Recently I have heard a lot of tallk about how college sports are vastly superior to pro sports. The question I have is are these people actually watching the games?
Say what you want about the prima donnas in the professional game, the overpaid and spoiled athletes, and the "lack of heart" that so many claim the professional game has. The truth is, when you look ONLY at the games and the systems of pro football, basketball, and any other sport you will always find the professional sport to be more enjoyable to watch.
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Lets first look at football. While I don't want to get into a huge argument about the BCS (there are plenty of other blogs for that) no one can argue that it is a great system. For example, what do you do with undefeated Boise State? How can an undefeated team not be the best one? Pro football keeps it so that the regular season is important but not the single deciding factor, making it maybe the best system in all of sports right now.
Then theres the acutal quality of the game. There are bigger hits, better passes, bigger catches - everything is 10 times as fast and 10 times as physical. Only a small percent of the college athletes make it to the pros; it is truly elite.
^ You pay more for NFL sunday ticket than either of the college ones.
How about college basketball you ask? The ultimate system right? No one can complain when 65 teams get a chance at title. And there are always those amazing last second shots to go along with it! Sure, in reality only 8 or 9 teams have a legitmate shot at winning it and there is a higher chance of buzzer beaters if you play around a 100 games, but what does that matter?
The fact of the matter is that college basketball's tournament isn't that great. The fact that the best team never wins is terrible! Whats the whole point of working your #### of the entire season and spending all that time in the weight room if in the end the best team doesn't win? Parody is good, but not when it eliminates the whole point of playing the game. With a 7-game series the NBA always chooses the right champion. Let me say this - if I knew nothing about the Lakers and nothing about college basketball, I would much rather watch Kobe put up 65 points in a blowout then watch a semi-close college basketball game.
People talk about rivalries in college sports. Yankees-Red Sox trumps them all. They talk about how fans are more devoted to their college teams. Have you seen a Packers fan go out in freezing temperature to watch his team get blown out EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY? Pro sports rule. Period.
Very well written, great use of graphics! Way to go! I totally disagree with you that Pro is better of course, but I still liked the post.
College is more pure. Let's be honest here....most college sports fans are college graduates of that school. Pro fans are usually aligned with hometown or geography teams. It's not the same. People move and change their pro teams. College alums NEVER waver from their teams.
Also. The "Fixed" element plays more in pro. You also can't replace the bands, cheers, and the pro cheerleaders *cough*hookers* cough*, now can you?
Good job, nevertheless!
The main reason I think college sports are better is the atmosphere around the campus brings people around the university or college together. Most people live in a college town by choice. I think pro teams get fan bases that have to live in the city because of careers and jobs. Because everyone doesn't root for the same teams, it divides the city and bickering is non-stop. I've lived in college towns and currently live in a big city, I'd take the college town anyday. Hope that made sense, great first post by the way.
lisa - Pro cheerleaders are hotter than college cheerleaders. While the average joe has a better shot at sleeping with a college one, that doesnt change the fact. I agree on the cheers and band, but the pro game makes up with that with better seatings and a variety of different hald time shows.
hoit - A great pro team can actually bring an entire CITY together! Look at the Eagles and Philly; in their run with Garcia all the fans could talk about were the Eagles shots at winning it all.
Oh hell, you want to sleep with a pro cheerleader you just have to pony up the bucks. Well, ... I guess it's kinda the same for the college cheerleader. With the former, it's a clean transaction ($200, ... thanks! ... and a lollipop for my kid, gee you're swell!). With the latter, it's investing in the trappings of coolness (is that a Ferrari?, you're a quarterback AND a National Merit Scholar?, is that Italian leather purse for me?, you're a Sigma Chi?, etc. - admittedly the more difficult, long-term transaction, but a transaction nonetheless).
With regard to the OP - you're simply wrong. Pro sports are nearly always more boring than their college counterparts, with the exception of baseball and sometimes football. Oh, and synchronized swimming.
Last edited by Dave_in_Indy on March 19th at 8:47 PM.
And the Green Bay thing doesn't hold up to scrutiny. What else are they going to do in Green Bay? There's only so much snowmobiling and ice fishing a person can take.
Nice post although I think I have to disagree with you. I guess it comes down to how you define "better." If better simply means more skilled athletes than you are absolutely right. If better takes into consideration the passion, emotion, history and pageantry of sport than college sports win hands down.
I'm not sure if the playoff systems and pay-per-view costs are accurate barometers of the "bestness" of pro sports. As far as the rabidness of pro sports fans as opposed to college fans I still think college fans are more rabid and loyal. You mention the Yankess-Red Sox but that's it as far as real baseball rivalries are concerned. For every Yankes-Red Sox there is a Duke-Carolina, Michigan-Notre Dame, Florida-Georgia/Tennessee/Florida State, Auburn-Alabama, Army-Navy that rivals or exceeds that rivalry. For every rabid Packers or Eagles fan there's an equally disinterested Jaguars or Falcons fan. College teams draw more fans both in sheer numbers and intensity.
Frank - there are a bunch of great Jags fans; just come look at the North and South end zones. I admit the club seaters suck, but when I lived in Philly there wasn't a tremendous difference.
And I am defining better by how an outside person would like the game. For example, i####uy came from China to watch a football game he would much rather watch Michael Vick and the Falcons than Brady Quinn and the Irish. I'm not argueing that that atmosphere is many times better at college games, but when you are not actually at the game (watching on tv, etc) its obvious to see that the pro games are more exciting.
As for heart factor, pro players many times play harder than college players - when you are losing 40-3 in college no one cares, when the players are losing 40-3 in the pros they still have to give it their all to feed their families.
Not bad for a first post. I think the main reason some people prefer college sports is that they aren't playing for money (supposedly) and, in basketball for example, the season has much fewer games so fans perceive that you get more of a consistent effort than in the pros. And I'm sure the game seems more pure in the eyes of many. But you are right-the quality of play and of the athletes in the pros are far superior.
I really liked the post but I cant agree with you on this one especially when it comes to College Football. There isnt an NFL team that seats over 100000 fans and they couldnt fill it if they could. Not even in Green Bay! There is no comparison to the atmosphere of college to pro football. MORE TO FOLLOW
You know how they say it is easier to become the champ than it is to stay the champ because there is a loss of hunger once you have reached your goal. The same rings true with pro atheletes. When a player is in college he is still pushing himself to the limit on every occasion in order to improve their draft status or their first contract. Once they have reached their goal by becoming a professional athelete and have made their first millions I can assure you that for over half there is a drop off in effort. It is just human nature to relax once you have reached a goal or a state of mind in which you know that you will never or should I say "should" never have a financial worry again in your life. This isnt all pro atheletes but it is a large percentage of them.
You may find that the average talent level of a pro sport is better but the average effort, passion and will to win will be much greater on Saturdays than Sundays atleast until the playoffs start. I am not saying that pro atheletes are not wanting to win while they are on the field but they are certainly not as interested in the sacrifices necessary to the preparation of winning the game. Why do you think that so many players all of a sudden get better in a contract year?
Last edited by BUCKEYEZZ on March 20th at 9:42 AM.
Money does a lot of strange things to a lot of people and you cant expect the fraternity of pro atheletes to be any different. I am not even going to get into how free agency and non-guaranteed contracts poison the NFL's fan base. Its hard to have a favorite team and root for your players when there is no telling who's going to be there the next year! College Football > Pro Football, it isnt even close!!!
i agree 100% pro sports waaaaaaayyyy better. college sports are followed by bumpkins in middle america where its the only game in town. get an NFL team in LA and no one cares about the trojans again. write an article on St. Johns, then write one on the knicks...see what happens. same with bc and the pats. same with the longhorns and the cowboys. its an inferior product.
Last edited by JoshQPublic on March 20th at 12:12 PM.
God dammit. "Bumpkins in middle America"? Son of a ####.
The gloves are off, my man, the gloves are off. I haven't had an elephant ear in ten days, nor have I taken my bass boat out for a spin for at least four days.
I hate it when you Ivy Leaguers get all high and mighty with your "oooh, we don't like college sports, it's for bumpkins" and "I know which fork to use to eat my biscuits 'n gravy with" snooty New England attitudes. You take your Tom Brady's and your Derek Jeter's and shove 'em up your rear end. We'll take Larry Bird and Tony Stewart any day.
Bumpkins my hiney. We're the heartland and don't you gosh-darned forget it.
Last edited by Dave_in_Indy on March 20th at 5:07 PM.
Josh...LA has 2 pro teams and they are called USC in football and UCLA (and soon-to-be USC) in basketball. We are a college city. If we were a pro team city, how do you explain the fact that the NFL can't keep a team here?
Yeah, hawt, I *did* see the NBA, & here's what I saw, save for a scant few Shawn Marion's, Josh Howards's, Mike Bibby's, TD's, etc. I saw a bunch of grown men running around making jackasses of themselves. Sucker punching other players, bashing other grown men in the face with their elbows because Kobe is such a wannabe primadonna that he just couldn't get it done against the lock-down boys like Bruce Bowen & Doug Christie so he started smashin' 'em in the face to try & get even. Looks like he kind of got himself into a bad habit there. I saw Dorkius Miles get in the face of defense shredding/defense playing Championship point man Mo Cheeks to tell him what the game was about. I saw a bunch of wannabe primadonnas runnin' around with poor fundamentals, no clue on defense, almost no clue of what team basketball is on either end of the floor. Pretending they knew how to play basketball. Save for maybe 15% who came from quality 4-yr. college programs where they actually learned some how to play basketball, where they were actually listening to the coach - rather than being the ones who scraped by on talent.
I saw a bunch of high school kiddies mucking up the league with abysmal fundamentals, defense & all-about-me&money attitude problems.
I saw headlines seemingly every day about the latest felon from the NBA, or the latest wife-beater.
I saw referees that couldn't handle an elementary school game.
Good riddens to the NBA - this March Madness fan won't miss it one iota.
Excellent first post. However, I disagree wholeheartedly. I won't get into detail, I've already posted my reasons why on my own blog. I also enjoy such nuances as learning about new players and catching the next Kevin Durant when you know little or nothing about them. The College landscape changes every year, and every year we always have that chance of a new kid on the block. Pro sports, there are 30-some teams in every league. Everybody knows them, and everybody knows who their players are. Only the few rookies who make an impact are new to the scene.
One of the things that has really hurt the college game, whether we want to admit it or not, is the early defection of college players to the pros, something which very rarely happened in the past. And the college game has suffered. Sure, it's still competitive, bacause every school is in the same boat, and it has leveled the playing field in another way, also. The smaller schools, a.k.a. mid-majors, tend to be able to keep their good players for longer than the big powerhouse schools. So they are all more equal now. But the overall qualilty of play in college has declined. Go back and look at some of the truly great college basketball and football teams before the 1990s. Most of them had several players who were there the full four years. I'm not trying to knock the current teams, but the fact of the matter is that any of the last five NCAA basketball champs played nowhere near the quality of ball teams like the '76 Indiana squad, for example. There are countless more examples, but I think you get my point.
Hey, if this is your first post, that's awesome! What I've been trying to figure out is what Randle El was doing on defense....ha ha. This is a tough call for sure. I like them both. And there are things I dislike about them both. With college players leaving early with more popularity every year, that is indeed hurting the quality of play. (easpecially basketball) But I love watching it all to be truthful. College or Pro, I'm there.
I agree with Lisa when it comes to LA. As long as Pete C is the coach of USC, you might as well forget about NFL football in LA. Only 2 teams Lisa? UCLA is starting to hold up their end on the grid iron and as you mentioned SC is about to start holding their own in some hoops. It must be nice to have a cross town rivalry that is competitive without the drama and fragile egos of the Pro Athelete.
Nice post hawt, but I think you have to break it down a little further.
I am definitely a college sports guy, and I definitely disagree with you on the broad question "which is better?" If we are comparing football, then I say college. I go to OSU games and I go to Bengals, Browns, Steelers, Bears, and some Colts games. All are fun. They serve beer at the pro-games so that part is better. The traditions and allegiances that exist in college football simply do not exist at the pro-level.
Basketball, again college is better. They actually play defense and care about winning a title versus what their scoring average is and how that translates to $$$ long term contracts. The future NBA and NFL guys are surrounded by a bunch of dudes who are never going to play again after college...professionally, so the effort and teamwork is better. Just my opinion.
I'll give you baseball and hockey, but only because the following in college isn't comparable to football and b-ball. Plus there is little TV coverage.
All I know is I kept trying to watch the Cavs-Mavs game last night, but somehow kept switching to the NIT games.
It definitely depends on where you live and what college (if any) that you attended.
You are right about OJ Mayo. I should apologize to Lisa now for the problems he will likely cause in his one and only college year. He was thrown out of Cinicinnati College Hill 3 times his junior year which is why he went to WV for his senior year. You know its bad when you have been basically recruited (all of that guardian stuff is BS) to play at a high school where you are receiving superstar treatment and they still have to throw you out of school 3 times in a school year. You have to wonder how many times he deserved to be thrown out and wasnt. There are far too many bad influences in his head telling him how great he is and this started long before he was even in high school. Hopefully SC can contain his ego and behavior enough to get him through an entire basketball season because there is certainly no stopping him at this point.
Some pro sports are better than college and vice versa.
Pro hockey is ten times better than college hockey.
Pro football is better than college football.
College basketball is ten times better than pro basketball.
Pro baseball is better than college baseball.
I will just say that your comment about college basketball never getting the true champion is the most asinine thing ever. How can it not be the champion?
LetsGoBuffalo, the reason I say that the NCAA Tournament does not always crown the best team is because it is single elimination where the regular season means absolutely nothing. If your team goes 30-0 it really doesnt mean a lot except that you will get to the second round. While this is more exciting to fans, it doesn't reward the teams that did good the entire season. Also, since it is a single elimination tournament the best team has a good shot of getting out if they have 1 bad shooting night or a few bad calls from the ref - if they played even 3 games this would be a lot more fair.
But I do think that the team that gets out of the tournament is deserving LGB, sorry if I worded it wrong. I just don't beleive that that team is usually the actual best.
Good first post even though you tell me what I already know in one context. I would expect that the physical play (bigger hits) would be better in the pros. They are, after all, physically superior and have developed skill levels that make them the cream of the crop. I would expect this. I can't give it up to the pros though. For all of the great plays, systems, etc., etc. the behaviors are immature and lacking in common sense. I would expect professional athletes to be as mentally developed as they are physically. Pick up a paper! It just ain't so. If they are supposed to be better and superior then when they aren't they should be held to a higher level of disappointment. It comes with the territory.
Liked the post!
But say they were all mature and well-mannered. What the heck would we ever talk about?! Look, I'm and Eagles fan and I hate T.O. - wish he never had picked up a football. But without him, all I would ever talk about with my friends would be Donovan's mom's soup commercials. Admit or not, we love to hate these guys - and pro sports wouldn't be the same without big headed athletes who made fools of themselves half of the time. I mean, would you rather talk about Alando Tucker's perfect grade point average or Michael Vick flippin off fans? Talk about values all you want, you know which one you would revel in talking/bashing about.
You and I are different. I couldn't care less about the immature and inappropriate actions of these primma donnas. They do not consume my thoughts and I clearly do not watch the games they play because they are playing them. Actually, when they start acting the fool I keep hoping one of their teammates will knock the #### out of them on national television. The arena for acceptable behaviors has changed. Call me "old school" if you want and I can live with that forever. But give me a receiver who makes a great play for a touchdown and calmly hands the ball to the official and celebrates by high fiving his teammates as he runs off of the field. Give me an open ice hit in the neutral zone where both guys get up and pursue the puck and then line up and shake hands at the end of the game. Give me a guy who throws up and in on a hitter to move him off the plate. And after the warning doesn't plunk the hitter in the middle of the back because the pitcher doesn't like what the hitter represents. With that mentality what does the pitcher represent? For that matter, give me a college QB who thinks about his team first, not his personal satisfaction, The media has helped to change the arena and big money has allowed it to change. And if they can't control the idiotic dribble that flows from their mouths after they have either proven how great they are or been stymied by a coach who doesn't understand, then stick a sock in their mouths and shut them up. Thats just me. Play the game, play it hard enjoy the competition and go home like the rest of us.
Of course we know they are not like the rest of us. They are for the most part in better physical shape than most of the general population and they make a helluva lot more money than the majority of the general population as well. And, T.O. wouldn't be allowed in my house anyway! I would prefer to hear about the guy who never speaks out because it isn't about him. But, if I have to hear about some of these primma donna athletes then I'll watch a guy like Barry Bonds who everyone hates but who doesn't pound me with senseless ramblings on his greatness and why he should do this and someone should do that to make sure that he is the most important guy on the planet. Thanks for the opportunity to share. That's what good posts do!
Yeah right! I would pick college sports over professional any day. 110,000 fans at a football game, I don't think that would happen in the No Fun League.
hawt - I think you are talking about two different things. There is no doubt at all that professional sports have the best players in the world competing in their games. The NFL, NBA, MLB, NFL, etc... Draft the amatures and pay them exorbtant amounts of money to wear their uniforms. There is no argument there.
However, If I say that college athletics are more appealing to me then that can't be argued by anyone. You can't throw away the fact that pro athletes often lose the "HEART" that they played with while in college. Having LOTS of money can change the way a 22 year old views the world, his sport and the fans that pay to watch him.
Tell me that the NCAA basketball tournament hasn't been more exciting, more intriguing, more entertaining and more satisfying than the lackluster NBA season? The Mavs are running away with the West, the East is pathetically bad and the NBA officiating has gotten worse (if possible).
I think my screen name gives my opinion away on this one.
I prefer college because as I watch professioanl athletes do there thing, I come to the realization that their behavior is anything but professional, which effects the leagues as a whole. This is why I have never been to anything pro related. I refuse to pay some child-acting superstars salary.
In college the players still have discipline and coaches still have enough power and control to keep players straight, except for Miami of course..lol. I go to watch my Tigers play because I love the team and the atmosphere. I donot go to watch some pre-madonna act like he is the spotlight. He wouldn't be the spotlight if it was not for the other 10 guys on the field with him. My advice is stay humble even when you do something great. If pro athletes can get back to that kind of honor, character, and respect then I will change my attitude towards them and go to a game. Otherwise I look forward to the LSU fight song as my Tigers run out of the tunnel.
By the way I enjoyed your post here. I thought you had a well written piece.
I like pro sports better because the players themselves are doing it for a living for however long their bodies can take the pounding and if it is the NBA, NHL, and NFL, then I know we are going to have parity among teams. It's exciting to see a different team win a championship. It's just interchangeable.
t
