Is College Football Being Ruined?

[belcherboy]

While it's true that the NFL has a lot higher ratings than college football (though college football is still easily the second most popular sport in our country) I'm not sure it's strictly because of the reason you stated. The NFL definitely does attract more casual fans but it's not always because the games are often closer. That is the case to some degree but a lot of people who don't have a significant rooting interest in who wins also often prefer watching the best possible talent available. Also keep in mind fantasy football definitely helps out the NFL's ratings as well (many people who watch the NFL on Sunday are far more concerned about their fantasy team than who wins the actual real life game.

With that said though I find college football far more intriguing simply because the atmosphere of the games are far superior to that of the NFL. If you go to an NFL game many of the people spend as much time in the beer line as they do watching the actual game whereas with college games most of the people there are indeed die hard fans of the team and are fully invested in them. Also keep in mind that while yes games are closer in the NFL teams at the same time can still lose almost half their games and still be in good shape to make the playoffs. That makes many games in the NFL far less important.

College football has a scheduling problem. I live in SEC country (Georgia). Even their fans tune out during most games. There literally is nothing to watch past the 3rd quarter in 75% of Georgia's games the past few years. The same could be said of Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, etc. If you are a top 10 program you will likely win most of your games by 3+ TD's. That includes most the conference games. When you play 12 regular season games and 8-9 of them are blowouts, it's tough to compete against the NFL. There is not a lot of excitement in the vast majority of your games. That's why the NFL is king because it literally is "any given Sunday".

On top of all that, 85% of college football programs have a 0% chance of getting a playoff spot, let alone winning a national title. There is just too much of an advantage with the top 15 programs over the rest of the college football. I've got friends who have had season tickets to Georgia Tech for the past 20 years. They know going into every season that the best they can hope for is an upset here or there, and maybe sneak into a ACC title game every once in a while. That is the same hope for 100+ other football teams out of the 133 teams in Division I. Most don't even dream of a playoff spot...they just want to compete/beat their rival. It's kind of depressing if you think about it.

It's true there is an occasion upset, but college will have a 12 team playoff next year, so even those losses will become pretty irrelevant. Win 10 games in the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, or the B12 and you have an automatic spot in the playoff. We'll even see a few 3 loss teams in that playoff system. Here is the average margin of victory among many of the top 10 teams last season:


The NFL had an average margin of victory of 9.7 points.

Growing up I was always a college football first guy, but I've shifted the past 10 years or so to the NFL. I still watch both, but I love watching NFL games more than college games now. They just have way more exciting games each weekend. I'm hopeful college football will become more like the NFL in the near future.

 

[redskinsfan1963]

College football has a scheduling problem. I live in SEC country (Georgia). Even their fans tune out during most games. There literally is nothing to watch past the 3rd quarter in 75% of Georgia's games the past few years. The same could be said of Alabama, Michigan, Ohio State, etc. If you are a top 10 program you will likely win most of your games by 3+ TD's. That includes most the conference games. When you play 12 regular season games and 8-9 of them are blowouts, it's tough to compete against the NFL. There is not a lot of excitement in the vast majority of your games. That's why the NFL is king because it literally is "any given Sunday".

On top of all that, 85% of college football programs have a 0% chance of getting a playoff spot, let alone winning a national title. There is just too much of an advantage with the top 15 programs over the rest of the college football. I've got friends who have had season tickets to Georgia Tech for the past 20 years. They know going into every season that the best they can hope for is an upset here or there, and maybe sneak into a ACC title game every once in a while. That is the same hope for 100+ other football teams out of the 133 teams in Division I. Most don't even dream of a playoff spot...they just want to compete/beat their rival. It's kind of depressing if you think about it.

It's true there is an occasion upset, but college will have a 12 team playoff next year, so even those losses will become pretty irrelevant. Win 10 games in the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, or the B12 and you have an automatic spot in the playoff. We'll even see a few 3 loss teams in that playoff system. Here is the average margin of victory among many of the top 10 teams last season:
View attachment 337846

The NFL had an average margin of victory of 9.7 points.

Growing up I was always a college football first guy, but I've shifted the past 10 years or so to the NFL. I still watch both, but I love watching NFL games more than college games now. They just have way more exciting games each weekend. I'm hopeful college football will become more like the NFL in the near future.

always loved the nfl but switched to loving college football during bama,s title run.was always a bama fan but really got into college football watching it on saturday with my son.

 

[All-Star Benchwarmer]

That’s the fault of the Purdue’s Northwesterns...

Those two schools have been in the B10 since 1896. It had nothing to do with revenue sharing.

 

[fightinfunbags]

Those two schools have been in the B10 since 1896. It had nothing to do with revenue sharing.

They ride coattails. They bring zero value to their leagues and they’re not alone.

 

[All-Star Benchwarmer]

They bring zero value to their leagues and they’re not alone.

What value do you believe they need to bring to the B10? Money? TV Ratings? That's why you're part of the problem with college football. Fuck all the tradition, pageantry and rivalries, make college the minor leagues is you b.s. belief.

 

[fightinfunbags]

What value do you believe they need to bring to the B10? Money? TV Ratings? That's why you're part of the problem with college football. Fuck all the tradition, pageantry and rivalries, make college the minor leagues is you b.s. belief.

How about anything? They don’t bring a financial commitment to football. And you don’t know what I value. You’re just a grumpy old man that doesn’t want change.

 

[belcherboy]

always loved the nfl but switched to loving college football during bama,s title run.was always a bama fan but really got into college football watching it on saturday with my son.

I enjoy watching it with my son too. It's just hard to watch games where you know you already won that game the day you scheduled it. That is the vast majority of of Alabama's games over the past 10 years. Same with Michigan for me.

Now with the Lions, even though they were losing most their games, we still had Stafford for much of the past 10 years and he had the most "4th quarter comebacks" of anyone in the NFL at that time. It was frustrating to watch them miss playoff after playoff, but most the games were amazingly engaging.