I enjoy following several sports, at least superficially, but I especially love football. Perhaps it's in my blood; I was raised in the Denver, CO area during John Elway's heyday, and if you weren't glued to your TV watching the Broncos every Sunday, something was wrong with you. Maybe that strong connection to the Broncos, forged in my youth, is why I still enjoy watching NFL games over almost every other sport...
...including college football.
Don't get me wrong; I like college football well enough. It has its share of exciting games, and it can be fun to watch the truly great players in action, as well as cheer on your school. In fact, when I heard the news of my beloved alma mater BYU leaving the Mountain West Conference and becoming a football independent, I was impressed they had the guts to make that decision. On a superficial level, I think BYU's "declaration of independence" is a risky move, but if they play their cards right, it could pay off big-time in the long run. Part of me hopes it does. And another part of me is really bothered by the phrase "pay off," when it's applied to college football (more on that later). I think BYU's decision is symptomatic of many of the greater problems plaguing college football in general. And it's those reasons, among others, that make the college game pale in comparison to the professional one.
So, in no particular order, are a few reasons why I think the National Football League beats the pants off the NCAA variety in just about every way:
1. Higher talent level = better games. This reason should be evident to anyone who pays attention. In college games, you'll see lots of HUGE blowouts, or an inordinate amount of huge plays by a player or team. That's because, in the large Division I football landscape, the talent pool is spread far & wide. You'll get phenomenal pros-in-embryo competing against old-school "student athletes" (imagine that), or you'll get a fat-cat major conference team beating up on one of its weaker, less scholarship-endowed brethren.
And then, these young men graduate, and the cream of the crop head on up to the NFL. Suddenly, EVERY player is the best of the best. The athletes can run faster, jump higher, tackle harder, etc. And thanks to things like salary caps and revenue sharing (not to mention a reduced team count of "only" 32), a little thing called "parity" rears its head. You may not see quite as many big-time runs or passes in college, but you often see more close games (and sometimes more upsets; the "any given Sunday" phrase is cliche, but it really does apply). This is not to diminish the hard work put in by the college athletes, but it's very exciting for me to see the best of the best go at it in the NFL, where the battles are hard fought and the outcome is often uncertain.
2. No friggin' BCS, a.k.a. Playoffs That Actually Matter. Well-intentioned though it may have been, the Bowl Championship Series is a huge bureaucratic mess that hurts college football far more than helps it. In lieu of a playoff system, the BCS relies on polls (often run by regionally biased journalists) and labyrinthine computer models. Oh, yeah, and it gives preference to certain football conferences to the exclusion of others, records be darned. In practice, the rankings end up being horribly subjective, and as often as not, the lucrative bowl payoffs are only given to conferences that don't need the extra exposure anyway. Quality teams like Utah, Boise State, TCU, and Hawaii will have an undefeated season, steamrolling all their opponents, and never get near the #1 ranking because they were in the wrong conference, or the pollsters didn't watch enough of their games, or the computer algorithm was faulty, or whatever. It's a ridiculous system that adds confusion, dissatisfaction, and asterisks to season after season, and every "BCS Champion" will always endure at least a little skepticism because of it.
The NFL, by contrast, actually has a playoff system. It's pretty simple: Each division winner (of 8 divisions), makes it in, as do 2 wild-card teams from each conference. The teams are then seeded based on their records. Then it's off to the races, with wild-card weekend, followed by conference semi-finals, then conference finals, then the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl champ is officially the CHAMPION of the NFL, end of story. Can you imagine if the NFL had looked at the 2007 New England Patriots at the end of the regular season & said, "Well, they're the only team left with an undefeated record...plus, they scored a ton of points...not to mention our computer says they had a pretty tough schedule...so, okay! Congratulations! You're the champions of the NFL!" Thank goodness that never happened...instead, those Patriots had to prove they were the champions in the only way that should matter in football...they proved it on the field, against a real opponent (they lost, BTW).
3. College football is hypocritical. This is where my "nerd" will probably show, but oh well. Maybe I'm a little old-fashioned, but I always thought that universities were places where you go to, you know, learn stuff. In other words, they're schools. Populated by students.
So it makes me a little sad when schools are given little or no national recognition for their academic quality, or their ongoing research---yet literally billions of dollars are expended nationwide on feeding, clothing, training, watching and betting money on the least "academic" part of these schools--their football teams. It makes me even more sad when alumni of these universities donate money (sometimes millions and millions of dollars) to their alma maters...and it all goes towards creating a shiny new football stadium. Isn't American education struggling enough, without this kind of a slap in the face? This sets a really backwards set of priorities for universities, their alumni, and, quite often, the players themselves.
I'm not saying all football players are ignorant lunkheads--far from it. However, all football players are immersed in a culture that treats them as both gods and commodities, just when they're at the point in their lives when they should be getting an education. Instead, they're often smothered with praise, gifts, & other perks from their athletic departments (like the home given to the family of USC's Reggie Bush, seen above w/some of the other Trojan ne'er-do-wells), and everyone's encouraged to look the other way when the football player decides to get into a little mischief. Hearing about college athlete hijinks in the news is so common by now, it's old hat.
So anyway, long rant short...it bugs me when college football is elevated to such a high-profile position. It's become a ridiculously lucrative business (yes, business) for universities, and it's a self-perpetuating cycle. I'm not saying that NFL teams & players never act up or get overexposed, but at least they're doing their job...they're paid to play football. College players (who shouldn't be getting paid) are getting just about every perk an NFL player makes, minus (perhaps) the paycheck. It's all about money in college football...including BYU's decision to go independent. Sure, maybe they'll be giving their unique LDS faith wider exposure, but a big reason BYU left the Mountain West Conference was its lousy TV network and its low revenue. BYU is after more money, which they'll get via contracts with ESPN and game agreements with Notre Dame, and has anybody heard about BYU's Law School lately?
Yeah...I thought so.
Okay, those are my (less than coherent) thoughts. Does anybody agree with me?
Sadly, I am football challenged. My Dad only watches the Detroit Lions, so where am I supposed to get edumacated?
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