The Huddle: NCAA FB vs. NFL
By Powers Kane
Love of Sports Correspondent
When it comes to football, I love all kinds.
Whether it’s high school, college or the NFL, football’s the greatest sport in the world.
But, in my opinion, one of them is even greater than the rest. Personally, I don’t think it’s even close. Division I college football is the best there is, and I’m here to convince you of that very thing.
Behold my genius:
Why College FB is Better Than the NFL
8. The Coach as “God” Phenomenon
Ask Alabama fans how they feel about Bear Bryant. Ask Penn State followers how they feel about Joe Pa. Ask Notre Dame fans about Knute or USC fans about McKay. (Hell, ask them about Carroll.) In college, coaches are deities. They never die and people name schools, pets and children after them. In the pros, Bill Parcells, perhaps the greatest coach of the modern game, goes to work for five different teams. I love the Tuna, but nobody’s naming kids after him.
7. Screw Parity
New England’s recent success aside, the NFL prides itself on the fact they have “competitive balance.” Great, so the Giants won the Super Bowl last season, and now I get to watch them finish in the middle of the pack. That’s enjoyable? Here’s what I say to parity … screw it. Why do people get fired up to watch an Ohio State game? Or a USC game? Or an LSU game? Because they win A LOT. There are a handful of teams that dominate the sport year in and year out. Whenever those teams are involved in a game, no matter the opponent, it is a HUGE deal. Look no further than last year’s Appalachian State-Michigan or Stanford-USC games to see how a team’s season can be defined by beating one of the big boys. (Note to reader: while some of you might say, “You’re an idiot. Those games are examples of parity,” I argue that those games are less an example of parity than an example of the volatile nature of the sport. Chew on that.)
6. Stadiums and Traditions
The Axe, the Old Oaken Bucket, the Little Brown Jug, the Victory Bell, dotting the “I,” the Fifth Quarter & Jump Around, Texas A&M’s 12th man, the Penn State “White Out,” the Stanford band, the Gator chomp, the Hawaiian Warrior dance … these are just a small handful of the traditions that define the college ranks. The pros have, let’s see, people wearing foam pieces of cheese, the J-E-T-S chant, uh, the “Hail to the Redskins” song and that’s about it.
Let’s talk stadiums for a second. NFL owners continually rob the public of tax dollars to build state-of-the-art palaces that have the personality of the local DMV and names like B&J Bank South Industrial Insurance Field (oh yeah, that gets me in the mood). I’ll take the grand gray ladies like Notre Dame Stadium, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Bryant-Denny Stadium and Cal’s Memorial Stadium (the most underrated of all). The NFL has one stadium that holds more than 80,000 people. The college ranks have 16! Plus, don’t forget those four college edifices that hold over 100,000!!
5. Different Styles
In college you can turn on your television and watch a number of different offensive schemes. The option, the spread, the “I,” and the West Coast. In the pros, everyone basically runs the same bland version of what the 49ers implemented in the 1980s, with only very minor variances. Every team wants a Montana-like “game manager” with pass catching backs and conservative possession receivers. That’s great and all, but how about having some stones and trying something completely out-of-the-box? You know, like Navy or Boise State. NFL offenses seem to all come from the Bill Walsh Football Academy. It’s cookie cutter, it’s lame and it’s boring.
4. True Rivalries
Talk all you want about Bears-Packers or Giants-Eagles, but pro “rivalries” are severely diminished by the fact those teams play each other twice a year. Now consider the fact Ohio State and Michigan play each other just once, and it’s always the last game of the season. The loser has to live with that loss for 364 consecutive days. A year’s worth of build up and anticipation comes to a climax on one day and then is left to build again for another year. There are dozens of these types of games in the collegiate ranks from the “Iron Bowl,” to the “Border War, to the “Holy War,” to the “Civil War.” Some college rivalries (Harvard-Yale) have been in existence since before the turn of the century. And not THAT century. The century before that! The ballyhooed Packers-Bears game dates back only to the 1920s. So, in essence, NFL rivalries are shoddy knockoffs of a superior product.
3. Mascots and Cheerleaders
Do the pros have mascots? If they do, I can’t name you a single one. In college, you have numerous mascots who are recognizable to the public at large: The Stanford Tree, Bucky Badger and Sparty the Spartan, just to name a few. There is no NFL equivalent to the Florida State Seminole throwing that flaming spear at midfield before a ‘Noles game. What does the Patriot mascot do before a game? High five a plumber in the smoothie line? Great. Further, let’s talk about cheerleaders. Yes, I too have watched the Dallas Cowboy cheerleader tryouts on Spike TV. It was tantamount to watching a Shannon Tweed movie on Cinemax, but with better production quality and less skin. Let’s be honest here, NFL cheerleaders are hoping the game wraps up quickly so they can make their night shift at the gentlemen’s club out by the airport. College cheerleaders are fresh-faced girls who still at least carry the illusion of class (the illusion is enough, right fellas?) and aren’t buried beneath three inches of make-up.
2. You Are Who You Root For
There’s a lot at stake in a college game, including how people look at you. Seriously.
When you wear an NFL team logo, you’re rooting for a corporation … plain and simple. You might care about the result of the game but, at the end of the day, life goes on. I don’t know about you, but there’s only so much love I can muster for something like, let’s say, Wal-Mart. YES! Wal-Mart’s stock went up two points! Uh…pass the mustard. When you wear a college team logo, though, you’re rooting for a group whose performance has a direct influence on how you’re perceived as an individual. It means something to root for the Gators or the Longhorns or the Trojans. It says something about you as a person. A Gator fan is a vastly different person than an LSU Tiger fan or a Washington Husky fan. You carry that with you your entire life. What’s the difference between a Bears fan and a Packers fan? Only the state that they live in.
1. Every Game Means Something
The most repeated complaint about the college system is that it lacks a traditional playoff structure. Who needs a traditional playoff when you have what amounts to a 12-game double elimination tournament? Every game a team plays carries serious consequences toward their season, as national title hopes could be dashed as early as Week 1. In college, games played in August are played as if it’s December. Take this year’s much hyped game between USC and Ohio State. The winner of that one immediately becomes the favorite for the BCS title. The loser has a serious uphill climb (sure, two-loss teams make it, but it’s rare). That game just happens to be in Week 3 of the season. Losing a game matters BIG TIME. In comparison, the defending Super Bowl champion Giants lost SIX games en route to the playoffs. Lose six games in college, and you’re not playing for diddly come bowl season.
(Check out Kane’s Huddle each and every Tuesday in this same spot.)
OTHER TOP STORIES
--TLOS Preview: #14 Kansas Jayhawks
--TLOS Preview: #15 Illinois Fightin’ Illini
--Medal Rounds Begin At Olympics
--Top 15 Players in Weird Uniforms
--Old School Love for Mickey Mantle
(If you’re like us, you enjoy a lovely cold beverage before, during and after your college football games. Check out our sister site, The Love of Beer, to see what we’re drinking today!)
Comments
Todd Hartman on 08/19 at 09:42 AM
I will not watch college football until every league has a chance to win a championship. The NCAA is controlled by a six conference monopoly and refuses to change as long as the money keeps coming in. (Thanks CBS-SEC)All your reasoning for NCAA is really weak.
Jeff on 08/19 at 09:53 AM
Oh please.
The Coach as God phenomenon is exactly why I dont prefer college sports. They rake in the money while their players toil for nothing. Bobby Petrino - college coach. Couldn’t cut it in the NFL. I hate the God complex bullshit.
As far as rooting for a corporation, are college sports somehow pure by comparison? Look at all the money involved by boosters. A Steelers fan is just as passionate about his team and passes on his loyalty to the next generation just as much as a college football fan.
At least with the NFL< there is no pretense of amateur sport.
Ric West on 08/19 at 10:18 AM
If Kane is a typical fan of college then I am so glad I don’t follow this ridiculous sport. No sport is dictated by money more than college football. It controls scheduling, recruiting, and bowl invites. In the NFL nearly everything is decided on the field.
If I wear a lightning bolt on my shirt I’m not rooting for a corporation fool, it’s called hometown or community.
This guy is a moron. Pro rivalries aren’t true rivalries? Is he drunk?
The only one of his reasons that has some validity is #5. Then again if there were hundreds of NFL teams there would be more variety in the styles.
Kane can have his traditions, I’ll stick to the pros where every game counts.
Bob Greasy on 08/19 at 10:26 AM
I am going to take a dump in your mouth.
nox harington on 08/19 at 11:17 AM
If Kane is drunk, Ric West is blackout. “i’ll stick to the pros where every game counts” is absurd and picking apart its logic isn’t worth even Ric’s time.
Bob Larkin on 08/19 at 11:43 AM
How can you say the NFL doesn’t ever have the god complex with their coaches? Go up to anyone in Chicago and ask about “Da Coach.” You’ll learn what a god-complex is right there!
I quote, “Who would win in a fight, Ditka or God?”
“Trick question, Ditka is God.”
steve on 08/19 at 11:44 AM
Every game in the NFL counts? If I see Jim Sorgi taking snaps in the first quarter of the final regular season game, and Peyton Manning isn’t on fire or drunk somewhere, that game does not count.
Ric West on 08/19 at 12:17 PM
“If I see Jim Sorgi taking snaps in the first quarter of the final regular season game”
tell Browns and Titans fans that game didn’t count. More teams cared about it than a December bowl game.
If college is double elimination then any game with both teams at 2 or more losses means nothing. That’s the vast majority of games from October on. Kane’s “genius” list is utter nonsense.
trubleoj on 08/19 at 02:32 PM
CAL stadium underrated? Ever spent the entire halftime in line for a port-a-john?
There are just 2 bathrooms that look like they were stolen from a YMCA summer camp in the entire place, What people didn’t pee in the 20’s? or did they just expect to run out to the woods. Bearvision looks like it was swiped from a motel.
will on 08/19 at 03:40 PM
Great argument. I cannot agree with you more and I think the only criticism you will get is from nfl fans that may have complexes of either not going to school or their lifestyle. Like everything there’s good and bad....fans of both have them, however, which fan would you want to be associated with more?....an Oakland Raider’s fan, or a Texas fan? They’re both loud and proud, however, one is more likely to have a felonious rap sheet and doesn’t need to wear their teams colors b/c of their ink.
One usually will wear their teams color on the day of battle while the other is required to wear their teams color while in battle.
One is more likely to revel in the idea that their team justed killed your team while the other loathes to kill you, but needs to regulate because of priors.
One realizes the realities of a system, however, chooses not to focus on the negative aspects and would rather turn it into something positive, like pride in their region’s history and the role it played while this great nation was being built, and the potential their offspring might some day attend that university and have a better life than themselves. And if that kid makes it he might learn a little something like: adversity, humility, critical thinking, and loyalty. The other, on the other hand realizes that there is no significant history, tradition, and the players possess no loyalty. So they try to make up for it with their own loyalty for their team and false rivalries. Rather than dreaming that their offspring will have a better life than what they were provided for, they gloat in the idea that their kids have to go through the same things they did while openly dreaming one of their kids might be the next first round draft pick so they and the rest of the family, as well as the posse on broadway, (old school reference)can live off the fat of the security of the signing bonus that turns into their means of living. The other fan considers it just that, a bonus. Or, at least, an opportunity for their kid to afford rims bigger, shinier, and spinnier than the rims they had, or currently thinking of buying.
One focuses on the coaches and players on how they make bank, while the other focuses on the opportunity that was provided them to make bank.
One understands gratitude, while the other only understands attitude.
I realize this is simplistic and it is far more conplicated than that. Some have loyalties to both organizations, and others loyalties vary season to season based on key players and where they went to school. Just like many things it’s a greater reflection of the values people posses in this country.
One organization is focused more on pride, the team, and molding boys to men, while the other is more focused on individuals and glory.
We understand one group is not being paid and has to make sacrifices while others capitalize on that sacrifice, but where don’t you find that in life, or in any job? Except, for real estate where no real academic sacrifice is needed before one has the opportunity to earn significant income. And look where that got us today.
The bottom line is the ideal behind one organization is considerably healthier to the individual, other athletes outside of the program that otherwise would not have a chance to attend school, and society overall. The player is forced to go through one organization to get to the other anyway, and without the one the other wouldn’t have top tier athletes to showcase and handsomely reward.
We all can name one or two, where the athlete does not realize this and has wholeheartedly bought into their own living legend and tries to skip this process ultimately crashing and burning because they were fixated on that big shiny 21” rim, before books and common sense.
An nfl fan complaining about college ball would be similiar to a mlb fan frowning on little league.
NFL fans keep it real. Keep the bass down in the car. And keep it OEM.
Dennis on 08/19 at 04:32 PM
Hey Powers Kane,let’s have USC, Florida, LSU and Ohio State play the Patriots, Colts, Chargers and Cowboys. The NFL teams will beatdown the college teams because of the speed and physical part of the game. And if you notice, the NCAA has started to put in rules that are used in the NFL. Replay, kickoff at the 30 yard line, 40 second play clock. Those rules that I metion are used in the NFL. You get pay in the NFL unlike college. And the speed of the game and the physical part of the game is much better than college.
JJ on 08/19 at 04:54 PM
Pro football is better for one very simple yet apparently over looked reason. They sell beer at NFL games and if a team won every game they played in the NFL they would have won a championship. Boise State, 2007 National Champions
Josh on 08/19 at 07:55 PM
You’re gay if you think CFB is better. yeah, I’d definately want to watch the exciting traditions of the university of choke city vs. power house state. You’ve gotten to be majoring int communications, ‘cause you’re a dumbass.
Andrew on 08/19 at 08:15 PM
“What’s the difference between a Bears fan and a Packers fan? Only the state that they live in.”
I love CFB as much as the next guy but this is just plain stupid. Go tell a Bears or Packers fan this and you’ll get your ass kicked.
MrIllini on 08/19 at 11:30 PM
The 12-game double elimination tournament is a CROCK. Any school with a shot at the national championship schedules 2-3 powder puff before their conference season starts, and usually all the big conferences have at least one, if not two laughingstock teams. Thats FOUR easy wins. A playoff system in college means that games like OSU-USC, OSU-Texas happen EVERY year, instead of once in a great while. Can you IMAGINE a SEC-Big 10 Challenge with home and homes for each team? Say OSU-FLA, UM-LSU, Penn State - UT?? Playoff are the BEST thing that could ever happen to college football
marc on 08/20 at 07:41 AM
this has to be the dumbest article i have read in years. the reason college has “different styles” as you describe it, is because most schools can’t recruit the top level talent and therefore have to be creative to compete, example texas tech… your opinion is your opinion.. however it is a really ignorant one
Joe on 08/20 at 08:01 AM
“Dennis on 08/19 at 04:32 PM
Hey Powers Kane,let’s have USC, Florida, LSU and Ohio State play the Patriots, Colts, Chargers and Cowboys. The NFL teams will beatdown the college teams because of the speed and physical part of the game. “
Really going out on a limb there Dennis....Pro teams would beat amateur teams? You sure?
College > NFL x 100
BuckeyeRick on 08/20 at 08:05 AM
Most college games, by late October, are meaningless when it comes to the national championship.
Don’t say ‘Every game matters’ because halfway through the season 90 percent of all teams have been eliminated from the national title hunt, so 90 percent of all games are meaningless in that regard.
Tell Michigan how important their games were after Week 2 last year. That was 10 weeks of meaningless games.
On any given Sunday, baby!!! Oh, I can’t wait for Ohio State vs. Troy State or Wake Forest vs. Baylor or Florida International vs. Kansas or Coastal Carolina at Penn State or Northwestern vs. Duke or Citadel vs. Florida.
I love college football, but given the choice, I’ll take the pros.
Dallas Dodson on 08/20 at 08:36 AM
I htink U do not weigh enough importance to Cheerleaders, look at the hard core slut look of the NFL as compared to the All American, freshly shaved perfect rose’s of college? Then theres always that reason to get up and start drinking at 7AM on Saturday. DD
Jim Tressel on 08/22 at 02:59 AM
the NFL is just so boring. everyone runs the same old boring offense. There are no upset of the caliber of App State over Michigan. Most importantly the players in the NFL are there only for the paycheck, they lose thier love for the game.
college is the best on 08/23 at 01:32 PM
Hey man i agree with you. the NFL is boring and they have sissy rules as far as don’t hit the Qb to hard and they play like they don’t care if they win or lose laughing and stuff with the other team, at least in college they play harder
college is the best on 08/23 at 01:39 PM
I also think it depends on the region of the country you live in, down south there are more college football fans than pro fans( Bulldogs vs Falcons)for exp, who do you think has more fans in Ga? now in the Midwest there more pro fans because out side of OSU. Mich and PSU the rest of there college teams sux
Chris on 09/10 at 07:53 AM
These articles always crack me up. Are the games played on the same day? If you take a side, are you flogged for enjoying the other brand of football? Please; they’re both great for completely seperate reasons. Then why do we always see these, “College is 1,000,000x better” articles? Because it’s obvious that some college fans are enormous snobs the likes of whom hang out at art galleries, and have wine tasting parties, and say they “never;” they feel threatened by the fact that people love the NFL for reasons I’ll never understand.
Look, both are fantastic. How can you not love college football? The atmosphere is top notch, the games are wide open, and the traditions and powerhouses are unrivaled. And the NFL, are you kidding me; you’re watching the greatest players in the world playing the game at its highest level. And their fans are every bit as passionate about their team as they are in college.
At the pro level, you don’t need bands or mascots or cheerleaders (Browns never had them, thank goodness), it’s all about the game. I mean, I watched about 1 and 1/2 hours of college this past weekend and about 7 hours of pro. Why? Because there were no big time games and at this point in the season, I know nothing about most teams. On the other hand, 90% of pro games are watchable because you’re guaranteed recognizable players, teams, and games between 1-1 teams that mean something. Let’s face it, the battle for the jug or covered wagon or whatever is great and all, but if both teams have a loss, and I don’t know a single player on either team, and I risk burning up wife equity by spending a fall Saturday in the house by tuning in, I’m not going to watch.
I love college football, but I’m not so blind to see that it’s every much the corporation that the NFL is. The Big conferences rule the land and make all the decisions and it will never change; small school fans will never experience the thrill of a title, ever. And who here didn’t have to pay their school nearly $50K for the undying loyalty they now have? On the flip side, every holdout, trade demand and PSL takes a toll on the pro fan, so it’s nice to be able to take in a refreshing college game now and then.
Let’s not kid ourselves; the dicotomy of both games make the sport the greatest in the world. It wouldn’t be nearly as good if we gave up one or the other. Just enjoy.
Mike Winters on 10/23 at 01:22 PM
I will take the NFL over college football anyday. You have closer games and an actual champion. In college football, the national champion is about as legitimate as holding a title in the WWE.
Post a Comment