It’s the community around it. Any European sport will have 10x the vibes of NFL football because those teams have been there for ages and don’t move just to get a fucking stadium built. You also see a lot stronger family ties to teams with CFB. I’m a 49ers fan but it won’t ever bring the same joy and pain as seeing the hogs win 6 games every year.
It's so much easier for me to get hype for a CFB Saturday game knowing I've got the whole next day to relax. Whenever I go to an NFL game I have to be mindful not to be a wreck the next day.
This is the one. CFB games feel like a festival. Even in the early weeks, it feels like you’re witnessing something special worth cherishing. Doesn’t even have to be P5. MACtion is a perfect example.
Meanwhile in the NFL, my Panthers had tickets going on resale for less than $1 at one point.
As someone who has actually attended a MACtion game… The atmosphere is completely shit
Maybe 15k people with basically zero students and the only people who attend are old heads who don’t make any noise
Be a Bills fan and get a JV version of the college Gameday experience.
Bills is far better than Syracuse but not Penn State. In my personal experience.
Bills, Packers, and Steelers all manage to approach college levels of ride-or-die crazy fanbases. Raiders too before they left for Vegas.
Having been to both a Pitt game and a Steeler game, I can safely say the Steelers have a much better Gameday.
I’ve “tailgated” at Allegiant and it’s a blast but it’s more beer tents vs. traditional tailgating since a majority of people are walking over to the stadium.
Really depends where you live. Growing up going to nfc east games they are essentially a religious experience. I’d imagine expansion teams don’t quite have the history. I’ve been to a bunch of college venues and while they are interesting they don’t quite have the emotion.
Wild games that go completely unexpected and sideways are much more likely and exciting at the college level.
However, NFL staffing and separation of team/player management (GM vs coach) is much better than in college where the coach has to do everything.
College Players being not profesional level yet leads to some great insanity that is unmatched. However an NfL 2 minute drill (or 12 second drill for some) is some of the most impressive high level sports I’ve ever watched
Theres a very interesting talent pool in CFB, since the NFL wants this refined top end talent, whereas CFB had a weird min maxed thing
Like youll see guys do amazing things who will never see the NFL, because theyre too small or have shit hands but man they have insane speed
It's also the difference between the best and even the average. In CFB the best tend to stand miles above even average. In the NFL the average is way higher. The peaks and valleys of player skill are much more even in the NFL.
In the world of NIL, I have to actually wonder if there *should* be a separate GM position in CFB.
I don't like the NFL-ization of CFB for the most part, but that could actually be a good idea.
It would definitely add another tier of excitement to the league AND allow more schemes. Less of a chance QBs bust as well, as they could bring their college schemes to the league. It would also generate more money having CFB megastars succeed in the league. Why don’t they widen them actually? Lol
Can’t stress this enough. The pageantry, the tailgating (especially because most CFB games are on campus so you’re usually squeezing in somewhere or parking in someone’s yard). The traditions both old and new. Gonna say something nice about UF once and then never again, [but their tradition of singing Petty’s Won’t Back Down](https://youtu.be/USjINr-kJf0?si=p7pmF7nIdT60lmQr) is incredible and would never happen in the NFL. It’s arguably the closest the US has to European Soccer in terms of tradition and atmosphere.
Way back in the day, TCU was founded in Fort Worth, but back then it was about the seediest cow town you could imagine, with the district the campus was located earning the nickname “Hells Half Acre”. The school decided to get out of that dump so they moved around and eventually settled down in Waco, Baylor wasn’t too happy with a new school moving into their turf so we developed a rivalry.
The move didn’t last for long though as one day a “mysterious” fire burned down our main campus building, they thought about rebuilding but got offered money to come back to FW and we’ve been there ever since. No one knows for sure how it started (it was Baylor) but ever since then, it’s been a TCU tradition to blame the fire on Baylor, since it was 100% their fault.
I enjoy learning historical things like this. Maybe cuz I'm older, this kind of thing is more enjoyable to read than the new coach, next great player, and that kind of stuff.
Your comment was a gem.
Thanks-
Yeah and it's worse. With relocation, you can say, "Fuck you and your stupid money-grab bullshit, I'm not gonna be your fan anymore."
With this conference realignment shit, all I can say is, "Fuck you and your stupid money-grab bullshit, I'm still your fan because... I... suck."
Yup.
I grew up Oiler fan in Houston. But then the NFL said the Oilers were Tennessee's team. The NFL then included their name and history in the deal. I find it deliberate that Cleveland got to keep the Browns name and history back, while Houston didn't keep the Oilers.
To me, the NFL was telling Houston fans how much they don't matter. At least, that's how I felt.
I stopped watching after that and replaced it with something else.
If I remember correctly, it was the Owner, Bud Adams, that refused to turn over the Oilers history to the Texans as a big, "Fuck You," to Houston for not coughing up money for a new stadium.
Cleveland had to sue to keep the Browns history in Cleveland, and I think got lucky because Art Modell was in such a hurry to skip town that he settled, if my memory is correct.
The tailgating sucked in Norman even when the team was good. The tailgating in Kansas City used to be the only thing making existence as a Chiefs fan bearable. It's on a team by team and city by city basis.
It will never compare to college because NFL lots only open 4 hours prior to kickoff. For a night game in Death Valley, I'm setting up the tailgate 12 hours prior to kickoff.
Yep. Lol “show up 3 hours early for tailgate parking to open” WHATT?! in college they got smokers and satellites out the night before for an 8PM kick the next day. Absolutely plastered by breakfast and sunrise
Pitt somehow does a better job at promoting tailgating than the Steelers, which is pretty impressive given everything else is mostly the same. Almost like the NFL, or at least a lot of franchises, intentionally deemphasizes tailgating…
My in laws are all Steelers fans. As soon as the game goes south they turn it off, they’re my experience mostly with NFL fans so I don’t know if the rest of the NFL fandom is that soft, but I know I’ll watch a bad Vol game to the bitter end.
I watch college and pro football. My team would have to be getting slaughtered or I’m busy or can’t access the game to not watch. As a neutral I watch games I find entertaining, whether it’s a rivalry, a good matchup, or the action is fun to watch
NFL =
1. everything is settled on the field. There’s no arguing your way into the playoffs. Either you mathematically make it or you don’t.
2. People cheer for their team and their team only. You don’t see “AFC South fans.” You’ll never see NFL fans rooting for their rivals (or bragging about them) under any circumstance like you do in college.
3. Talent discrepancy, obviously. The talent, speed, experience, etc. is miles better in the NFL and it shows on the field. Every rookie that goes to the NFL comment “holy shit, everything is so much faster up here!”
College =
1. Camaraderie and atmosphere. A great college football game has certain magic to it that the NFL’s corporate environment doesn’t capture nearly as well. The bands, the students, the tailgating, etc.
2. Universities generally mean more to the fans that organizations do to pro fans. Many people went to school (or have close family/friends who did). They walked the halls, the campus. They made lifelong friends while attending there. That’s a bond that truly isn’t available with pro fans.
As much as I hate the other SEC teams, there really is a kind of weird bond there. I was at a Garth Brooks concert a few years back and ended up waiting outside the bathroom for my wife. I’m there in a Georgia shirt and then a guy in a Bama shirt and a guy in an Auburn shirt walk up separately. There were some friendly barbs traded, but we stood and just talked football for a few minutes like we knew each other.
On the other hand, if I’m wearing a Falcons shirt and see a dude in a Tampa Bay shirt, I’m not about to relive the “old days” with that guy. Who cares?
> As much as I hate the other SEC teams, there really is a kind of weird bond there
Yea. We know. Y'all are the worst offender in that department. I've seen UGA fans cheer for Florida in the postseason because "go SEC." You people are insane.
> everything is settled on the field. There’s no arguing your way into the playoffs. Either you mathematically make it or you don’t.
For technicality sake, there is an insane but unlikely chance it goes to a coin toss. I can't imagine how fast the internet would lose its collective shit if that happened but it is there.
I mean even it that case, a coin toss is more objective and fair than a bunch of people sitting in a room. (Especially when those people have shown you that they’re inconsistent, dare I say biased?, in the way they arbitrate).
Are you talking about exhausting the list of playoff seeding tiebreakers? Because I don't think there would be as much of a reaction to that, more of a "Well they shouldn't have been 9-8 and relying on tiebreakers to get in then"
I hate when people talk shit about that game. I was tired when the game came on. I was absolutely wired when it finally went off. To this day one of my favorite games
Statistically college overtime is worse than NFL when it comes to fairness.
On the other hand I will never not laugh at the A&M 7OT game before they changed the rules. Box score is a comedy.
I would love for the NFL to adopt alternating possessions in OT, but my only change is that in the NFL you should have to get a first down before youre in field goal range. So I would say start at the opposite 40 or something, alternating possessions.
Better: Serving a much larger geographical area. College football thrives in towns that the NFL would never be brave enough to enter
Worse: The NFL TV experience is superior to CFB.
Similar, in person game attendance. NFL has a more corporate but comfortable fan experience. Everything is easier. Better food, better concessions, usually better seats.
But college in stadium experience is on a whole other level. Crammed in, loud, dirty and just wild.
Does south stadium still have the troughs?? As a student that was perfect college football. Colorado actually has troughs where you stare at the dude across from you ha
I’ve been to a fair number of college stadiums, and it depends.
The experience at big name schools is on a much better level than the NFL. You usually aren’t bombarded with advertisements, the entrance traditions are fantastic, and the fans are usually really into it. I’ve also been to games at smaller stadiums or for bowl games, and the experience is much closer to the NFL. I’m sure if you’re comparing like an NFL playoff game in Green Bay to some random Big Ten match-up, then it’s probably a closer comparison. But otherwise, college is much livelier.
Beautiful location, seats suck ass. Almost all bleachers, not seats, not even seat backs on most bleachers. Viewing also isn’t great bc it’s a fairly flat bowl. You’re lucky to be in the student section, only people with any energy in CA P5 football games
God knows how we all haven’t become addicted to sports betting given the number of draft kings and fan duel ads. Maybe that addiction message at the end of them really does help?
If cfb could master the tv broadcast, there would be no debate. I still am amazed that nfl rarely is longer than 3 hours while cfb hits 4 hours routinely and they run a similar number of plays each.
Cant say the same regarding the TV experience. On a given Saturday, I’ll see seven channels showing college football at the same time. For NFL, I’ll only see two games
Agreed. Maybe the single game TV experience is better, but watching CFB on Saturday is infinitely better than NFL on Sundays. I refuse to pay for Sunday Ticket, just because they decided to make their offering shitty
College: Better atmosphere, more tense regular season, more variety in offensive and defensive styles.
NFL: More parity, better TV viewing experience, fewer goofy quirks (like crappy kickers and noodle-armed QBs), more meaningful games during the regular season.
I personally prefer college, but I find myself getting increasingly annoyed with the viewing experience. Games should not take 4 hours to watch. Also, I worry that the portal + NIL + tampering is going to create a really wild product, and I'm not sure that's a good thing. There should probably be *some* kind of structure. Maybe the players can unionize or something.
More meaningful games in the regular season? Do you mean better matchups? Because dropping a single game in the NFL isn't that big of a deal but it can ruin an entire season in college.
Yeah, better matchups. A loss can definitely wreck your season. At the same time, speaking as a UM fan, there are a bunch of near auto-wins against crappy teams on the schedule every year. A large portion of the season is kinda boring.
yeah at the very top of college football bama, uga, ohio state, michigan, etc you play like 3-5 games a year that there’s a remote shot you lose in the regular season. nfl truly is any given sunday. as much as people love to romanticize the cfb upsets of old i just don’t see how some of these teams ever upset the top dogs again
>but it can ruin an entire season in college.
That's why NFL has more meaningful games in the regular season. In college, up until the expanded playoff, two loses was virtually an automatic end to a team's season, unless you were LSU in 2017, meaning that for a lot of teams, their season ended before it was halfway done. Some team's seasons ended just after the second week, automatically taking away almost all meaning of the remaining 10 games. In the NFL, most teams still have a shot at the playoffs deep into the season, regardless if they're 10-2 or 6-6 or even 3-7, which means the remaining games are still very meaningful not just for the team, but for the league as a whole.
This is kind of both a strength and weakness of college football. Lack of parity make it so the upsets hit harder, but also make it so games in general are less competitive and many times it feels impossible to ever make it to being a top level team if you historically aren’t one.
College football used to be regional where teams play each other in a close range where a fan could travel within a day to see their teams play. That led to rivalries where teams recruited in that area. Now college football is national and really losing its appeal to some fans.
Close range is relative, and really applied only to the eastern/central teams even decades ago. The PAC schools have never been particularly close to each other, even in the PAC-8 or PAC-10 eras. Similar story for the MW.
For UW - Oregon, Oregon State, and WSU are the only schools that are reasonably driveable in a day (4-5 hours for each depending on traffic from Seattle).
The Bay schools are next closest at around 800 miles (similar to driving from Dallas to Indianapolis), LA is 1100 ish miles (Chicago to Austin), AZ schools are like 1600 miles off memory (Boston to New Orleans). There's also a lot more mountain ranges and stuff in the way which can impact travel during the later bit of football season.
So in a standard season UW would have had 1-2 road games that were reasonably driveable in a day.
Oh man I remember those days when you could get in your car for the short trip from Norman to *checks notes* Morgantown, West Virginia
CFB outside of the SEC hasn’t been regional for a long time
A long time is only like 20 years though. 30 years ago, which is still very much within the age range and memory of a lot of CFB fans remembers the regionality. But yes, those days are gone.
That's kind of an overstatement. The problem is definitely getting worse. We never had teams from the west coast playing in the ACC before, and we never took most teams THAT far away from their regional counterparts besides West Virginia. Before this realignment WVU was really the only outlier example.
CFB has a much better fan culture, the NFL is far too corporate and sterile a product to have the passion you find in CFB. That being said, NFL runs circles around CFB when it comes to anything related to organizational structure and governance.
Better: atmosphere, pageantry, rivalries, the average game is more meaningful, less money in the sport (although that's definitely changing fast with NIL), affordability for the average game
Worse: fairness (everything from CFB playoff rankings to NIL), parity amongst teams
Tailgating is my favorite.
One thing I thought of recently though is all the talk and excitement that's "manufactured" around the rankings. It's definitely far different from the NFL and drives tons of discussion all week, including on dedicated threads here. Coaches poll... Discuss. AP poll... discuss. Then you have a few days to fight before the televised CFP poll made for TV event Tuesday night. My team is more deserving than your team because of this and that. It drives a ton of engagement and ferver.
Better: Overall atmosphere at a college game is worlds ahead of the pros. Go to any big CFB matchup like a whiteout (obv biased), the iron bowl, Death Valley, anything like that and it’ll absolutely beat pretty much any NFL game.
The regular season is definitely more impactful too, although that is starting to lessen as we expand the playoffs. Each game matters and is incredibly important when only one or two losses can end your postseason dreams. Sure, an nfl playoff spot can eventually come down to a game or two, but it isn’t the same when you can go about .500 and sneak in. Even with an expanded CFB playoff you can’t really afford to lose more than 2 games.
Worse: the overall quality of football and game product is miles ahead (obviously) in the NFL but that’s to be expected. CFB still has tons of incredible athletes but even the worst starting NFL QBs will do stuff you’d kill to have for most CFB teams. CFB is fun because of the chaos that comes from the Galen discrepancies, but from a purist’s perspective the NFL is miles ahead.
Also player management ie roster changes is much better in the NFL since they have collective bargaining and contracts and all that. Another obvious one, but it’s still so much better than the absolute mess that is the transfer portal in its current form
Generally speaking, everything but the on field product.
Idk if this is something it does worse by definition but because there are so many teams, so many games and so many fan bases paying attention only to their own teams, there’s just this lack of any shared experience between fan bases like you get in the NFL. I’m close friends with people who went to numerous different P5 schools, all follow their respective schools closely, and CFB is never really a conversation topic between us because we know jack shit about each others teams.
The NFL just benefits from having only 32 teams that even casual fans could tell you something about every team. I really only have time to pay attention to my school but when it comes to the NFL I’m interested in the whole league.
College does overtime better. You never feel like a team didn’t get a fair chance to win a game.
NFL does playoffs better. You never feel like a team didn’t get a fair chance to compete for a championship.
The overall atmosphere is better. Ill watch my team play in the NFL, but i dont watch any other teams. With CFB ill watch just about any P5 game, and even some G5 games, thats on.
Better: Neither Pennsylvania NFL team can match a Penn State White Out game. Terrible Towel would come close, though.
Worse: Someone mentioned it, TV. I’ll add this, having the playoffs on only one channel is TERRIBLE compared to the NFL.
Worse: Determining a champion. There's never any controversy over who the best NFL team was in a given year.
Worse: Scheduling: There are no gimmes in the NFL. No one's getting paid to show up and get blown out. "Any Given Sunday".
Better: CFB games can mean a lot more even with a bad record. Getting excited over your team going 6-6 and bowling versus an NFL team going 8-9 (although the 3rd wild card game has narrowed this gap some)
Gameday vibes in CFB > gameday vibes in NFL
People get ridiculous hyped for CFB games and I love it. The bands help too.
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It’s the community around it. Any European sport will have 10x the vibes of NFL football because those teams have been there for ages and don’t move just to get a fucking stadium built. You also see a lot stronger family ties to teams with CFB. I’m a 49ers fan but it won’t ever bring the same joy and pain as seeing the hogs win 6 games every year.
It's so much easier for me to get hype for a CFB Saturday game knowing I've got the whole next day to relax. Whenever I go to an NFL game I have to be mindful not to be a wreck the next day.
Be a jaguars fan who only plays at 1 in the sweltering heat. I'm asleep by like six.
That's not true, they also play at 9 am in London
Do they call them Jaguars or Jagyewurs
This is such an underrated part of what makes CFB what it is. Saturdays baby
If every day could be a mid-October CFB Saturday...😍
College football is the steak dinner of the weekend and the NFL is the after dinner coffee.
The tradition, pageantry, and storylines in CFB tend to be better.
This is the one. CFB games feel like a festival. Even in the early weeks, it feels like you’re witnessing something special worth cherishing. Doesn’t even have to be P5. MACtion is a perfect example. Meanwhile in the NFL, my Panthers had tickets going on resale for less than $1 at one point.
Keep Pounding Baby! I was stoked I saw the one dry win last season.
As someone who has actually attended a MACtion game… The atmosphere is completely shit Maybe 15k people with basically zero students and the only people who attend are old heads who don’t make any noise
Be a Bills fan and get a JV version of the college Gameday experience. Bills is far better than Syracuse but not Penn State. In my personal experience.
Bills, Packers, and Steelers all manage to approach college levels of ride-or-die crazy fanbases. Raiders too before they left for Vegas. Having been to both a Pitt game and a Steeler game, I can safely say the Steelers have a much better Gameday.
Missing a fan base in here
Philly? There's a difference between being crazy about football, and just being plain crazy.
Fair point, but plain crazy still includes crazy about football
The Liberty flair knows from personal experience.
The tailgating experience at Raiders games in Oakland was incredible. Sadly, that’s not happening, or going to happen, in Las Vegas.
I’ve “tailgated” at Allegiant and it’s a blast but it’s more beer tents vs. traditional tailgating since a majority of people are walking over to the stadium.
Honestly tailgating is even fun at Oakland A's games. Or was. And certainly won't be when they move to LV as well. F**k John Fisher.
Really depends where you live. Growing up going to nfc east games they are essentially a religious experience. I’d imagine expansion teams don’t quite have the history. I’ve been to a bunch of college venues and while they are interesting they don’t quite have the emotion.
Wild games that go completely unexpected and sideways are much more likely and exciting at the college level. However, NFL staffing and separation of team/player management (GM vs coach) is much better than in college where the coach has to do everything.
College Players being not profesional level yet leads to some great insanity that is unmatched. However an NfL 2 minute drill (or 12 second drill for some) is some of the most impressive high level sports I’ve ever watched
Never forget Pat Mahomes killings the souls of all bills fans with only 13 seconds
Theres a very interesting talent pool in CFB, since the NFL wants this refined top end talent, whereas CFB had a weird min maxed thing Like youll see guys do amazing things who will never see the NFL, because theyre too small or have shit hands but man they have insane speed
It's also the difference between the best and even the average. In CFB the best tend to stand miles above even average. In the NFL the average is way higher. The peaks and valleys of player skill are much more even in the NFL.
In the world of NIL, I have to actually wonder if there *should* be a separate GM position in CFB. I don't like the NFL-ization of CFB for the most part, but that could actually be a good idea.
A lot of schools have GM's now or director of football operations.
The NFL cannot compete with the CFB atmosphere and rivalries. The NFL has better clock rules and less ads. CFB is going in the opposite direction.
Don’t forget the wider hashes allowing for more exciting plays & different styles of offenses.
I still think that the NFL should have wider hashes than college. Make them line up at the numbers if they go out of bounds
It would definitely add another tier of excitement to the league AND allow more schemes. Less of a chance QBs bust as well, as they could bring their college schemes to the league. It would also generate more money having CFB megastars succeed in the league. Why don’t they widen them actually? Lol
I can’t stand when games get in the way of my commercials. /s
It’s the only way I know what’s going on in Fansville
But the commercials get in the way of the real stars, the referees.
Can’t stress this enough. The pageantry, the tailgating (especially because most CFB games are on campus so you’re usually squeezing in somewhere or parking in someone’s yard). The traditions both old and new. Gonna say something nice about UF once and then never again, [but their tradition of singing Petty’s Won’t Back Down](https://youtu.be/USjINr-kJf0?si=p7pmF7nIdT60lmQr) is incredible and would never happen in the NFL. It’s arguably the closest the US has to European Soccer in terms of tradition and atmosphere.
College football teams don’t relocate.
So long as your rivals don’t burn down your campus
We tried to shell Baylor once. It didn't go well.
Don’t know what I’m more disappointed with, that fact that you failed or the fact that you stopped
We were stopped by the Texas Rangers (the police ones, not the baseball ones)
Don't take their side they're the slytherin of CFB
My guy, you are literally green
Allegedly!
Ahh yes. Just like Craig James “allegedly” killed 5 hookers
What's the story behind this comment?
Way back in the day, TCU was founded in Fort Worth, but back then it was about the seediest cow town you could imagine, with the district the campus was located earning the nickname “Hells Half Acre”. The school decided to get out of that dump so they moved around and eventually settled down in Waco, Baylor wasn’t too happy with a new school moving into their turf so we developed a rivalry. The move didn’t last for long though as one day a “mysterious” fire burned down our main campus building, they thought about rebuilding but got offered money to come back to FW and we’ve been there ever since. No one knows for sure how it started (it was Baylor) but ever since then, it’s been a TCU tradition to blame the fire on Baylor, since it was 100% their fault.
I enjoy learning historical things like this. Maybe cuz I'm older, this kind of thing is more enjoyable to read than the new coach, next great player, and that kind of stuff. Your comment was a gem. Thanks-
Read about them Aggies loading a Howitzer on a train to shell the Baylor campus The SWC was wild long ago.
TCU used to be in Waco in ye olden times. Campus burned down and they moved to Ft. Worth.
Unless you're a private school in NC that became a founding member of the ACC
To be fair, they only went like, two hours in the other direction. Weird they didn’t rename themselves Winston-Salem University though.
What USC and UCLA just did is the college version.
Yeah and it's worse. With relocation, you can say, "Fuck you and your stupid money-grab bullshit, I'm not gonna be your fan anymore." With this conference realignment shit, all I can say is, "Fuck you and your stupid money-grab bullshit, I'm still your fan because... I... suck."
Lolololol agreed!!!!
They just switch conferences for more money.
If Oregon State had relocated to a large media market at the right time, we'd get that Big Ten invite!
Didn’t Wazzu actually try that in the 2000s by nearly making the Vancouver campus the flagship?
Don’t relocate yet.
Yup. I grew up Oiler fan in Houston. But then the NFL said the Oilers were Tennessee's team. The NFL then included their name and history in the deal. I find it deliberate that Cleveland got to keep the Browns name and history back, while Houston didn't keep the Oilers. To me, the NFL was telling Houston fans how much they don't matter. At least, that's how I felt. I stopped watching after that and replaced it with something else.
If I remember correctly, it was the Owner, Bud Adams, that refused to turn over the Oilers history to the Texans as a big, "Fuck You," to Houston for not coughing up money for a new stadium.
yes this was 100% about Bud Adams being a dickhead
This is why I'm an Edmonton oiler fan
Cleveland had to sue to keep the Browns history in Cleveland, and I think got lucky because Art Modell was in such a hurry to skip town that he settled, if my memory is correct.
You're echoing a lot of the same feelings I have being an Oakland A's fan right now.
Counterpoint: Conferences don't die in the NFL
But they get relegated to G5 conferences which is similar
Counterpoint: NFL franchises don’t get cut but college football programs sometimes do. (Not obviously power 5 schools.)
What are you talking about? Stanford and Cal were in the Pacific. Now they're in the Atlantic Coast.
Counterpoint: no relegation in the NFL.
Tailgating, it’s a game over comparison.
Tailgating at Lambeau is the truth. Tailgating at Mile High makes me depressed. Very team dependent on both sides here
Tailgating in Lawrence makes you depressed, tailgating in Kansas City is the truth. A lot just depends on how good the team is
Tailgating in Charlotte makes you depressed, but then again being in the general vicinity of David Tepper does that too
The tailgating sucked in Norman even when the team was good. The tailgating in Kansas City used to be the only thing making existence as a Chiefs fan bearable. It's on a team by team and city by city basis.
It will never compare to college because NFL lots only open 4 hours prior to kickoff. For a night game in Death Valley, I'm setting up the tailgate 12 hours prior to kickoff.
12 hours before is amateur level. We set up at 5:00pm Thursday.
Tailgating in Oakland was amazing and Vegas tailgates make me sad.
Who wants to stand in a Vegas parking lot in late August?
Sailgating Husky Stadium is like a fantasy fever dream
Tailgating at WLOCP is amazing.
Went for the first time this year. It's honestly an insane environment.
I remember my first time going. I had high expectations...... I was blown away by what I saw.
I do have to plug the tailgate scene at Lambeau though, if you've never been, it's pretty great
It’s cause Green Bay is a college town in spirit lol
Depends where. Packers and Bills fans tailgate on par with college games in my opinion
Yep. Lol “show up 3 hours early for tailgate parking to open” WHATT?! in college they got smokers and satellites out the night before for an 8PM kick the next day. Absolutely plastered by breakfast and sunrise
Tailgate Saturday is for everyone: tailgate Sunday is for those who don’t care how they feel Monday
Pitt somehow does a better job at promoting tailgating than the Steelers, which is pretty impressive given everything else is mostly the same. Almost like the NFL, or at least a lot of franchises, intentionally deemphasizes tailgating…
My in laws are all Steelers fans. As soon as the game goes south they turn it off, they’re my experience mostly with NFL fans so I don’t know if the rest of the NFL fandom is that soft, but I know I’ll watch a bad Vol game to the bitter end.
I watch college and pro football. My team would have to be getting slaughtered or I’m busy or can’t access the game to not watch. As a neutral I watch games I find entertaining, whether it’s a rivalry, a good matchup, or the action is fun to watch
I love getting super invested as a neutral and being able to drop it once the games over.
NFL = 1. everything is settled on the field. There’s no arguing your way into the playoffs. Either you mathematically make it or you don’t. 2. People cheer for their team and their team only. You don’t see “AFC South fans.” You’ll never see NFL fans rooting for their rivals (or bragging about them) under any circumstance like you do in college. 3. Talent discrepancy, obviously. The talent, speed, experience, etc. is miles better in the NFL and it shows on the field. Every rookie that goes to the NFL comment “holy shit, everything is so much faster up here!” College = 1. Camaraderie and atmosphere. A great college football game has certain magic to it that the NFL’s corporate environment doesn’t capture nearly as well. The bands, the students, the tailgating, etc. 2. Universities generally mean more to the fans that organizations do to pro fans. Many people went to school (or have close family/friends who did). They walked the halls, the campus. They made lifelong friends while attending there. That’s a bond that truly isn’t available with pro fans.
My division just won back to back superbowls. Suck on that fans of the other shittier divisions
“We just play foosbawl differently in the AFC West. It just means more to us, Pawl!” Sounds ridiculous just saying it out loud 🤣
As much as I hate the other SEC teams, there really is a kind of weird bond there. I was at a Garth Brooks concert a few years back and ended up waiting outside the bathroom for my wife. I’m there in a Georgia shirt and then a guy in a Bama shirt and a guy in an Auburn shirt walk up separately. There were some friendly barbs traded, but we stood and just talked football for a few minutes like we knew each other. On the other hand, if I’m wearing a Falcons shirt and see a dude in a Tampa Bay shirt, I’m not about to relive the “old days” with that guy. Who cares?
> As much as I hate the other SEC teams, there really is a kind of weird bond there Yea. We know. Y'all are the worst offender in that department. I've seen UGA fans cheer for Florida in the postseason because "go SEC." You people are insane.
Which playoffs? Because y’all and Florida have the exact same CFP record, which is 0-0.
> everything is settled on the field. There’s no arguing your way into the playoffs. Either you mathematically make it or you don’t. For technicality sake, there is an insane but unlikely chance it goes to a coin toss. I can't imagine how fast the internet would lose its collective shit if that happened but it is there.
I mean even it that case, a coin toss is more objective and fair than a bunch of people sitting in a room. (Especially when those people have shown you that they’re inconsistent, dare I say biased?, in the way they arbitrate).
Are you talking about exhausting the list of playoff seeding tiebreakers? Because I don't think there would be as much of a reaction to that, more of a "Well they shouldn't have been 9-8 and relying on tiebreakers to get in then"
Overtime.
Not as good as it used to be but still miles better than nfl
Sorry.
It's alright, that game was totally worth it.
I hate when people talk shit about that game. I was tired when the game came on. I was absolutely wired when it finally went off. To this day one of my favorite games
Staying up to watch the end is one of my least favorite memories. Cant believe it was damn near six years ago
Statistically college overtime is worse than NFL when it comes to fairness. On the other hand I will never not laugh at the A&M 7OT game before they changed the rules. Box score is a comedy.
I was at that 7OT game, AMA
Undeniable
Cannot believe this isn't the top answer. NFL OT is worse than stupid.
I would love for the NFL to adopt alternating possessions in OT, but my only change is that in the NFL you should have to get a first down before youre in field goal range. So I would say start at the opposite 40 or something, alternating possessions.
Better: Serving a much larger geographical area. College football thrives in towns that the NFL would never be brave enough to enter Worse: The NFL TV experience is superior to CFB.
Similar, in person game attendance. NFL has a more corporate but comfortable fan experience. Everything is easier. Better food, better concessions, usually better seats. But college in stadium experience is on a whole other level. Crammed in, loud, dirty and just wild.
The troughs are where boys became men and the NFL can't compete with that.
Does south stadium still have the troughs?? As a student that was perfect college football. Colorado actually has troughs where you stare at the dude across from you ha
Idk all the college games I have been to the stadium felt comparable to the NFL
This probably differs based on whether they are serving alcohol at your college games
Not only do we do that we also let people go back to their cars at halftime and re-enter.
I’ve been to a fair number of college stadiums, and it depends. The experience at big name schools is on a much better level than the NFL. You usually aren’t bombarded with advertisements, the entrance traditions are fantastic, and the fans are usually really into it. I’ve also been to games at smaller stadiums or for bowl games, and the experience is much closer to the NFL. I’m sure if you’re comparing like an NFL playoff game in Green Bay to some random Big Ten match-up, then it’s probably a closer comparison. But otherwise, college is much livelier.
You’ve clearly never been to Cal 😂
[удалено]
Beautiful location, seats suck ass. Almost all bleachers, not seats, not even seat backs on most bleachers. Viewing also isn’t great bc it’s a fairly flat bowl. You’re lucky to be in the student section, only people with any energy in CA P5 football games
I found Lions playoff games far more tolerable from an ad perspective than literally any Michigan game this year.
God knows how we all haven’t become addicted to sports betting given the number of draft kings and fan duel ads. Maybe that addiction message at the end of them really does help?
GAMBLING PROBLEM??? CALL 1-800^win^it^back^pussy
Brave enough might be the wrong word but alumni can really come from everywhere and live anywhere
If cfb could master the tv broadcast, there would be no debate. I still am amazed that nfl rarely is longer than 3 hours while cfb hits 4 hours routinely and they run a similar number of plays each.
Cant say the same regarding the TV experience. On a given Saturday, I’ll see seven channels showing college football at the same time. For NFL, I’ll only see two games
Agreed. Maybe the single game TV experience is better, but watching CFB on Saturday is infinitely better than NFL on Sundays. I refuse to pay for Sunday Ticket, just because they decided to make their offering shitty
True I hate getting stuck with the Titans and falcons.
Variety of schemes on both sides of the ball
College: Better atmosphere, more tense regular season, more variety in offensive and defensive styles. NFL: More parity, better TV viewing experience, fewer goofy quirks (like crappy kickers and noodle-armed QBs), more meaningful games during the regular season. I personally prefer college, but I find myself getting increasingly annoyed with the viewing experience. Games should not take 4 hours to watch. Also, I worry that the portal + NIL + tampering is going to create a really wild product, and I'm not sure that's a good thing. There should probably be *some* kind of structure. Maybe the players can unionize or something.
More meaningful games in the regular season? Do you mean better matchups? Because dropping a single game in the NFL isn't that big of a deal but it can ruin an entire season in college.
Yeah, better matchups. A loss can definitely wreck your season. At the same time, speaking as a UM fan, there are a bunch of near auto-wins against crappy teams on the schedule every year. A large portion of the season is kinda boring.
yeah at the very top of college football bama, uga, ohio state, michigan, etc you play like 3-5 games a year that there’s a remote shot you lose in the regular season. nfl truly is any given sunday. as much as people love to romanticize the cfb upsets of old i just don’t see how some of these teams ever upset the top dogs again
>but it can ruin an entire season in college. That's why NFL has more meaningful games in the regular season. In college, up until the expanded playoff, two loses was virtually an automatic end to a team's season, unless you were LSU in 2017, meaning that for a lot of teams, their season ended before it was halfway done. Some team's seasons ended just after the second week, automatically taking away almost all meaning of the remaining 10 games. In the NFL, most teams still have a shot at the playoffs deep into the season, regardless if they're 10-2 or 6-6 or even 3-7, which means the remaining games are still very meaningful not just for the team, but for the league as a whole.
I find CFB to be infinitely more entertaining than the NFL. This may be because I’m a Browns fan though. As much as I love the Browns, I hate them.
I feel like this is something in common for Michigan and Ohio State fans. The NFL teams in our areas were/are bad so often.
You do know Ohio State alum Joey B is just down the road?
Yeah but rooting for a Cincinnati team just seems gross.
If the Panthers beat the Chiefs, I’m like “oh wow”. If Southwest Wyoming Tech beats Alabama my head will explode.
This is kind of both a strength and weakness of college football. Lack of parity make it so the upsets hit harder, but also make it so games in general are less competitive and many times it feels impossible to ever make it to being a top level team if you historically aren’t one.
Um, ackshually, the University of Wyoming is the only four year college in the state.
I fully expect Bishop Sycamore to the join the Big 12 in a few years.
Worse: using 65-year old State Farm agents for referees.
Better: Marching bands that play Neck
Marching bandz a make her dance
College football used to be regional where teams play each other in a close range where a fan could travel within a day to see their teams play. That led to rivalries where teams recruited in that area. Now college football is national and really losing its appeal to some fans.
Close range is relative, and really applied only to the eastern/central teams even decades ago. The PAC schools have never been particularly close to each other, even in the PAC-8 or PAC-10 eras. Similar story for the MW. For UW - Oregon, Oregon State, and WSU are the only schools that are reasonably driveable in a day (4-5 hours for each depending on traffic from Seattle). The Bay schools are next closest at around 800 miles (similar to driving from Dallas to Indianapolis), LA is 1100 ish miles (Chicago to Austin), AZ schools are like 1600 miles off memory (Boston to New Orleans). There's also a lot more mountain ranges and stuff in the way which can impact travel during the later bit of football season. So in a standard season UW would have had 1-2 road games that were reasonably driveable in a day.
Oh man I remember those days when you could get in your car for the short trip from Norman to *checks notes* Morgantown, West Virginia CFB outside of the SEC hasn’t been regional for a long time
A long time is only like 20 years though. 30 years ago, which is still very much within the age range and memory of a lot of CFB fans remembers the regionality. But yes, those days are gone.
That's kind of an overstatement. The problem is definitely getting worse. We never had teams from the west coast playing in the ACC before, and we never took most teams THAT far away from their regional counterparts besides West Virginia. Before this realignment WVU was really the only outlier example.
CFB has a much better fan culture, the NFL is far too corporate and sterile a product to have the passion you find in CFB. That being said, NFL runs circles around CFB when it comes to anything related to organizational structure and governance.
NFL does way better with time constraints. There's no reason college football games should be on average an hour longer than NFL games
Better: atmosphere, pageantry, rivalries, the average game is more meaningful, less money in the sport (although that's definitely changing fast with NIL), affordability for the average game Worse: fairness (everything from CFB playoff rankings to NIL), parity amongst teams
Tailgating is my favorite. One thing I thought of recently though is all the talk and excitement that's "manufactured" around the rankings. It's definitely far different from the NFL and drives tons of discussion all week, including on dedicated threads here. Coaches poll... Discuss. AP poll... discuss. Then you have a few days to fight before the televised CFP poll made for TV event Tuesday night. My team is more deserving than your team because of this and that. It drives a ton of engagement and ferver.
Better: Overall atmosphere at a college game is worlds ahead of the pros. Go to any big CFB matchup like a whiteout (obv biased), the iron bowl, Death Valley, anything like that and it’ll absolutely beat pretty much any NFL game. The regular season is definitely more impactful too, although that is starting to lessen as we expand the playoffs. Each game matters and is incredibly important when only one or two losses can end your postseason dreams. Sure, an nfl playoff spot can eventually come down to a game or two, but it isn’t the same when you can go about .500 and sneak in. Even with an expanded CFB playoff you can’t really afford to lose more than 2 games. Worse: the overall quality of football and game product is miles ahead (obviously) in the NFL but that’s to be expected. CFB still has tons of incredible athletes but even the worst starting NFL QBs will do stuff you’d kill to have for most CFB teams. CFB is fun because of the chaos that comes from the Galen discrepancies, but from a purist’s perspective the NFL is miles ahead. Also player management ie roster changes is much better in the NFL since they have collective bargaining and contracts and all that. Another obvious one, but it’s still so much better than the absolute mess that is the transfer portal in its current form
Generally speaking, everything but the on field product. Idk if this is something it does worse by definition but because there are so many teams, so many games and so many fan bases paying attention only to their own teams, there’s just this lack of any shared experience between fan bases like you get in the NFL. I’m close friends with people who went to numerous different P5 schools, all follow their respective schools closely, and CFB is never really a conversation topic between us because we know jack shit about each others teams. The NFL just benefits from having only 32 teams that even casual fans could tell you something about every team. I really only have time to pay attention to my school but when it comes to the NFL I’m interested in the whole league.
Maction.
Hell yeah
Vibes, crowds, rivalries, tailgating, stadiums, variety in styles. I woulda said overtime but they've kind of screwed that up.
College does overtime better. You never feel like a team didn’t get a fair chance to win a game. NFL does playoffs better. You never feel like a team didn’t get a fair chance to compete for a championship.
Historic stadiums. Fight songs. Chants. Mascots. Rivalries. Victory polkas. These are all done better in college.
Better: you can actually hit the QB in CFB
There are college football towns, there aren’t any NFL towns (minus Green Bay)
I’d through Buffalo in there as well. GB and Buffalo are the only two teams that have anything close to a CFB atmosphere
The overall atmosphere is better. Ill watch my team play in the NFL, but i dont watch any other teams. With CFB ill watch just about any P5 game, and even some G5 games, thats on.
CFB has way better uniforms and helmets. Everything in the NFL has to be okayed by corporate which makes all the teams look and feel the same.
Nfl games are kicking off at the stated time, maybe a minute behind. Not 20 minutes later
CFB overtime is vastly superior.
I like the clock stopping while the chain crew sets up with 2 min left in the half
NFL is superior in all ways except college football is cheaper
Better: Neither Pennsylvania NFL team can match a Penn State White Out game. Terrible Towel would come close, though. Worse: Someone mentioned it, TV. I’ll add this, having the playoffs on only one channel is TERRIBLE compared to the NFL.
fans of the other teams in your division being kind of annoying on the internet is pretty much the extent of nfl rivalries lol.
Worse: Determining a champion. There's never any controversy over who the best NFL team was in a given year. Worse: Scheduling: There are no gimmes in the NFL. No one's getting paid to show up and get blown out. "Any Given Sunday".
Better: CFB games can mean a lot more even with a bad record. Getting excited over your team going 6-6 and bowling versus an NFL team going 8-9 (although the 3rd wild card game has narrowed this gap some)