It is often said that baseball is the true American sport. However, it is football that is by far the most popular and the NFL is home to some of the wealthiest sports teams in the world, let alone the country. But, for many, it is the college version of the game that really gets them going. Could it be that NCAA trumps NFL when it comes to which is best?
Many people have their own favorite sport and will confidently state that basketball is better than hockey, for example. But with our headline question, the sport is the same (aside from a few minor rule differences). If you like football it follows that you would like both the college and the pro game. The best college players all end up in the NFL anyway, so it seems as though the popularity of both would be even.
However, there are college football fans across the US that would say that their number one team is their local school, or alma mater. Their love for their team beats any allegiance they have for an NFL team. A lot of places don’t even have an NFL team and it is likely that the betting apps in Alabama do more business related to the Crimson Tide than any pro team. Could college football actually be the number one sport in America?
Super Bowl Popularity
When it comes to viewing figures, the NFL tends to come out on top, compared to all other sports, let alone just college football. There are fewer games every week of the season, of course, but it still enjoys healthy ratings from September through to the playoffs in January and February. In fact, it is those final months when the NFL really asserts itself.
College football is also watched by tens of millions every week but the Super Bowl is an event that can truly boast to have transcended sports entirely. The most recent championship game was watched by over 120 million people in the US alone. The number is far greater when you factor in the worldwide audience. There is simply no other sports event that competes with those kinds of numbers.
Number of Teams
One argument for the popularity of college football is that the NFL is only home to 32 teams. There are hundreds of schools across the country represented by a football team of some level or other, while only 32 cities in the entire country have pro football. That’s just 16 cities – at most – that host an NFL game each week of the season.
Obviously, there are NFL fans who live nowhere near a city with a pro team. Many will get behind the team that shares their state or may have family ties to a particular organization. Some of the biggest teams, like the Dallas Cowboys, enjoy fan bases across the nation, further strengthening the case for the NFL being the biggest and the best.
States With No Team
If there are only 32 teams in the whole of the country then it follows that there are thousands of cities that have none. When you consider that there are some cities that have, or have had, more than one NFL team, that reduces further the number of people who can support an NFL team where they live.
We can take this point even further. Although we have already conceded that NFL teams will draw their fan base from outside their immediate area, there are almost half the states in the country without a pro team. NFL might still be considered the biggest sport in the US but it could be argued that it doesn’t represent great swathes of the nation.
Talent Gap
So, if there are millions of Americans who have no immediate geographical connection to an NFL team, why does the league still thrive in those areas? One obvious answer is that this is a professional league we are talking about – one that college athletes strive to get into – and the pinnacle of the sport.
The smaller number of teams in the NFL also helps its product. There are far fewer blowout scores in the pro game and that is one of the most attractive things about sports in general – its competitive nature. If you like football you are more likely to enjoy a close game than one where one team is obviously far superior and able to win almost at will.
Strong Support
If we are weighing up the pros and cons of college football compared to its professional counterpart, we surely have to mention the support at NCAA games. Even though the athletes on show are not the best in the business, the top games can very often attract larger attendances than those in the NFL.
The passion and excitement at a big college football game have to be seen to be believed and can regularly outdo anything an NFL crowd could muster. College football fans also often have deep ties to their teams, whether it is an alma mater or just local, and the pride can make a college game a more intense affair.
NFL Still Rules
College football will always be popular and fans of the sport can easily support an NCAA team as well as one in the NFL. But, even with the introduction of a more easy-to-understand playoff format to determine a national champion, college football will always lag a little behind the NFL in terms of popularity.
The fact that only about 2% of college football athletes even make it to the NFL proves how more competitive it is and that is a place for the best of the best. Sports fans will generally want to see the elite perform and that is the NFL. College football has a huge fan base – and can be incredibly exciting – but the NFL will always be more popular.
