone's chance for a Title. Until the playoffs if you lost ONE game you no longer controlled your own destiny.

Then there is the NFL where teams with 9-7 regular season records can get on a hot streak and win the SB. A WORLD Champion.....with SEVEN losses.

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You see this as a weakness of the sport where I see it as a strength. There is so much parity in the NFL that any team is capable of winning the games that matter - the playoff games. Those teams that went 10-6 or 9-7 and won championships were great teams with great players.

As much as I love college football, there are only a handful of teams capable of winning a championship in a given year out of a field of 120 teams. So, even though every game matters in college ball, most games played by those top teams are not really games at all. They are won long before the ball is even snapped. So, yes, they matter more than NFL games, but the lack of parity produces some very bad football.

tusks_n_raider said:

College FB is much more exciting and meaningful for me. Anything can happen on any given weekend and 2 losses ends most anyone's chance for a Title. Until the playoffs if you lost ONE game you no longer controlled your own destiny.

Then there is the NFL where teams with 9-7 regular season records can get on a hot streak and win the SB. A WORLD Champion.....with SEVEN losses.

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But here's the flaw in your argument......until the BCS and then the playoff came about, you had situations like 1983, where Auburn played one of the most murderous slates in college football history, had the same record as the eventual champion - and COULD NOT play the top-ranked team head to head because of the relics of regionalism with the bowl game contracts.

There's no such thing in the NFL as a cupcake schedule. BYU played the 96th ranked schedule out of 98 teams, was the only unbeaten, and won the national title against a joke of a schedule. At least in the NFL, you have to beat 3-4 of the best teams to win it all - in college, you may not even have to play them.

Consider Super Bowl XLV, Green Bay vs Pittsburgh. YES, the Packers were the six seed and YES, they lost six games. But go look a little closer.....and consider who beat them:

1) the Bears, who the Pack later beat TWICE, including the NFC title game
2) the Falcons - the #1 seed in the NFC - whom Green Bay tore to shreds in the playoffs on the road, 48-21, after five days of rest while the Falcons had an additional week to rest
3) the Patriots - the #1 seed in the AFC and best team record-wise in the NFL (14-2)


Granted, they had three other losses to the Redskins, Lions, and Dolphins.

But NONE of those losses were blowouts - in fact, the Packers lost all six games by ONE SINGLE PLAY.

So yes, they were a six seed with six losses......but they also beat some very good teams, too.


And there's only been one seven-loss team to win the Super Bowl - and given the fact they won three road games and then beat the Patriots, the dynasty of the current age - nobody can say they didn't deserve it.


The gap between 32 in the NFL and 1 is much narrower than the gap between Alabama and Kentucky in football.

The NFL Rams were in Los Angeles prior to the AFL.

GrayTide said:

The NFL Rams were in Los Angeles prior to the AFL.

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Well they are back in LA

The Rams were in LA from 1946-1994 before moving to St Louis.

GrayTide said:

The Rams were in LA from 1946-1994 before moving to St Louis.

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Yeah and they just moved back to LA