10 reasons why I like college football better than the NFL

I'll start by saying I love both, pretty much equally but also have complaints about both.

But I think I'm confused by the "I hate the sameness of NFL offenses and love the diversity in college offense."

Where is the major variation in college offenses? If anything, the college game goes in a rotation of gimmicks. For years, it was the wishbone. Then, there was more pro style, a trickle down of the West Coast from Bill Walsh. Now, everyone runs the spread. You have a few teams here and there still running more pro style offenses (USC, Notre Dame) and a couple still running triple options (Georgia Tech, Navy) but for the most part there is a lot of similarity between the offenses in college.

 

I pick the NFL because its not hiding anything, players play for the $$ in their contracts (or the contracts they think they are going to get); owners get huge $$ and priceless publicity; only people who get hosed are the stupid public entities that pay the insane $$ for stadiums without getting any real debt payback.

College? Biggest free lunch out there. Coaches and ADs get huge $$, eat wherever they want; players get $5,000-$35,000/yr scholarship oh yeah, and free clothes and maybe free pizza. Ridiculous.

 

With the disparity in talent and dispersion of talent geographically, the college game forces some coaches to implement offenses that provide them with the best chance of winning. The service academies and schools that don't have their pick of talent have been the source of some of the best innovations. The Wildcat, the option, the run and shoot etc. There is always something new.
I also like that most rivalries in college are real. With players playing in their home state (to some extent). They know the rivalry, they grew up with it and some of the rivalries go back to the Civil War days - and the trophy games are an added bonus.

 

10 reasons I like the NFL better than college football:

1. Overtime is much cleaner -- it's actually playing football, not some tricked-up, contrived situation in which a team starts in field goal range
2. There's "Which coach is going to jump ship this week?" Not to mention, "Am I going to come out or stay for my senior year?"
3. Four words: Nick Saban. Urban Meyer.
4. 90 percent of everyone runs the spread offense.
5. You want blind allegiance? How about Steelers fans? Packers fans? Saints fans (when they were horrible)? Browns fans? Chiefs fans?
6. Orange Bowl halftime show. Puh-leeze.
7. College is all about corporate sponsorships, but somehow that's OK because it's under the guise of higher education. Oh, yeah, and the players don't get a fair cut, unless it's done under the table.
8. Really, you have the nerve to rip on Roger Goodell when your side has ... the byzantine NCAA? And the BCS? NC -- no contest.
9. College football's biggest controversy is it has no champion, and everyone in power seems determined to keep it that way. Seems pretty basic to me. (Admittedly, the lockout threat in the NFL right now is very disturbing)
10. I don't watch enough college football on TV to know about the announcers/analysts, but I'm sure there is someone just as annoying as Berman on the college side. OK, maybe I'll give you that one.

 

Why NFL is better:
1. No signing day. And don't talk to me about the draft. There's no comparison to the overkill and ridiculous frenzy of recruiting and recruiting coverage
2. No Alabama fans ... Hell, insert any SEC school here
3. Polls, period
4. No Nick Saban
5. No Lou Holtz
6. Easy to make fun of Steelers fanboi loosers
7. Boise's Smurf Turf (not to mention the red field soon to debut at Eastern Washington)
8. Charley Casserly on CBS
9. Free agent rags-to-riches stories -- Kurt Warner, John Randle, Marques Colston, Miles Austin et al
10. No Tim Tebow -- at least, not for long ('cause he can't play QB with the big boys)

 

I'm definitely in the "college football is better" camp, but that's a great point, QT.

 

And you never have to listen to some pinhead bloviating about the 'pageantry' of professional football.

Yes, there's real pomp and glitter when the BCS lords get together in a small room.