Why the popularity gap between the NFL and College Football is still growing
I write about this almost every year… but August truly is one of my favorite months of the sports calendar. Is that because I’m a nut for America’s past time? Not at all.
It’s because August is the month that football previews start, the Premier League kicks off, and an inevitable NBA trade takes over the news cycle for a weekend.
August is the time of year when everyone feels like they have a chance, especially in the NFL, which, for all its problems, has done an exceptional job of creating true parody in their league.
Something you should know about me: I grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta, so I was raised on College Football (though somehow I also found a deep emotional attachment to the NBA through the person of Allen Iverson). The NFL was in our lives, sure. But college football was “real football”. The pure passion for the game, the authenticity of it all, the feeling that anything could happen on any given Saturday night… those things all felt more real in college than the pros.
But as I’ve grown older, the reasons for championing “amateurism” over the “No Fun League” have grown fewer and further between.
The unadulterated passion for the game?
The majority of great college stars are sitting out bowl games so they can get ready for the draft — an act that would’ve been deemed unthinkable five years ago. Others are leaving as soon as humanly possible so they can capitalize on their pro careers, while some are looking for ways to skip college altogether.
Then there are those who choose to transfer the second they get benched for an opportunity at more playing time so they’ll get better exposure in order to — you guessed it — go pro as soon as possible. There’s no doubt that there’s a special pride and passion that goes into college football that doesn’t always exist in the pro game, but the more student athletes find ways bend the collegiate system to their will, the less it feels like the college football I grew up watching.
The authenticity of college football?
Look no further than the recently-punished team I follow, Ole Miss. Or think about their in-state foe, Mississippi State, who weaponized former recruits against their rivals in an NCAA investigation. Both teams were accused and found guilty of paying players to join their university. Or think about Louisville, Baylor, and UNC who all boast scandals of their own.
And what about the rest of the SEC and other big conferences? Are they really doing things the “right way”, or are they just smart enough to not tweet the NCAA an open invitation to come investigate them? (Yeah, thanks for that, Hugh.)
When you survey the landscape of college football with an objective, “This isn’t associated with my childhood memories” lens, then you see that authenticity doesn’t really exist at the highest levels of college football — at least not in the ways we all hope. Most top level players don’t grow up dreaming to play for the university they eventually choose anymore. They aren’t willing to play four years of football just because they love their school and want to “finish what they started” Tim Tebow style. In fact, most players go where the weather is nice, the lights are brightest, the uni’s are cleanest, and the cash comes in $50s and $100s. Throw in the fact that the NCAA does everything possible to avoid paying players in order to protect their business model and combine that with underprivileged teenage kids setting themselves up for a life of brain damage while being exploited for billions of dollars… yeah, authenticity is hard to find in the NCAA these days.
But no one wants to talk about all that, least of all Kirk Herbstreit and company. But the authenticity that made college football unique only exist for the kids who don’t have stars by their names, and most of those kids don’t end up walking across any televised stages when their career is over.
And, lastly, that feeling that anything could happen?
In the four years of the College Football Playoff system, only 9 different teams have played in the playoff. Only 3 (Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State) different teams have actually won the championship, and 1 team has been in the finale 3 out of the 4 seasons (again, ‘Bama). What’s more? No non-Power 5 Conference team has even had a legitimate shot at reaching the playoff, which limits the pool of competitors to less than half of all collegiate teams. (I should add, I’m not arguing that the college playoff has gotten it wrong, just that we can’t see any pattern of unpredictability at the highest levels of CFB.)
Parody? It exists on a weekend-to-weekend level, and even exists within the bowl games. But the big picture tells us that the rich get richer in college football, and that “Robin Hood’s” don’t make it very far for very long.
Now, that doesn’t mean that college football isn’t exciting on a game-by-game basis. It is. But it’s not always “good football”. It’s just wildly unpredictable football that leaves surrender cobras in the stands and internet redneck freak-out videos in our homes. Which, just to clarify, I am totally here for.
So, what if we infused college football with some things it desperately needs? IE: rightfully paid players, parody, authenticity, etc. What would happen then? Answer: you’d get the NFL.
Now listen, I love seeing people boo Roger Goodell when he walks up to the draft podium as much as the next guy, and I’m not exactly crazy about the “good ol’ boys” club of owners that run the league. And it’s impossible to ignore that the NFL holds the belt as the least woke professional sports league in America. But there’s something you can’t deny about pro football: right now at least 10 teams have a legitimate shot of winning the title — something that you cannot and will not ever say about the college game (or any other league, for that matter).
To be honest, the older I get, and the more cynical I’ve become about the increasingly-corrupt collegiate game, the more I’ve come to appreciate the still-pretty-shady pro game. And while I’ve probably felt this way for 18–24 months, this is the first season where I’m leaning into this and embracing the pro game as a priority over the college game.
Will I still watch college football? Of course, and you should, too. Will the NFL still get off to a slow start? With the current CBA’s rules on practice, it almost certainly will. But all of it’s complications and missteps aside, at lease the finish will be as unpredictable as possible, the players will be paid close to what they’re worth, and, most importantly, Lamar Jackson will be on the field.
I know, this is a pretty cynical look at college football and it’s current state, but it’s important to walk into situations with your eyes open. And even I, a college football lifer, can’t deny the reality of the situation: the gap in popularity between college football and the NFL is only getting wider, and, unless some adjustments are made, there’s no end in sight.
