Top 5 Reasons Why College Football is Better than the Pros

Now I know I might catch alot of flack for this one, because everyone and their brother will always scream about the lack of a college football playoff, but hear me out.  But in the current lockout world of the NFL, I feel like the college level should get some much deserved love.

Here are the top five reasons why college football is better than the pros:

5.  NO SUCH THING AS A LOCK - If the past few seasons of college football have taught us anything it is this: nothing is absolute.  Look back over the last few seasons and find a team that has led wire to wire from preseason #1 ranking all the way to a BCS title.  You're not gonna find it.  The college football landscape has become such a competitve minefield that the top ten acts more like a revolving door as opposed to a staunch list of contenders.  It's the unpredictability of it all that makes it so much fun to watch.  Remember Kentucky beating LSU in triple OT in 2007? How about a Stanford team coming off a one win campaign in 2006 beating USC in Pasadena the next year? Or the last few seasons where we have seen the number 2 team in the country falling in consecutive weeks?  You can't script stuff like this.  Boise State's first trip to the Fiesta Bowl?  What about Vince Young leading the Longhorns over the seemingly invincible Trojans a few years ago in Los Angeles?  Appalachian State anyone??? And the list goes on and on.  With the prospect that anything can happen (and often does), college football keeps us guessing every step of the way.

4.  ON CAMPUS ENERGY DURING GAME WEEK -  Franchise's don't have a built in fanbase that lives with the players for the entire week leading up to the game, but college programs do.  All week long, kids on campus are planning for the Saturday matchup.  At your bigger, marquee programs, it's all anyone can talk about (and that includes the profs).  The hype, the anticipation, the plans for tailgating, the "pregaming" (if you went to college you know what I"m talking about) - all of it contributes to absolute madness on Saturday.  In the pros, fans show up on Sunday, tailgate, watch the game and have a good time and then go home.  And they'll do it again the next home game, but it also doesn't compare to how the students prep during a game week.



Lane Stadium at Virginia Tech



3.  COLLEGE STADIUMS - the Rose Bowl in Pasedena; the Big House in Ann Arbor; Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, VA; Happy Valley, PA; Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe; and the list goes on and on and on.  Those stadiums......every college FB stadium isn't just packed on Saturdays, THEY'RE ALIVE. 

The stadium becomes a living, breathing, screaming force that you just can't compare to any other venue.  Typically, most universities reside in small towns where the entire population is devoted to that team, their success and their failures.  Alumni returning to the stands and sidelines, the undergrads, the townies, everyone in that stadium is so much a part of that hometown team......it just can't be beat!  I'm not taking away from Qualcomm Stadium or the RCA Dome or Heinz Field or even Lambeau, or any other NFL sites.  They're great too, they just don't compare.  Don't believe me?  Think back to your days in college when your school's big rival came to town, and you'll know what I'm talking about.

2.  NO AGENTS, NO CONTRACTS, JUST SPORTS - no one can honestly sit there and tell me that the huge contracts, the bonuses, the labor disputes, the holdouts, and all the other drama from some of the games prima donna players makes the sport better for the fans.  In college, you have a bunch of kids who are playing their hearts out to fullfill a dream, an ultimate goal.  FOR THE MOST PART, they aren't corrupted by the business of being a professional (just forget about Reggie Bush and Terrelle Pryor for a moment), they are filled with pride for their school, their teammates and the opportunity to be the best.  Notice I highlighted the word opportunity, because in its purest form, that's what college football is: a chance at greatness through sheer will and heart.

1.   COLLEGE FOOTBALL RIVALRIES - I know that we've got some pretty healthy rivalries in the pros; Cowboys v. Redskins, Packers v. Bears, Chiefs v. Broncos - but they are not on the same level.  The absolute intensity of a rivalry game in the NCAA is palpable, it's something you can feel in the air.  Only in college ball can you lose 8 or 9 games, yet if you beat your rival it could be considered a winning season (ala Army v. Navy).  And in the NFL, rivalries come and go along with the free agents that make up the teams.  They die down to insignificance during the franchise's slumps, not in college ball.  Remember when Jim Tressel was first hired as Ohio State's head coach a few years back?  During his remarks at his first press conference he stated the number of days until the next season's showdown with Michigan.  He knew just like everyone else how much rivalries are a part College Football and this country.  In those games - the Ohio State/Michigan game, the AZ State/ Univ of Arizona game, Auburn v. Alabama - the rivalry never dies! 
  
You may agree with me, you may disagree with me, I don't care.  But college football is better than pro football for the same reason we love the 1980 US Hockey team so much.  It's kids brought together from different backgrounds who are willing to sacrifice everything for that unknown, that chance at greatness.

MMA: The Cure for the Summertime Sports Blues

Well, summer is in full swing now, which means that we have officially entered the most boring part of the sports calendar.  It's that lull period immediately after the NBA Finals ends and we are left with nothing but two and a half months of meaningless baseball games.  Now I say meaningless because the season is six months long, with 162 games.  Most, if not all playoff spots are decided in the final weeks of the season in September, meaning that it's unlikely you'll see division winners lead wire to wire in a season.  It's just too long and taxing a time period to actually get invested in every single game along the way.  So, we can all pick up our interest again when the division races are coming to an end in September and we can start to care again in October once playoffs begin. 

But what do we do with the rest of the summer??  Normally we would have NFL offseason talk and approaching training camps to talk about, as well as the NFL Preseason in August.  We probably would also start getting our fantasy football leagues organized.  But, not so much this year.  At last check, it appears we are still about a month away from a new CBA being signed at best, which will cause a truncated free agency and offseason period.  Most likely, it will also cause some of the preseason games to go away in order to let the players adequately prepare for the regular season, and in order to start the season in time.  So how do we fill the void? 

Mixed Martial Arts is there for you my friends.  MMA is the fastest growing sport in the world (that's actual truth, not just a line that UFC Prez Dana White likes to say all the time).  It's emerging in countries around the world as the premier combat sport, overtaking long time traditional combat sports such as boxing and wrestling.  And there is no bigger stage than the fights put on by the Zuffa Corporation.  They own the UFC and Strikeforce, the two biggest MMA promotions in the world.  And the next two months are jammed with big, compelling fights that are either for world championships or will have impact on who will be future contenders for these titles.  Over the next two months, these two organizations will be putting on 6 full fight cards, which is more than enough to fit the bill and get us to (hopefully) the NFL preseason.

But I hope that if you do end up ordering any of these fights, or heading your local bar to check them out that you give it a chance.  This isn't the oldtime UFC with truckers wearing jean shorts brawling behind cheap chain link fences.  These are serious athletes that combine multiple disciplines (boxing, kickboxing, muy thai, wrestling, Brazilian Jui Jitsu) to compete in a REAL FIGHT.  I say real fight, because in MMA the fight can go anywhere.  It's not just an opponents hands you have to worry about, or his kicks, or his submissions and grappling prowess, or being slammed to the ground by his wrestling, it's all of the above.  You have to be a complete fighter to be a Mixed Martial Artist, and that's what you see when you watch these fights.  You see well rounded skill, dedication, athleticism and power.  Fighting is something every human being can relate to.  Not everyone can throw a football like Peyton Manning, or throw it down like Dwight Howard, or swing a bat like Ryan Howard, but we all can throw a punch, a kick, or take somebody to the ground (or we want to). 

That's what you get with MMA.

5 Reasons Anyone With A Brain Shouldn't Draft Terrelle Pryor As Their Starting QB

Did anyone else catch Terrelle Pryor's press conference today?  All 97 seconds of it, that is.  Pryor read a prepared, soulless statement to the media in attendance which was rife with hollow apologies to his teammates & the fanbase of the institution he shredded into a million pieces, and "shoutouts" to his former head coach, Jim Tressel, whom he helped to place on the unemployment line.  If you didn't here's what Pryor had to say:

Terrelle Pryor / Photo by Amy Sancetta AP

"I say sorry to all the Buckeye nation and all the Buckeye fans across the country.  I never meant to hurt anybody directly or indirectly with my conduct off the field and I am truly sorry.....In terms of coach Jim Tressel, a special shoutout....I'm sorry for what all went down and I apologize with all my heart. I love you just like a father. You taught me a lot and I apologize for putting you in a situation and taking you out of a job and place that you loved to be.  I regret the fact that you're not there any more and I regret the fact that I'm not there any more.....I'm working hard every single day on the field and off the field to be a better quarterback.  Also, one of my goals is to be the best person I can possibly be off the field."

Now maybe I'm crazy, but did Pryor ever say what exactly he was sorry for???

No, I didn't think so either.  He read his statement from a script, barely looking up to make eye contact with the crowd.  Immediately after he was finished, his newly hired agent, Drew Rosenhaus, took to the mic and blathered on about the greatness of Terrelle Pryor and simply refused to take any questions.  All throughout the conference, Pryor spent the majority of the time staring down or at his hands, not showing any semblance of a spine.  And even though Pryor didn't answer any questions and said nothing further, his silence spoke volumes to any teams out there that would possibly choose to take a chance on him during the upcoming NFL Supplemental Draft.  But here are my biggest problems with Pryor's conduct at Ohio State and his future in the NFL, particularly as a Quarterback.

1.  Like I said, I still don't know what he's sorry for.

Not one single word of his statement actually acknowledged what he did.  Pryor did not say to the world, "Yes, I sold my 2008 Big Ten championship ring, my 2009 Fiesta Bowl sportsmanship award and my 2008 Gold Pants, a gift from the university that gave me a free ride and the opportunity to play college athletics on one of the biggest stages in the world for a grand total of $2,500."  He just said he was sorry, but for what exactly?  For selling a symbol of what young men growing up in the state of Ohio dream about all their lives?  About showing as much regard for his sportsmanship award as one would a used car that you'd sell on e-Bay?  Or how about helping to destroy the reputation of a proud and prestigious program that will likely spend the next decade recovering from your selfish and greedy actions?  Now he's not completely on the hook for costing Tressel his job, as the coach as well as the three other players who also sold their memorabilia are just as culpable in all of this, but the QB is the leader on and off the field.  So the least he could have said is that he was sorry for being a a bad leader to his teammates and for the program.  But he didn't even say that.  Now with further allegations from an ESPN report on "Outside the Lines" (remember, this next part is all just accusations at this point) that Pryor has been pocketing close to $40,000 each of the last 3 years by selling autographs, the hole just gets deeper and deeper.

2.  Uh, Character Issues anyone???

Look, if Ryan Mallett was sending up supposed Red Flags all across the NFL for alleged character issues that were based purely on perceptions rather than fact, what color are those flags for Terrelle Pryor??  I mean, we have to come up with a new color, like RE-MAROO-GENTA or something like that.  This is a guy who basically pawned a championship ring that was a symbol of his team and his teammates blood, sweat and hard work for a small chunk of cash.  Oh, by the way, does anyone even know what he spent the money on??  He's a 21 year old kid, so it's not unreasonable to imagine he spent it on video games, or beer/alcohol for a party, or a night out on the town.  That's what kids his age do.  But men, and more importantly, leaders of men don't behave like this.  They set the example to follow, not the cautionary tale to be avoided.  Like I said before, the QB is the leader of the pack, on and off the field.  I believe that if he had not sold his items, then his teammates would have followed his example.  Instead, he broke some of the most serious rules that governed his sport, and that's what they followed.  If you're an NFL exec, do you really want that kind of guy being the face of your franchise????

3.  Pryor only regrets that he got caught, not what he did.

We don't yet know if the newest allegations that Pryor had been selling autographs for the last 3 years at Ohio State are true, but based on his conduct they are not out of character and have some credibility at this point.  More will come out of that, and I'm sure that if it is confirmed that he did in fact commit that kind of violation as well, then we'll see another half hearted attempt at remorse issued in a statement.  And who knows, maybe next time it will come via his Twitter account.  But let's be honest here, Pryor isn't sorry that he did any of it.  He's already looking to move on to a payday at the next level, and will do the absolute minimum that he has to do to get there.  The only thing he "learned" from all of this is to exercise more discretion and do a better job of lying.  Now, he'll be able to afford to pay an entourage to protect him from this type of situation and prevent future media bombs from going off.  Don't be fooled into thinking he learned anything from this.

4.  So after ten years, 7 Big Ten titles, a national championship, and a 9-1 record against Michigan, Jim Tressel gets a "shoutout" from Terrelle Pryor. 

Jim Tressel, from wikipedia.com

I feel like I don't even need to write anything for this one......but I will anyway.  Tressel was Ohio State Football.  The sweater vest that stalked the sideline compiled a 106-22 record in ten years and was arguably the best coach in college football, and definitely the best coach in the Big Ten.  Now think about that.  I'm talking about the same conference that includes Penn State and oh yeah, the winningest coach in college football, Joe Paterno.  But in the blink of an eye, through a few simple and very poor decisions, here we are; Tressel is gone and there is no telling when or if he'll return to coaching at the highest levels again.  Like I said before, Tressel is just as much at fault for hiding these infractions from the NCAA.  But according to Pryor's statement, he "love him like a father."  Gee, I don't know about you all, but I never did anything so selfish as to cost my Dad his livelihood and his dream job, then make a half hearted apology after the fact.  I ask you again, is this the type of guy you want give the keys to if you're an owner of an NFL Franchise?

5.  Leaving Ohio State early truly shows you what Terrelle Pryor is made of.

Now the last part of Pryor's statement really let you know what he's all about.  Here's what I'm talking about.

Pryor:  "I regret the fact that I'm not there any more.....I'm working hard every single day on the field and off the field to be a better quarterback.  Also, one of my goals is to be the best person I can possibly be off the field."

Hey Pryor, the only reason you're "not there any more" is because you are choosing to leave.  You know what would have shown true character?  Staying at Ohio State and getting your degree.  Sure, you might have been declared ineligible, or been forced to sit out more than the 4 games you were required to by the NCAA initially, but now we'll never know.  If you think that the year away from football would have hurt your draft status, try talking to St. Louis Rams DE Robert Quinn.  Quinn sat out all of last year, yet still became a first round draft pick this past year.  If you wanted to show how mature you were, or how much you had learned, how about showing everyone that you were about more than the money and finishing your education.  Last time I had checked, you were still on scholarship and had every right to attend that school, just not play for the team.  You could have still worked to become a better quarterback and you might have even had a chance to work on becoming a better person.  But, you're following the money......again.

There is no denying Terrelle Pryor's physical and athletic gifts.  Comparisons to Cam Newton are very just, and deserved in terms of talent and physical tools.  But talent only gets you so far, and it will only get Pryor so far as well.  To be a professional at anything, you have to have some semblance of character and integrity.

As it stands right now, he's got a ways to go before he's ready to lead anybody again.

No Denying Dirk Now

Everything was there for Miami to win the series. 

They had a smothering defense that had only allowed an opponent to score over 95 points two times out of a total of 15 games.  Each of their three stars were averaging double figures and had finally seemed to solve the "problem" of who would be the leader on the floor.  They were dominating their opponents on the glass and seemed like they were going to roll to the title.  But then they got tested by an opponent who wasn't going to back down.  They had more talent than the Mavericks and had the look of Champions.  They got pushed, and their resolve weakened.  Talent is one thing, but as it turns out team is that much stronger. 

While everyone in the media, in the stands, and on Miami's bench was caught looking to Lebron, or D-Wade to step up and make plays, Dallas just looked at their entire team.  And in those rare moments that members of the Mavericks did call each other out, they responded like champions.  Jason Terry became a force in games 5 & 6 that couldn't be stopped.  JJ Barea was seemingly unguardable in the paint.  Shawn Marion started contributing on both ends of the floor.  It was just a complete annihilation of a team that was in so many ways, better than them.


Ronald Martinez/Getty Images


Now, it's not like Miami didn't help them along the way.  In game 6, the Heat barely shot 60% from the free throw line, missing 13 out of a possible 33.  When you lose by 10 points, that's gotta sting.  But I have to admit, as much as I don't like Dallas, I am glad to see Shawn Marion and Jason Kidd get their rings.  Being a life long Phoenix Suns fan, it is great to see their careers rewarded.  Same goes for Dirk.  Look, Miami will get back to finals, and I'm betting they'll do it a couple of times in the future.  So many players have come through the league and put up some fantastic numbers.  They've gathered MVP trophies, scoring titles and set some records along the way (Steve Nash, Stockton & Malone, Charles Barkely, etc.).  The problem being is that as good as tose players are or have been, they will always have the "But" attached to the end of their legacies.  The ring is what separates good players from great ones, and to see these great careers rewarded is something that everyone can get behind. 

Ever since 2006, Dirk Nowitzki and Mavericks have had the "But" added on to their history.  Great regular season, but.....can't get it done in the playoffs. 

Now, there's no denying Dirk.

Lebron James will resond in Game 5, BIG!

This NBA Finals has, by far, been the most compelling and entertaining Finals matchup of the past decade to this point.  The total points margin between the two teams over 4 games is 15.  Games 2, 3 & 4 have all been decided by 3 points or less, and have come down to the final minute/last play of the game.  The series has had everything so far; tenacious defenses, clutch performances from star players, constant comebacks from huge deficits, physical play, you name it we've seen it.  And there's no indication that any of it is going to stop now that the series has come down to a best of 3 games.  But despite Dirk Nowitzki's heroics and Jason Terry's 4th quarter performance in response to being "called out" by Dirk, I still gotta go with Miami on this one.  And Lebron James' game 5 performance will be the beginning of the end for Dallas.

Courtesy of Getty Images

When you're one of the best players on the planet, you can't afford to have an off night.  Now Lebron's Game 4 performance was more than off, it was downright putrid.  He played 46 minutes, yet he shot 3-11 from the field against 4 personal fouls and 4 turnovers.  During the 4th quarter, he took only one shot, a missed 3 pointer, and allowed Jason Terry to make plays in the paint time and again.  But one game does not a series make for Lebron.  In the previous three games, he has averaged 20.3 PPG, 6 APG, and 7 RPG, hardly pedestrian numbers on a team that has Dwyane Wade playing out of his mind.  But the stats aren't the real reason why Lebron will go nuts in game 5........we are!  Everyone on the internet, social media, sports media, everyone who has stated that he is a non factor will end up eating crow after game 5.  All that the ESPN writers, or Dallas forward Desean Stevenson are going to accomplish by calling James out after his game 4 performance will be one of the biggest bounce back games in NBA Finals history.  Lebron has that ability, to just elevate his game on any given night, and given the amount of motivation he's been receiving from friend and foe alike, I think we're all in for a treat tonight.

Look, to this point Dwyane Wade has been Miami's best player throughout the series, bar none.  If the Heat walk away with the title, then it's almost impossible to see how Wade wouldn't be collecting his second Finals MVP award at the end of it.  But Lebron has been a factor in every single game, save the 4th quarter of game 4.  But that's the curse of being one of the best players on the planet; the media and everyone else in the basketball universe will be on your case, calling you out or calling you "soft" if you have an off night.  So, look for Lebron to explode in game 5, silencing everyone - his critics, the Mavs, even his teammates.  He will blow up big in game 5 and be the reason they'll take the lead back to South Beach.

BCS Strips USC of 2004-05 Title.......Yawn....

Does anyone really think that taking "stripping" the 2004-05 BCS title away from USC really means anything???  Oh yeah, and they "vacated" USC's participation in the 2006 National Championship game.  Is the BCS joking with this? 

They can take all the votes they want in their little power room with the board members of the BCS and just decide that the title is gone, it's still not going to erase the 55-19 throttling that the Trojans gave the Oklahoma Sooners that night in Miami.  And does that mean that Texas played no one for the National Championship? 

And just leaving the 2005 title vacated, what does that accomplish?  If we're going down this path, shouldn't they have to vacate all wins from the 2004-05 season?  Or how about this, why not take away Matt Leinart's Heisman Trophy from that season??  Seems crazy, but if we're just going to pretend that Reggie Bush didn't exist as a football player at USC, then why don't we just "vacate" his stats as well.

Here are Leinart's 2004 Season statistics with Bush (pre Bowl game):

ATT        COMP     INT      % COMP          YDS        TDs      LG   
377           267          6            .708            2990       28       69

Here are Leinart's 2004 Season statistics without Bush (pre Bowl game):

ATT        COMP    INT      % COMP            YDS       TDs      LG
336           226         6             .672             2512       21       69

Pretty big difference, right? If you took the second set of numbers, had the same Heisman voters come togther again and gave them stats only to evaluate then there is no way Leinart wins the Heisman over Adrian Peterson that year.  AP would have been the first and only freshman to win the prestigious award.  Or even better, Oklahoma QB Jason White probably would have walked away with his second award because his regular season stats would have dwarfed Leinart's in 2004.  But does any of that really matter now?  NO.  You can't unmake history, and you can't unplay games.  So what is the significance of taking a label away from a team and giving it to no one? 

Nothing.  It's just further proof of how screwed up and useless the BCS is.

The Turning Point: Game 3

How important is Game 3 of the NBA Finals?

In NBA Finals history, the series has been tied 1-1 on 33 occasions. The Game 3 winner has gone on to win 29 of those 33 series (87.8 percent).  Why is it so important?  In the first 3 rounds of the playoffs, which feature a 2-2-1-1-1 format in which teams each have two home games in a row, then alternate home games with each other.  But in the Finals, it's still the old 2-3-2 format.  That means that Dallas, following a remarkable comeback win in Game 2, has the next 3 games on its home floor, where they are 7-1 during the post season thus far.  Soooo....the winner of this game is going to be sitting pretty for the rest of the series.

Will it be Dallas or Miami?

Despite Dirk Nowitzki's brilliant performance in the 4th quarter of game 2, and a much more involved Shawn Marion & Jason Terry, I still have to go with Miami on this one.  At the 7:15 mark in the 4th, Miami led by 15 points and was dominating the painted area against the Mavs.  Dwyane Wade scored 36 points, and was 10-11 shooting inside 15 feet.  The Heat overall shot 17-26 from inside 15 feet, as Dallas had no answer for the strong drives of Lebron James and Wade.  But during the final push in the 4th, the Heat went ice cold and started settling for long pull up jumpers.  They seemed content to work the clock more than work their offense for good shots.  In the final stanza, they attempted 18 shots, but only 4 were inside of 15 feet, and in the final 6:19 of the quarter they only took one shot in that range.  That is an atrocious numbers, and it's not likely to be repeated by the Heat tomorrow night.

James & Wade won't be denied in Game 3

So often we hear players and coaches make statements like "we gave this game away" or "they didn't beat us, we beat ourselves", and most of the time things like that are just ego saving sound bites to try and downplay that you just lost a game.  But in this instance, I'd have to say that's exactly what happened.  The mistakes the Heat made can be corrected.  They just stopped running their offense and became much too concerned with running the clock down.  Last time I checked, the team that scores the most points wins.  This isn't something like the situation that the OKC Thunder or the Chicago Bulls encountered during the conference finals against these teams.  The Bulls couldn't all of a sudden just crap out another star to go along with Derrick Rose and give Chicago a chance in the series.  And the Thunder couldn't just gain playoff experience and maturity over night after having never been truly battle tested by a great team. Those problems couldn't have been fixed, and they ended both teams' seasons. Not gonna be the case with Miami.  Miami will make the adjustments and win Game 3. 

And we know what that means.