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I appreciate your perspective and most definately appreciate a passionate sports fan (my parts seem to get dinged for their passion at times) but also believe that the majority of the US is more interested in pro than any single college rivalry. This obviously will vary from place to place but on the whole larger cities are more pro focused, smaller cities may be split without a major college team and those places with a college team and no pro team, well it makes sense they are more loyal to their team etc. That being said the dollars associated are likely a better sense for the national fervor. Pound for pound the pro game destoys college in terms of revenue produced and TV ratings
BTW I loved being able to play LSU (vs PSU) in a bowl game a few years back, respect the SEC and LSU very much
Pro sports are much more profitable and popular on a national scale. Each region arguably has multiple teams that get national coverage.
Quote:
Originally Posted by phillies2011
I was pretty good at basketball and baseball (and mostly stunk at football) in high school, got offered scholarships to a few div. III schools, mostly for basketball. I tried to walk onto temple's basketball team as a freshman, and man was that ever a wake up call. Anyone who is playing division one basketball, is a far more superior basketball player than I've ever been or will ever be. More than most I understand the level of talent these kids have. They are clearly better than me.
That said with only a finite amount of time to watch sports I prefer watching pro games because the quality is FAR superior. Just because these people are better at basketball than me doesn't me I can't watch them play and say the quality is way lower than in the pros. Most high school football players are better than I ever was at football, but that doesn't mean I can't watch a college football game and think the quality is bad.
There is nothing about criticizing that requires you to be superior than the person who you are critiquing. You can go to a restaurant and say the food is bad, even if you can't cook at all. I criticize not as a fellow athlete, but as a consumer, watching a product that does not measure up. And honestly even as a basketball player I often feel entitled to criticize these players anyway. I may not be as talented as them, but i damn sure knew how to play the game better, knew where I was supposed to be, knew the rules, had good techniques, when and when not to foul, and could shoot better than half of these clowns.
I mean honestly why do I want to watch a game with players taking bad fouls, making poor decisions, and in general demonstrating a lack of understanding as to HOW TO PLAY THE GAME.
College football is the same thing. A yellow flag ridden mess, where bad plays and mistakes often lose games instead of superior skill winning them.
fight songs? colors? Really? colors? do you really care about colors? All the different intangibles that people who prefer college sports point to as to why college sports are better are simply a bunch of BS spouted in an attempt to make of for the simple fact that the games are not of the same quality of pro games.
Tradition, history and rivalries exist in the pros as well, so to include those as reasons to prefer college sports is silly. You call alabama auburn as one of the greatest rivalries in sports? please. get a grip and step outside of your cocoon, meet the rest of the world. outside of your little corner of the world, no one gives a crap about alabama-auburn. they could never play each other again and 90 percent of america wouldn't even realize, much less care.
I understand that NFL players are better and the game is more professional. Every college game isn't full of a bunch of kids who don't know how to play the game. If that was the case, they wouldn't be playing.
Yes, fight songs, and colors. Like I said, you did not grow up the way I did. People use the term "I bleed Purple and Gold" for a reason, just like we say "I bleed Black and Gold" for the Saints.
I'm not making claims about the AL/AU game as the best rivalry ever, professional sports doesn't dominate this country. I could care less if Chicago plays Green Bay ever again, but do I denounce it's place as a great NFL rivalry? No.
The Bayou Classic is an annual meeting of Southern University (Baton Rouge) and Grambling State University (Grambling, LA) which has been a tradition since 1936. Both world famous bands battle at half-time. This game inspired other HBCU's to form "Classics" of their own. A great football rivalry? Absolutely, although it's not the most famous or televised.
Who are you to call what is and isn't a great football rivalry? I am amazed how you can speak for over 300 million people as well. Teach me the way.
Pro sports are much more profitable and popular on a national scale. Each region arguably has multiple teams that get national coverage.
I understand that NFL players are better and the game is more professional. Every college game isn't full of a bunch of kids who don't know how to play the game. If that was the case, they wouldn't be playing.
obviously not. but there are plenty who don't. watching march madness last year made that very apparent. to say they wouldn't be playing if they didn't know the game is just wrong. just because you have the physical talent to play, doesn't mean you understand the game.
Quote:
Originally Posted by annie_himself
Yes, fight songs, and colors. Like I said, you did not grow up the way I did. People use the term "I bleed Purple and Gold" for a reason, just like we say "I bleed Black and Gold" for the Saints.
I'm not making claims about the AL/AU game as the best rivalry ever, professional sports doesn't dominate this country. I could care less if Chicago plays Green Bay ever again, but do I denounce it's place as a great NFL rivalry? No.
The Bayou Classic is an annual meeting of Southern University (Baton Rouge) and Grambling State University (Grambling, LA) which has been a tradition since 1936. Both world famous bands battle at half-time. This game inspired other HBCU's to form "Classics" of their own. A great football rivalry? Absolutely, although it's not the most famous or televised.
Who are you to call what is and isn't a great football rivalry? I am amazed how you can speak for over 300 million people as well. Teach me the way.
you called it the biggest college rivalry and compared it to packers/bears and jets/giants. to dispute that isn't saying it isn't a great football rivalry. it's simply stating the obvious that you are overstating it's relevance.
And it's pretty easy to speak for 300 million when you have facts, television ratings and other data to back you up.
even with all the hoopla surrounding last year's alabama-auburn game it still wasn't watched by a quarter of the people who watched the bears packers game in the playoffs.
side note: am I the only one who finds it dumb how people cheer for a college they didn't go to?
So? How is it different/dumber than donning an Eagles jersey and going to a bar to watch the game with friends? You never played for the Eagles. Have they done anything for you to make you be a fan? Do you work for the Eagles? Doubt it.
Chances are, it's a regional thing: you're from/live in Philly, so you're a fan of those teams. That same thing often determines college fandom, especially in you're in a region where college sports is richer in tradition than pro. If the rule is you have to be alumni to be a fan of a college team, then wouldn't you have to have played for the pro team of which you're a fan? Both sound dumb to me.
Now, someone from LA deciding to be a Georgia Tech fan just because might be a little wacky...
you called it the biggest college rivalry and compared it to packers/bears and jets/giants. to dispute that isn't saying it isn't a great football rivalry. it's simply stating the obvious that you are overstating it's relevance.
And it's pretty easy to speak for 300 million when you have facts, television ratings and other data to back you up.
even with all the hoopla surrounding last year's alabama-auburn game it still wasn't watched by a quarter of the people who watched the bears packers game in the playoffs.
To be fair here, the Auburn-Alabama game was one of fifty college football games played that day while the NFC Championship was one of two games that day. Not only that, Auburn-Alabama was competing against other games in the same time slot, while the NFC Championship had its own time slot. But your point still stands that the Bears-Packers game draws way more nationally. Even if the Alabama Iron Bowl had no competition, it would probably only get half of the NFC Championship game viewership at most. A better comparison would of been the 2006 Michigan-Ohio State game, in which the winner went to the BCS championship game. That drew an impressive 13.0 rating despite other college football games. College football used to be very popular nationally. The 1971 Oklahoma-Nebraska Game of the Century had an audience of 55 million on Thanksgiving. But times have obviously changed with the NFL being the league of choice these days.
Last edited by Fairlady Z; 09-20-2011 at 04:38 PM..
I live in South Florida and the answer is neither----this is an event driven area. If its a big event, than interest is great down here.
People are usually lukewarm about sports down here----but if they feel there will be a payoff in a big event, than they start to get interested.
People who never attend an event here suddenly became Marlins fans during their two world series runs as did people becoming Panther fans during their cup run years ago----now you cant give away tickets.
The Heat became an item again last year------this is an area with fans that love to be seen when the event is a big one.
obviously not. but there are plenty who don't. watching march madness last year made that very apparent. to say they wouldn't be playing if they didn't know the game is just wrong. just because you have the physical talent to play, doesn't mean you understand the game.
you called it the biggest college rivalry and compared it to packers/bears and jets/giants. to dispute that isn't saying it isn't a great football rivalry. it's simply stating the obvious that you are overstating it's relevance.
And it's pretty easy to speak for 300 million when you have facts, television ratings and other data to back you up.
even with all the hoopla surrounding last year's alabama-auburn game it still wasn't watched by a quarter of the people who watched the bears packers game in the playoffs.
The amount of viewers doesn't have anything to do with my argument. It was the biggest TV rating of the year, which means people care about the game outside of Alabama. I never compared it's importance to that of the Packers/Bears or Giants/Jets.
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