No contest: College football outscores NFL by a mile
On any given Saturday. That should be college football's motto.
Come to think of it, college football doesn't need a catchy slogan. What the sport has going for it is something that can't be conjured up in a room full of Madison Avenue marketing mavens.
A wild flurry of upsets, near-upsets, comebacks and last-second thrillers demonstrated why college football has it all over the NFL, where the sales pitch, TV puffery and general buzz don't match the on-field product often enough.
As ticket prices rise and player behavior tanks, is the NFL a consistently compelling can't-miss show? Is it conceivable that the league is peaking, even though yearly attendance records suggest otherwise? Is the NFL at risk of becoming the NBA of the late '90s?
The classics that unfolded Saturday in South Bend, Ind., and Ann Arbor, Mich., should have had Paul Tagliabue with a New York Jets-green hue of envy. The staid pro ranks never would generate the same type of over-the-top fun we saw in Oxford, Miss., Charlottesville, Va., or Pullman, Wash.
"These are the type of games we live for, we die for, we love to be in," USC's star running back Reggie Bush said to reporters after the Trojans' dramatic 34-31 come-from-behind triumph upended Notre Dame and preserved the Trojans' No. 1 status.
Don't get me wrong. I still love pro football and its mano a mano combat. But, by and large, I think the interest in the NFL is predicated on three things: underground gambling, fantasy league football and tailgating. Yet, instead of a new-millennium Jimmy the Greek, the NFL (through its broadcast partners) gives us pregame comedians and a "weather girl," pretending as if point spreads don't exist. So be it.
Can you imagine what might happen if Division I-A mandated a national championship playoff? Winter Madness would chase the NFL to the back pages. It would make the Super Bowl look like an overhyped, commercialized machine designed less for die-hard fans than what it is: a bacchanal of big-time business.
On the field, the NFL isn't as nerve-racking as it is numbing. Is there even one great team anymore? Going into Week 6, 25 teams had two or more losses; only one team, Indianapolis, is undefeated.
Too many poorly played games. Too many field goals. Too many penalties, which might relate to overcoaching. (Or, too many ref reviews on Monday mornings — let 'em play, Tags). Game flow is predictably choppy. Too many puckered coaching keisters. Parity has generated an unintended consequence — a general sameness and blandness in the quality of play that keeps most every city in the mix (except Tempe, Ariz.).
It's not exactly CNN-breaking news that the college game has several natural advantages over the pros, including pageantry and the infusion of spirit by students and alumni. College players are less jaded and play with natural passion. Watch some NFLers — they play as if they're trying to preserve their non-guaranteed contracts.
In college football, there is no free agency. Traditional border rivalries flourish.
We haven't even discussed the NFL's image issue. I trace the start of this negative trend to Dallas' infamous "White House," a modern-day den of iniquity. Nate Newton, later a drug dealer but first a Cowboys Pro Bowl lineman, was a harbinger of player attitude when he bluntly offered, "We've got a little place over here where we're running some whores in and out, trying to be responsible, and we're criticized for that, too."
Hello, Lake Minnetonka.
Goodbye, Mike Tice.
In Minnesota the last year, we had a receiver crassly "moon" fans; the head coach scalp Super Bowl tickets; a running back carry a fake-penis device designed to avoid positive drug tests; and most recently, the Vikings look for a new stadium and public financing while sinking in a sex scandal (cue Love Boat theme song).
Now, if you live in Minny-ha-ha, would you rather root for the Gophers or the Weasels ... er, Vikings? Not that the University of Minnesota hasn't had its share of issues.
But how smart was Red McCombs to sell at the top? Zygi Wilf may know real estate, but I don't know if he realizes a pig when it is disguised in a purple tuxedo.
Former NFL player Bill Romanowski peddled his book Sunday on CBS's 60 Minutes by acknowledging he used steroids. No doubt, league image-makers cringed. They should concentrate on the game itself. On any given Sunday, it is hit or miss.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/s...-football_x.htm
On any given Saturday. That should be college football's motto.
Come to think of it, college football doesn't need a catchy slogan. What the sport has going for it is something that can't be conjured up in a room full of Madison Avenue marketing mavens.
A wild flurry of upsets, near-upsets, comebacks and last-second thrillers demonstrated why college football has it all over the NFL, where the sales pitch, TV puffery and general buzz don't match the on-field product often enough.
As ticket prices rise and player behavior tanks, is the NFL a consistently compelling can't-miss show? Is it conceivable that the league is peaking, even though yearly attendance records suggest otherwise? Is the NFL at risk of becoming the NBA of the late '90s?
The classics that unfolded Saturday in South Bend, Ind., and Ann Arbor, Mich., should have had Paul Tagliabue with a New York Jets-green hue of envy. The staid pro ranks never would generate the same type of over-the-top fun we saw in Oxford, Miss., Charlottesville, Va., or Pullman, Wash.
"These are the type of games we live for, we die for, we love to be in," USC's star running back Reggie Bush said to reporters after the Trojans' dramatic 34-31 come-from-behind triumph upended Notre Dame and preserved the Trojans' No. 1 status.
Don't get me wrong. I still love pro football and its mano a mano combat. But, by and large, I think the interest in the NFL is predicated on three things: underground gambling, fantasy league football and tailgating. Yet, instead of a new-millennium Jimmy the Greek, the NFL (through its broadcast partners) gives us pregame comedians and a "weather girl," pretending as if point spreads don't exist. So be it.
Can you imagine what might happen if Division I-A mandated a national championship playoff? Winter Madness would chase the NFL to the back pages. It would make the Super Bowl look like an overhyped, commercialized machine designed less for die-hard fans than what it is: a bacchanal of big-time business.
On the field, the NFL isn't as nerve-racking as it is numbing. Is there even one great team anymore? Going into Week 6, 25 teams had two or more losses; only one team, Indianapolis, is undefeated.
Too many poorly played games. Too many field goals. Too many penalties, which might relate to overcoaching. (Or, too many ref reviews on Monday mornings — let 'em play, Tags). Game flow is predictably choppy. Too many puckered coaching keisters. Parity has generated an unintended consequence — a general sameness and blandness in the quality of play that keeps most every city in the mix (except Tempe, Ariz.).
It's not exactly CNN-breaking news that the college game has several natural advantages over the pros, including pageantry and the infusion of spirit by students and alumni. College players are less jaded and play with natural passion. Watch some NFLers — they play as if they're trying to preserve their non-guaranteed contracts.
In college football, there is no free agency. Traditional border rivalries flourish.
We haven't even discussed the NFL's image issue. I trace the start of this negative trend to Dallas' infamous "White House," a modern-day den of iniquity. Nate Newton, later a drug dealer but first a Cowboys Pro Bowl lineman, was a harbinger of player attitude when he bluntly offered, "We've got a little place over here where we're running some whores in and out, trying to be responsible, and we're criticized for that, too."
Hello, Lake Minnetonka.
Goodbye, Mike Tice.
In Minnesota the last year, we had a receiver crassly "moon" fans; the head coach scalp Super Bowl tickets; a running back carry a fake-penis device designed to avoid positive drug tests; and most recently, the Vikings look for a new stadium and public financing while sinking in a sex scandal (cue Love Boat theme song).
Now, if you live in Minny-ha-ha, would you rather root for the Gophers or the Weasels ... er, Vikings? Not that the University of Minnesota hasn't had its share of issues.
But how smart was Red McCombs to sell at the top? Zygi Wilf may know real estate, but I don't know if he realizes a pig when it is disguised in a purple tuxedo.
Former NFL player Bill Romanowski peddled his book Sunday on CBS's 60 Minutes by acknowledging he used steroids. No doubt, league image-makers cringed. They should concentrate on the game itself. On any given Sunday, it is hit or miss.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/s...-football_x.htm
