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.
