Football: College or Pro?

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Which do you prefer & why?

I like college better (not that I don't like the pro game.)

It seems that more players play because they love playing. You don't hear of players wrecking their Lamborginis, being robbed of $5.3 million in jewelry at a strip club, etc. Rivalries are battles that create resentment and hatred. Damn good teams like USC are possible, and it gives your team something to aim to beat, where in the pros the current state has teams going 3-13 one season, 13-3 the next, 2-13-1 a year after that, guys crying about contracts paying them more money than I'll likely ever see every year....

The only obvious things I would change in college would be a Final Four playoff to determine the national champ, and no overtime in non-playoff games.

EDIT: I also hate the overdone production that goes into NFL games with theme songs and all that crap. I want to see a football game, and sometimes, much like the Super Bowl the actual game seems to come secondary.

[Young Drachma]

I was an NFL guy until I went to a D1 college. Then I just got into college sports because I seemed to have a dog in the hunt. I dunno why it changed, but...even since then, I can barely watch the NFL. Even years after I finished college, it's been that way.

[korme]

I love the NFL

[st.cronin]

I like college, but I can't really explain why. The pro game is clearly a better product in most of the important ways. I just would rather watch college football.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Other things I like about college is how there can be more of a variety in plays. Some teams still run wishbone. You see some wild defenses. Some teams say "run the ball? yeah right!"

In the NFL you get half the league running slightly different varieties of one offense, the other half run slightly different varieties of three others. One third of the teams run a 3-4, one third run a 4-3 with man coverage, one third run a 4-3 with "Tampa 2" coverage.

Another thing I hate is how contracts dictate who you have on your team, but often a new coach has a different vision of how the team should be so you end up with guys like Jonathan Vilma who should clearly be in a 4-3 trying to fend off blockers, guys who are pass rush outside linebackers trying to cover on every play, etc.

[cartman]

I've always been a bigger fan of the college game, even though I grew up smack dab in the middle of Cowboys country. I do love the NFL, but it is college football that I look forward to each fall. I guess it is the variety, where there are good teams and bad teams, and varied styles, such as the wishbone, run n' shoot, pro style, etc. And there is always a huge turnover of players each year as well, so there is always a "newness" to the games.

[Groundhog]

I haven't watched a lot of college football, but I prefer watching NFL, mainly because the quality of play, especially defensively, tends to be a lot higher.

It's the exact opposite when it comes to basketball though.

[Swaggs]

College, by far.

[timmynausea]

A few reasons college football is better:

1) Every week and every game is crucially important to each team's season. In the NFL you can drop a few without it mattering. Even if your team is not in the hunt for the national championship, a single loss has more meaning in college football and effects your bowl game and etc.

2) It's personal, and it's about pride. The rivals really hate each other, and guys on an 0-10 team will still go all out in that 11th game just to try to ruin their rival's season. This isn't really a factor in the NFL.

3) Probably because of number 1 and 2, the players and fans seem to approach each game much more passionately than their NFL counterparts. The big games are like a heavyweight championship fight. In the NFL this atmosphere really only exists during the playoffs, and even then it's not quite the same.

4) There are a wide variety of exciting offenses and defenses. It's fun to watch offenses evolve and teams try new stuff like the wildcat and the pistol. Many teams have a unique identity based on offensive and defensive schemes. The NFL has a lot less variety.

5) Every so often it seems like anything is possible, and I am genuinely surprised by results (upsets, blowouts, etc.) This feeling just doesn't exist in the NFL, at least for me.

[Honolulu_Blue]

I can't really decide. I think I like them both equally.

I guess I make more of an effort to watch the Lions than I do Michigan, but (other than this year) it's usually "safer" to skip a Michigan game than it is a Lions' game. I can't recall the last Michigan/Ohio State game I missed, or a Michigan/Michigan St. game. I will pretty much catch every "big" Michigan game. I tend to watch more Lions' games.

When it comes to games I don't have an routing interest in, it really depends. I will definitely try to watch a good college match-up, just like I like to watch a decent pro match-up.

Now that I think of it, it's true, I like both equally.

Yay for me.

[CU Tiger]

On a scale of 1-100
College football is a solid 100 to me.
NFL is a 92

Any other sports checks in somewhere are the mid 40s.


College cheerleaders are nicer.
NFL is to corporate and sterile.
Even the illegal celebrations arre contrived and half these guys hire marketing people for opinions on how to celeebrate.
Any given Sunday has become Any given saturday.
With the current FA agreement my college teeam actually has less turnover.

[MikeVic]

I don't have a college team to follow, so I'm not interested in the college game much. I love certain aspects about it, and catch the odd game every year on TV. But that's been it so far.

[SFL Cat]

Pros. College football is great fun, but NFL reigns supreme.

[Noop]

I do not leave my house on Saturdays in the fall.

[molson]

NFL

1. Higher Quality of Play

2. I can comprehend the structure of the NFL, what's at stake, who makes the playoffs, and why. In college, the national championship team can be decided by a Hawaii v. Rice game at midnight Eastern time the last week of the season, just because teams in the running happened to play Hawaii. My beloved Syracuse Orange can finish anywhere from 2nd to 6th in the conference and they still end up in the same crappy bowl because they "don't travel well" - so what's the point?

3. Longevity of players on a team - the majority maybe don't stay for more than the max four years that you get in college, but many do.

4. I hate college overtime, with it's 58-55 triple overtime scores.

5. NFL is less corrupt.

6. I can't really grasp why some teams are good and some aren't in college. In the NFL, shrewed player and cap management, good drafting, and good coaching lead to championships. In college, it's because, I don't know - a coach was more charismatic in recruiting? They offered him a bigger car than the other school? That whole process seems hidden, and I'm suspicious of the whole thing. Everybody in the NFL is playing (roughly) the same game in terms of player acquisitions - I don't think that's true in college.

7. I don't get college rivalries. I don't get why it matters that one school won one game when the other school just won last year. I went to a division one school without a clear rivalry, so maybe this is just something you have to experience.

[CamEdwards]

Growing up in Oklahoma, I hated the Dallas Cowboys. Living in the land of OU also helped me appreciate the college game more than the NFL. It's just carried over from my youth.

[Ajaxab]

I like college for the simple fact that I can rotate around and watch a number of games on a given Saturday with barely any additional cost on my cable bill. I like the ability to have access to three, four or five games at a time instead of two or a solitary one on a Sunday afternoon (and this usually teams I don't care about because of where I live). If I want NFL Sunday Ticket, the cost is expensive relative to what I get on Saturdays.

And for all the garbage the BCS creates, it also creates a lot of interest about games I would otherwise not really care about. I'll be more willing to watch a ranked Big 10, SEC, PAC 10, etc. team I don't root for play than I am to watch an NFL team I don't root for.

[korme]

I like college football to an extent, and admittedly, it's waning. By the time I get used to remember who is who and who starts for who, they graduate.

Schedules are funky, nearly every team faces a different level of competition than the next, and although I love baseball, it's kind of like the AL East with the big divisions- much like the Yankees and Sox, you know the Big XII will represent with Texas/Oklahoma, etc.

While that tradition may make college football great in it's own respect (making rooting for underdogs that much sweeter), I much prefer the even playing field that the NFL balances itself on.

Plus, the NFL is the level where cliche as it sounds legends are made, baby. History ends here.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

One of the beautiful things about college football is if your team has a crappy QB that you wish would go away, you know that eventually he has to!

I almost think that the NFL can be too fast at times, if that sounds strange to read, it sounds strange to actually say. But how many NFL games have you watched and said "DAMN WHAT A BLOCK!"

I agree completely that college OT sucks. You can have a great defensive 10-10 game where you would be perfectly fine with a tie... both teams busted their ass. Then you put the ball essentially in the red zone and ask a tired defense to play with its back to the wall. Next thing you know its 38-38 and all the TD's count as real TD's. I thought college was to teach you about life. Sometimes in life you win, sometimes you lose. Sometimes there are no winners or losers.

Pro OT is nearly as bad though, when you see a team line up for a 47 yard FG on 1st & 10... I do understand the need for OT though and believe that the game would be a lot better if OT consisted of whichever team scores first has to kick off, giving the other team one posession to better the score. You want to kick a FG? Better keep the other team out the end zone. You scored a TD? Keep them from scoring a TD + 2pt conversion. Each OT game would end with a football play, whether it be a scoring play, 4th down or a turnover.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by M GO BLUE!!!

I almost think that the NFL can be too fast at times, if that sounds strange to read, it sounds strange to actually say. But how many NFL games have you watched and said "DAMN WHAT A BLOCK!"

Well, this is true. Due to the speed of the play and the standard camera angle I very rarely notice great blocks unless the commentators mention them and they show a replay.

[ISiddiqui]

5 years ago, this would have been easily, pro all the way. But I find myself gravitating more and more to the college game. And it isn't necessarily because of the strength of the rivalries (though that is a part). It's mostly because with THAT many teams you have a wide variety of styles of gameplay (especially on offense). Hell, you still have teams playing the option in college football... you just don't see the variety in the pro game, and therefore I find it a bit more lacking.

[stevew]

I have almost no interest in college football whatsoever, so the NFL is the obvious choice for me. I've tried to follow college before, but I didn't grow up watching a team/hell watching it in general. I somewhat liked Notre Dame a long long time ago, but that was mainly cause of Rocket and Bettis. And really only cause my friends were big ND fans. I suppose I'd try to follow YSU if they were ever Div1-A, but I dunno if that is likely to happen anytime soon. And even then it'd be in some shitty conference like the MAC.

[TCY Junkie]

no Chad Johnson, so I like college football.

[BYU 14]

College hands down. The variety, the intensity and the rivalries make it much funner to watch. I have a hard time watching the Cookie cutter product that is the NFL game.

[Lathum]

College, more games to bet on and easier to predict the outcome.

[TheOhioStateUniversity]

I find College Football much more exciting and being a student at The Ohio State University and a native of Cleveland Ohio...well Browns vs. Buckeyes...easy choice.

[George]

I love the NFL, but I love college football just a little more.