College Football v. NFL

We here at Brainfart have stated this before but it bears repeating, we love us some football.  Whether it is college or pro football, it is awesome and we will watch it.  However, I have always had a soft spot for college football and I think I have finally figured out why.  Here are those reasons:

• Fantasy Football - If it weren't for fantasy football, I probably would still watch the NFL, but I wouldn't really care about who wins or loses.  In fact, I still don't as long as my fantasy player does awesome.  For example, as I was writing this, there was a random Thursday night NFL game going on and all I wanted to happen was for my fantasy running back to get a lot of yards and get every touchdown his team scored.  As for who won the game, it didn't really matter to me.  With college football, every game seems to matter more to me and I'm more heavily invested in the outcome even when I am watching Florida State running up the score against some scrub team.
• Sidelines - In any typical NFL game, only 53 players dress for the game and so when you see a player make a play on the sideline, he is more likely to knock over a coach or that guy who holds the first down marker than he is to run into another player.  In college football, there are close to 100 players who dress for a game and in the same situation, that player is either going to be caught by his teammates or avoided like the plague so that he runs into the opponent's bench as hard as he can.  Somehow, I have always thought it weird to see so few players on the sideline in a pro game and that is another reason I think college football is better.
• Offenses - Is it just me or do all pro offenses look the same?  Every team has a huge quarterback (there are only two starters in the NFL under 6 feet tall) and it seems as if they all run the same offense.  I know there are some different styles run, but for the most part, they all look identical and no team runs anything that would be deemed "radical" at that level of football.  As for college, you have spread offense, pro offenses, fast-tempo offense, and even triple-option offenses.  On any given Saturday, your team could be facing another team who will be running something completely different than the team you played the week before.  It gives the college game a uniqueness the pros just don't have and I love it.
• Passion - This has two meanings.  First, pro players don't seem to care about the outcome of games (unless it is the playoffs) as much as college players and only seem to care about their paycheck.  Meanwhile, college players are so much more passionate about their games because one loss could mean they won't be playing for anything significant at the end of the season unlike pro teams who can lose seven games and still win the Super Bowl (I'm looking at you, Eli).  Second, the fans of college football teams are so much more invested in their school's team because they most likely went to that school and actually feel like a part of the team.  As for pro fans, they usually just so happen to live in their team's town and pulling for their team is just what people do.  Sure, both college and pro teams have bandwagon fans, but the true college fans can actually make a claim as to why they pull for their team and pro bandwagon fans probably pull for a team because they are the Cowboys.
• Student Sections - This is something the NFL will never have and it makes college football that much more fun.  Whether the students are starting cheers or the wave, or if they are making a ton of drunken noise when it matters most, the student section really sets apart the difference between the pros and the 'amateurs'.
• Tradition - Can you even name the biggest tradition a team can claim in the NFL?  The Lambeau Leap?  The Dirty Bird?  Ray Lewis dancing before home games?  Seriously, the NFL doesn't have any memorable traditions that come to mind.  But college football is full of them.  Rivalry trophies, Dotting the "i", The Ramblin' Wreck, Live Mascots, The 12th Man, Planting the Flaming Spear, Toomer's Corner, Touchdown Jesus, and my favorite, Rubbing Howard's Rock and The Running Down The Hill.  Every team has something unique to its school, something the NFL can't even compare to.
• Bands - This one will sound strange until you think about it.  The NFL doesn't have school bands and when I watch a pro game, it sounds weird not hearing a live band playing the fight song after every big play.  This is by far the biggest difference (other than talent level) between the two levels of football and it is something I truly love about the college game that the NFL will never have.

"The Most Exciting 25 Seconds in College Football.  Watching this live really does get you fired up no matter how many times you have seen it"