Is College Football catching up to NFL?
By the term "catching up", I use that term loosely, because in my opinion college has always been better to me, but as far as money that these big schools bring in. If we do lure Harbaugh to Ann Arbor, is there any chance that a trend starts? Could that be why we these NFL guys are so stubborn with their opinionated reporting? They all probably worked through the college ranks and on to the NFL because that's what the "main road" traveled was for so long.
But, let's face it. College Football is not what it was 30 years ago, and neither is the NFL. I know they bring in a lot more money, but they pay it out in contracts as well, which limits what they can / will be able to offer coaches.
Sorry to interupt any CC - laser tag talk
Go Blue
December 19th, 2014 at 4:40 PM ^
Its like this post didn't even exist
EDIT: FIXED
December 19th, 2014 at 4:39 PM ^
December 19th, 2014 at 4:42 PM ^
No. Full stop.
December 19th, 2014 at 4:52 PM ^
Who says the NFL is more popular than college football? There a lot more fans that follow college teams and attend college games than the NFL.
December 19th, 2014 at 4:58 PM ^
Because 32 teams against 128 is a fair comparison?
December 19th, 2014 at 10:55 PM ^
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December 20th, 2014 at 12:50 AM ^
last year's national title game got a 15.3 rating.
About a month before that, on December 1st, a regular season game between the Broncos and Chiefs did a 16.7 rating. Even a Lions game managed to best that, a 16.6 for the Thanksgiving game against the Packers. The 18.3 rating for the Redskins-Cowboys game in the 2012 regular season would have been the second highest for any college football championship game ever. Last season's Wild Card playoff game between Washington and Seattle got a 21 rating, tying the biggest rating for a college football title game (USC-Texas, 2006).
About the only metric you can use, other than your own biased world view, to claim college is superior to the pros in popularity is attendance. Which is deeply flawed because a.) NFL games are far more expensive to attend and b.) no NFL team can sell thousands of cut-rate tickets to students.
December 19th, 2014 at 4:59 PM ^
I dont think its a trend, but UM is not paying $8Mill a year to anyone not named Harbaugh, Jim. UM wanted its guy, loaded the shotgun and blasted. Now its wait and see whats for dinner. The Harbaugh 7 course feast, or the Miles buffet?
December 19th, 2014 at 5:06 PM ^
about a topic related to the coaching search, and then in the process of actually doing so, you copped out with some bs premise about whether college vs. pro coaching is reaching a turning point. Money changes the equation of any discussion or belief. The fact is, that TV money dictates salaries and rights fees in both the NFL and college football. And the revenue streams available now govern the availability and the demand of coaching talent and the price for it based on perceived success.
The turning point of coaching salaries has everything to do with success, expectation and demand and the inflationary cost of all of that.
December 19th, 2014 at 5:16 PM ^
There are a handful of college football teams that are probably more popular than a few NFL teams. Michigan, Ohio State, Texas, Notre Dame, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama and maybe Florida or LSU are a few that could make that argument.
More than teams such as the Bills, Browns, Jaguars, Bucs at least.
December 19th, 2014 at 10:51 PM ^
Alabama and Auburn drew a television crowd equivalent to a bottom dweller NFL match up. It didn't even sniff the NFL prime time match ups.
December 19th, 2014 at 10:56 PM ^
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December 19th, 2014 at 5:51 PM ^
December 19th, 2014 at 6:07 PM ^
For certain coaches it's pretty equivalent, as evident by guys that CHOOSE the college game over pro: Saban, Weis, Mora Jr, hell Pete Carroll might still be surfing in the morning while at USC had he not seen the writing on the wall. Even college hoops with Coach K, Patino, and sleazy Calipari, who are legends that transcend the NCAA/pro barrier. The salaries have quickly caught up and the TV deals provide a pretty comparable level of exposure. It might not yet have the occupational prestige. NFL is a huge beast. It also seems like NFL coaches get fired more regularly, so in that regard, NCAA might be less stressful.
December 19th, 2014 at 6:12 PM ^
I have lived here in Las Vegas now for 6.5 years and the one thing I realized early on was how much more popular the NFL is here over CFB. Living here you run into people that are from all over the United States. I was good friends with a couple guys from the west coast/California area, 2 guys that were Penn State grads and another I know well that went to Illinois.
These guys are what I would call extreme type sports fans like the kind that are on this site. I've talked to these guys before about this stuff and with how in the state of Michigan most big time sports fans I knew would say that CFB was bigger/better than the NFL.
These guys out here in LV were more or less shocked and they said that this wasn't the case at all where they were from. They said that it's not even close either and that the NFL was easily the king.
Obviously the one big reason with people from Michigan feeling this way is that most of us grew up rooting for a laughingstock NFL franchise. Don't get me wrong I love that laughingstock team a lot still till this day. In fact I'm one of the few who have always loved the Lions a little bit more than the Wolverines.
I remember growing up in the 80's and not wanting to wear anything had Detroit Lions written on it but nearly everything I owned said Michigan and that's not just me either, everyone had Go Blue or whatever clothes. With Michigan being so good and the Lions always more or less being down, it's fairly obvious why a generation of fans in the state of Michigan feel so strongly about CFB more so than the NFL
December 19th, 2014 at 7:25 PM ^
If you grew up in Ann Arbor, as I did, it would be nearly impossible to see the NFL as "more important" than the NFL because the Lions sucked for 50 years in what would more accurately be called 'The Curse of William Clay Ford" than "The Curse of Bobby Layne."
In Michigan, the college programs have been a lot better than the NFL team. We don't know what it's like to see our NFL team in the Super Bowl or even close. Contrast this to the East Coast, where the Giants, Patriots and Redskins have won Super Bowls in the last 25 years but there are no really great college teams in their markets.
New York is the biggest media market and their college football scene is so barren that they had to adopt Notre Dame. My guess is that the better program dominates the market. On the east coast and cities like Chicago, the NFL is much more important. In Alabama, Michigan or Ohio, college football is more important.
December 20th, 2014 at 12:31 AM ^
Yes I agree a lot depends on where you grow up.
Until I went to college I had no idea how almost the entire East Coast could give a rats behind about college football. It's all NFL all the time if you are in that Philly, NYC, NJ, Boston area. Just like the east coast peeps I met were taken aback by how college centric we were in the Midwest.
December 20th, 2014 at 12:55 AM ^
I don't even think it's a where you grew up thing so much as it's a Detroit area thing... an "our NFL team has been mediocre to terrible while the local college team was killer" thing. Few other NFL markets have had this dichotomy period, much less for a sustained four decade stretch. Jacksonville's relationship with Florida might be the only real comparison. (Indiana in the NBA and Minnesota in the NHL have similar deals, too)
So while LSU is a big deal in New Orleans and Texas makes headlines in Dallas and OSU is a draw in Cleveland, I doubt you could get any kind of consensus in any of those cities that the NFL is inferior to college.
December 19th, 2014 at 6:32 PM ^
In college you have total control of the team. You recruit your players, who are 17-18 year old kids that view you as a role model/god, and you a taking them from great high school player to NFL hopeful while also keeping them out of trouble and helping them transition from boys to me.
Those are very different jobs with different responsibilities. That is why some coaches soar at one level and do poorly at the other. There are other issues regarding doing well with near equal talent and getting super stars to preform.
As far as the money, there are structural limits as most programs already lose money. I won't get into the issues of public funds and such but there are reasons many schools would balk at playing NFL money.
I think it is a good topic. I am curious about why the NFL keeps using the draft picks to get hot zone read guys that get by with athletics covering for poor fundamentals in pocket passing and their scrambles taking apart inferior defenses. Running QBs don't make it long and college QBs that look good when the number 1 guy is always open look terrible when everyone is well covered. The actual game of college football is very different than the game of NFL football. It looks a lot like the difference in baseball and softball.
December 19th, 2014 at 7:47 PM ^
December 19th, 2014 at 7:56 PM ^
December 19th, 2014 at 9:10 PM ^
December 19th, 2014 at 11:57 PM ^
Only a select few college football schools can pony up $$$
December 20th, 2014 at 12:29 AM ^
I still think the pay of the average NFL player is ahead of the average SEC player so no.