What's better? NFL or NCAA?

[CajunBillsBacker]

A simple question, but list your reasons why you think one is better than the other....

[CajunBillsBacker]

As much as I love the Bills and the NFL, I much prefer college football for a couple reasons.....

 

1) Longer and better rivalries

Doesn't matter who you are, you have atleast one rival that goes way back to before the NFL was even thought of. Most of the NCAA rivalries have trophies, flags, ect that the school takes home with them. I enjoy watching rivalries face off from Michigan vs Ohio St., down to Army vs Navy, and all the way down to Southern vs Grambling.

2) Traditions

You don't really see many traditions in the NFL that teams are known for. In NCAA you have all kind of traditions.

3) School Bands

To me, nothing gets a crowd pumped up more than a band playing the school fight songs. Also in during timeouts and between plays, the band playing is alot better than hearing Jock Jams greatest hits like in the NFL.

4) Conference Championships

I think it's great that the two best teams in some conferences get to face off for all the marbles.

5) More Bowls

There are 119 division 1A teams, and lets face it, teams like North Texas, Army, La. Tech, and Buffalo will never win a National Championship. With all the bowls, it gives every team something to play for. Then you get in a bowl game, and you play for the championship of that bowl as if it were your own Superbowl.

6) Playing for fun

85% - 95% of NCAA players dont have a shot in hell at playing in the NFL, so these guys are not playing for contracts and signing bonuses, they are playing for the fun and love of the game. Unlike the NFL where money rules.

[CBusBillsFan]

I couldn't agree more with what you said. I love the Bills with a passion, but nothing can ever come close, for me at least, then a crisp fall day when M*ch*g*n is in town. The pagentry...the tradition...you just can't top it. The nice thing about the Big Ten, well 11 but whatever, is that because there is no conference championship and the OSU-UM game means something every year. One of those teams are in the hunt. On the other side of the coin, Army-Navy means nothing in the standings most years but it always a can't miss game. How many times have you said to yourself, "There is no way I am missing the 49ers-Cardinals game!!"

[UConn James]

3) School Bands

To me, nothing gets a crowd pumped up more than a band playing the school fight songs. Also in during timeouts and between plays, the band playing is alot better than hearing Jock Jams greatest hits like in the NFL.

 

I was at the Bills-Lions game in '97, and what to my surprise during halftime, they had the UConn marching band, that was up there for a UConn-Buffalo game the previous day. That was really cool. NCAA does have better halftimes (better even than during the Super Bowl which is just fake pop-ish music act rather than a real football halftime), that's for sure.

 

NCAA has more games, more parity, and it's purer football. What an NFL player does on Sunday for 400K, ~60 percent of these kids do for tuition, room and board. It can be a crisp 60 degrees with yellow, red and orange leaves in full color, but it's just not autumn w/o Keith Jackson, the voice of college football. Man, I hope he never retires. "Whoa, NELLY!"

[JimBob2232]

I voted NFL.

2 problems with college.

1) Lose one game, and your season is pretty much over. You have no chance at a national championship unless you are VERY lucky. Which leasds to 2..

2) Get a playoff system already. Give six auto bids. One each to the ACC, Big 10, Big East, Big 12, Pac10 and SEC. Let them decide how they want to give out their bid (regular season champion or conference playoff champ). Then give 2 at large bids based on polls. Then have a 8 team playoff system with the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and Orange Bowl alternating years hosting the championship game.

 

I have found that unless you went to school at a big time football school, or lived close by one...you dont care...this is why. GET PLAYOFFS.

[CBusBillsFan]

JimBob, I see your point on the playoff, I want one too. I think it is possible, there are just logistics to be worked out. The fact that if you lose one game and you are most likely out of the championship game is one reason why I love college football. The regualr season means soooo much more, every game is a playoff type atmosphere.

[JimBob2232]

JimBob, I see your point on the playoff, I want one too. I think it is possible, there are just logistics to be worked out. The fact that if you lose one game and you are most likely out of the championship game is one reason why I love college football. The regualr season means soooo much more, every game is a playoff type atmosphere.

 

Well, I agree..it means alot more...If you win every game. both teams are 8-0, i will watch as well. But that rarely occurs. As soon as syracuse loses one game this year...I could care less. Season is over. As an alum on a non-football playing school, rivalries are lost on me. Michigan and Notre Dame means nothing more to me than Louisville vs. UCF. In fact, I am likely to watch the game that has the biggest implications on the post season. If both teams are out of the hunt, I dont care. I will go golfing or mow the grass instead of watching the game.

On the NFL, I watch EVERY sunday because just about every game that includes an AFC team impacts the bills, and then there is that pesky NFC which is also entertaining. But im not going to watch the cardinals play the bengals if neither team is in the playoff chase. Same thing, except in the NFL only a few games are irrelevant, in college, especially late in the season, most are.

 

If the bills are 3-5 I still watch knowing that if they get hot, and finish 11-5, 10-6, 9-7 or even 8-8 they have a chance to make the playoffs. Its that much better to me.

 

Really all they need to do is somehow make winning a conference be more important. Win the SEC or Big East or whatever and get a real reward. Not this money to the school BS. Nobody outside of alumni cares(and even that is questionable).

[Adam]

I voted NFL. 

2 problems with college.

1) Lose one game, and your season is pretty much over.  You have no chance at a national championship unless you are VERY lucky.  Which leasds to 2..

2) Get a playoff system already.  Give six auto bids.  One each to the ACC, Big 10, Big East, Big 12, Pac10 and SEC.  Let them decide how they want to give out their bid (regular season champion or conference playoff champ).  Then give 2 at large bids based on polls.  Then have a 8 team playoff system with the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Fiesta Bowl and Orange Bowl alternating years hosting the championship game.

 

I have found that unless you went to school at a big time football school, or lived close by one...you dont care...this is why.  GET PLAYOFFS.

383808[/snapback]

 

College Football doesnt need a playoff system- it is not there for your entertainment.

[JimBob2232]

College Football doesnt need a playoff system- it is not there for your entertainment. 

 

Huh?! I dont even know what you are trying to say...

[Chilly]

I had to go with the NFL.

 

I love college football for many of the reasons stated here, but the game just isn't as good as the NFL. I like there being less teams, that almost all teams in the NFL have a shot. It creates excitement - excitement which isn't created when my Longhorns play New Mexico State or another crap school for an easy win. Plus, having the BCS determine the title game is just dumb. Have the top 8 BCS teams fight it out in the top 4 bowls during the course of the bowl season.

[Gavin in Va Beach]

I love college football for many of the reasons already stated, but until they wise up and institute a playoff system, it's going to be #3 on my list...

 

1. NFL

2. NCAA Basketball

3. NCAA Football