The NFL and college football play a large part in each others success but which is better? These are the reasons that college football might be better than the NFL!

The NFL is one of the biggest sporting organisations in the world. With nearly 100 million fans watching this year’s Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, it became one of the most-watched Super Bowls in history. The NFL is becoming a big brand in the UK and with the increasing certainty of a London franchise, the sport is only going to grow bigger and bigger. That being said I still prefer the college game and always will.

I will explain my reasons for doing so and hopefully convince you otherwise:

The Players

Yes the NFL has the “best” players, the most technical players, but does it have the hardest-hitting players? Does it have the most passionate players and the players with their future at stake? You could argue they do but you’d be wrong. The NFL is where the money is at for any American footballer and this will always be the end goal. College players don’t get paid a dime. Yes, most have their education paid for them in the form of a scholarship but this is the only remuneration they are legally allowed to receive. There are no sponsorship payments, there are no performance bonuses and there are certainly no salaries. The only way they can receive this is by getting drafted to the NFL.

Therefore I ask you this – Who has more to gain, the man with the rest of his life at stake? Or the man who already has the life? And this is just the elite players. In the college game, there are around 3500 senior college players and only 7% of them will make the NFL. So what about the other 93%, yes some will play with the hopes that they may convince a scout to take a chance of them, but most won’t. Let’s look at the teams of Army and Navy for example. Although these players can be drafted into the NFL this is only after they have completed two years of active duty and payment of three years education cost. The odds of these players being drafted are highly unlikely for these reasons alone. So the question is why do these players choose to play college football? Easy, for their passion and love of the game.

Stadiums

What’s the biggest stadium in the US? Michigan Stadium of the Michigan Wolverines – A college football team. With a capacity of a staggering 110,000, this is far larger than the biggest NFL stadium, the Metlife Stadium of both the New York franchises which holds a mere 82,500 fans. As a matter of fact, Metlife stadium does not even come into the top 10 stadiums in the US, it came in at a lowly 16th Place. The above 15 stadiums? Yep, you guessed it college football teams. So why are the stadiums so big? I’ll let you decide that one.

The Atmosphere

Yes, you get your frat boys, you get the odd drunken lout and of course, you get the students but college football has a lot more to it than that. College football is a game for the family, and with a high probability that your local American football team is a college team, families take the opportunity to attend these events. As these events are hosted by the colleges, you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be a band there. The college band only adds to the occasion and this only intensifies the atmosphere. From start to finish, losing or winning, raining or shining the band will play. Playing their teams “fight song” when they need it most they will help drum up the players on the pitch and the fans in the stand. The cheerleaders on the side will often react to the band and watching both works simultaneously is a joy to behold.

Not to mention the often funny mascots of the teams playing. Usually a cuddly mascot, this helps the kids enjoy the occasion and will often help entrain the crowd during halftime and timeouts. I particularly enjoy watching the tradition of the mascots doing the same amount of press-ups as their team has scored points after every touchdown. Bearing in mind this is twofold, this helps the college game day atmosphere stand out.

The Game

Football is football, right? Wrong! Although there is a major similarity between the NFL rules and the college football rules, not all rules are the same. A lot of the time, the change in NFL rules have taken effect years after the college game has adopted them. One rule that particularly stands out is the down by contact rule. In the NFL a play will be stopped if a player is downed by contact (a touch, a tackle) in the college game as the game will be stopped as soon as a player’s knee touches the floor. This is known as knee down. Also in college football, the receiver must have control of the ball and get one foot down in-bounds for it to be considered a catch. In the NFL, the receiver must have control of the ball and get both feet down. This leads to some truly spectacular catches. I’d also like to refer to the points mentioned above in the player’s section. As discussed, with players knowing that this is their time to shine to get that “big” contract they will try their very best and this produces some amazing performances. All in all the game is quicker, the players hit harder and play with more passion which equates to one hell of a game.

There are many other reasons why I prefer college football to the NFL and to sit here and write them all down would take too long. That being said, without the NFL, the college game would not be what it is. The money, the stardom and the recognition all help these college players play to their maximum week in, week out. Without this, there would be no college and for that, I thank the NFL. I’d still prefer to watch a college game though…