College Football vs Professional Sports
Sports have been entertaining man for hundreds of years. Almost every day of the year, there is some sport on television. Most of the time, the sports you see on tv are at the collegiate or professional level. American football is the most watched sport in the US. Collegiate and professional football are great at showing that even though they are the same sport, there are some key differences that could sway a person to enjoy one over the other. The NFL has the most elite athletes in the sport. These players can work on their craft from sunrise to sunset. This leads to more competitive games. Despite being younger, college athletes can put on quite a show themselves. The atmosphere in these games are unrivaled. From the large capacity of the stadiums, to the bands playing the home team’s fight song; there aren’t many scenes you can find that are as rambunctious as a college football game. These crowds are fueled by the offensive outburst found only in college. The college football season is significantly shorter than in the NFL. This makes every game vital to the success of the season. The main areas to focus on for entertainment value will be the quality of the game, the atmosphere, and the importance of each individual game.
The atmosphere is where college athletics, especially football, really shine. A lot of college football teams have traditional entrances that they have been doing for years. Whether it’s Clemson running down the hill in Death Valley, or Virginia Tech fans jumping around and going wild while their team comes out to Enter Sandman; these entrances set the tone for the game. Some NFL players, such as Ray Lewis, have iconic individual entrances. But most of the players just run out of their locker room on to the field. The capacity of the stadiums in college is very impressive. The average capacity of the 10 largest stadiums in college is 101,491. While in the NFL, the average capacity of the 10 largest stadiums is 80,519. College stadiums also have a dedicated section for their band. Despite having bands and thousands of more people, the NFL still holds the record for the loudest game at 142.2 decibels. That’s louder than an airplane taking off.
The fans of these teams get the loudest when the games mean the most. An NFL season consists of 16 games, while there is 12 in college. The way the playoffs are set up also factor into the importance of each game. It is possible to make the playoffs in the NFL with a losing record. If you win your division in the NFL, you’re in the playoffs. The last team to do so was the Panthers in 2014 with a 7-8-1 record. The Giants even won the Superbowl with 7 losses in 2011. Only 2 teams with more than one loss have ever won the title in college football. Neither of those teams had more than 2 losses. A team in the NFL can lose during the beginning of the season and still recover. While in college, a loss at any point could potentially derail your season. This makes almost every game in college a de facto playoff game.
In conclusion, both collegiate and professional sports can be very entertaining. A lot of these same arguments made for collegiate or professional football can be applied to the separate levels of other sports also. Although professional sports will give you the highest quality of competition, a casual viewer will enjoy the high scoring collegiate sporting events that have a significant impact on the season week in and week out; more so than watching a professional sport.
