Most Popular Football in America - NFL or College?

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Re: Most Popular Football in America - NFL or College?

Postby RevanFan » Wed Jan 29, 2014 3:11 am

Personally, I don't know what being a casual fan is like. Every week I find myself lined up in front of my TV screaming or cheering every single Dallas play, and when I watch any other team, I sit in front of the TV analyzing them, and enjoying every minute of the games. To me, pro football is the greatest sport out there. With college, I can barely sit through a game with even my favorite team. In the NFL, I watch as much as I can of every single game and love every minute of it. The players in college are too raw for me, and frankly I find the teams' inability to go with a pocket quarterback, or even an agile quarterback who can also throw, hard to stomach. And I hate the BCS system, but thankfully they're trashing that. I love the NFL for giving underdogs a chance to come back and win it all. In college, at least during the BCS age, if you're not in one of the big conferences, you don't have a shot in heck at making the championship game, no matter your record. I keep up with every transaction for every NFL team. With college, I can barely keep track of the players on my team. First, there's too many, and second, their skill level isn't usually enough for me to take notice. Unless they're going into the draft next year, of course. Anyway, I hope this insanely long paragraph accurately portrayed my love of pro football, and if not, I apologize for my post being a major disappointment.

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Re: Most Popular Football in America - NFL or College?

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Re: Most Popular Football in America - NFL or College?

Postby BelieverInTeal » Wed Jan 29, 2014 12:03 pm

I'd like to weigh in on this because it's an interesting topic of discussion. Let's look at the TV numbers. The highest rated college football this year was the National Championship which drew a 15.7 overnight across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNews. The weekend before that, every single NFL playoff game outdrew that. The most anticipated regular season college game before this season was the Texas A&M-Alabama rematch. That game was CBS' highest rated college game in 23 years, pulling in a 9.0. The next day, the Manning Bowl drew 17.8.

The reason for this is gambling. The way the NFL is set up is inviting to people who put down wagers on games. You can't say that about college football. There are two kinds of viewership for the two kinds of football. In college football, fans generally support their alma mater, and/or a school in their home state. Of course, you can't always watch your team play so I find that fans also cheer against teams based on rivalry, standings, BCS rankings as much as they cheer for team. In college football, you're not so much cheering for the players as much as cheering for the school in question. You support them because they represent your state/your alma mater/your conference. In the NFL, when is loyalty really rewarded? When you buy more $10 Buds at the stadium?

Perhaps I'm coming at this at a different angle because of my experience watching both. I don't live near any NCAA schools and while the Bills come up here once a year, they're not my team. Unlike the rest of you, I found that the more college football I watched, the less NFL football I watched. Revanfan says the players are too raw. I say: Good! I don't enjoy watching the same offenses/defense every week as much as I like watching a spread team go up against a 3-3-5 defense. Instead of calling the no huddle offense, the wildcat, the read option or going for it consistently on fourth down "gimmicks," I was happy to see that in the NFL. The more NFL fans crap on that stuff, the more disenchanted I feel about the NFL. In fact I was thrilled to see Chip Kelly make the jump. The NFL is nicknamed the "No Fun League" for a reason: because it's true. Quick: when was the last time a coach tried a two point conversion before the fourth quarter?

My point exactly.

Lionsfan hit the nail on the head about traditions and pageantry. Here's an example: The Atlanta Falcons started planning for their new stadium three years ago, despite moving the fact that the Georgia Dome was less than 20 years old. Literally five minutes up the road Georgia Tech has been playing out of their stadium for 100 years. This is a program that has won four national championships, no slouch. Their rivals, the University of Georgia, has played out of their stadium for 84 years and was the host of soccer for the '96 Olympics. But of course, the Falcons need more scoreboards and ribbon boards to tell their fans to "make noise." Makes you wonder if college football fans know how to do that without prompting. They also need a retractable roof and bare concrete flooring to host more events because let's face it, Georgia Tech and Georgia don't know how to make money Image.

I'll leave you with this (if you have read this far). The NFL has Bruno Mars for this year's Super Bowl Halftime show. The NCAA has the Ohio State band:

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Re: Most Popular Football in America - NFL or College?

Postby slydways » Wed Jan 29, 2014 2:18 pm

NickyJ wrote:The BCS Bowl, to my knowledge, has never come close to touching the Super Bowl's viewership so my answer is NFL.


Really?

BCS Championship...Florida State vs Auburn......."Live" viewership... 94,208...in attendance.

Super Bowl XLVII...Ravens vs 49ers......................"Live" viewership... 74,024...in attendance.

Looks like college is more popular with real "Live" people...people who take their eyes off "The Screen"...and leave the house once and a while. 8-)

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Re: Most Popular Football in America - NFL or College?

Postby lionsfan » Wed Jan 29, 2014 2:32 pm

RevanFan wrote:Personally, I don't know what being a casual fan is like.

I know, I did not mean all NFL fans are casual fans, but the NFL appeals to more casual fans then college. NFL you just watch and root for the team closest to your area, most college fans are born and raised rooting for a team or of course they will root for there alma mater as BIT said.
RevanFan wrote:The players in college are too raw for me, and frankly I find the teams' inability to go with a pocket quarterback, or even an agile quarterback who can also throw, hard to stomach.
See that's the thing about college, the fans, the players and coaches all want to win every single game, in college every single game is like life or death, so they will play the QB that better there chances of winning. in the NFL that is in my opinion far from true, I know for a fact there are teams starting certain QB's even though there are backups and even free agents who would give there team a better chance to win.

RevanFan wrote:And I hate the BCS system, but thankfully they're trashing that. I love the NFL for giving underdogs a chance to come back and win it all. In college, at least during the BCS age, if you're not in one of the big conferences, you don't have a shot in heck at making the championship game, no matter your record
The BCS had it's problems for sure, but the ranking system is a part of college tradition, it makes it fun to see who can make it where, and that is why if you want to make it to a championship game you have to play your ass of every single game in college because every game is important unlike the NFL where you can go 8-8 and get lucky and win it all, but if you think about it.. What team has gone undefeated in a weak conference and was actually good enough to play in the BCS game? Sure there are going to be MAC teams that go undefeated does that mean they are the best team to play in the BCS? No. The only team I can think of that maybe has an argument was the 2007 Boise State squad that beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl, but even they would have taken a beating from that 2007 Florida Gators squad.

RevanFan wrote:I keep up with every transaction for every NFL team. With college, I can barely keep track of the players on my team. First, there's too many, and second, their skill level isn't usually enough for me to take notice
This is where college football stands out, I seem to find NFL fans seem to barely keep track of the transactions and such for teams, heck even the draft a lot of NFL fans don't keep track of, because like I said early NFL has more of a casual fan base, while in college, college football fans keep track of all of this, they know about transfers and recruiting and the whole bit, they seem to keep track a lot more then NFL fans.

BelieverInTeal wrote: Revanfan says the players are too raw. I say: Good! I don't enjoy watching the same offenses/defense every week as much as I like watching a spread team go up against a 3-3-5 defense. Instead of calling the no huddle offense, the wildcat, the read option or going for it consistently on fourth down "gimmicks," I was happy to see that in the NFL. The more NFL fans crap on that stuff, the more disenchanted I feel about the NFL. In fact I was thrilled to see Chip Kelly make the jump. The NFL is nicknamed the "No Fun League" for a reason: because it's true. Quick: when was the last time a coach tried a two point conversion before the fourth quarter?
This again is where college stands out, In college you have 4 years of eligibility with your players, you have 4 years to get yourself a big bowl win, every game in college is focused on winning, in college the coaches start every single player that gives them a better chance to win, they also run the play style that gives them the best chance to win, in the NFL your worried about franchise players and keeping them healthy and just getting through the season, if your not doing so well you kind of just give up so you don't risk injuring the player your paying millions of dollars to. NFL is about money it's not really about winning where in college its all about winning.

BelieverInTeal wrote:I'll leave you with this (if you have read this far). The NFL has Bruno Mars for this year's Super Bowl Halftime show. The NCAA has the Ohio State band:
As I said a million times already NFL is for more casual fans that is why they have big name singers and stuff come in for there halftime show, because a lot of casual people whether they hate football or not will watch the superbowl solely to see the halftime show and the commercials.

If you asked any NFL player right now when there favorite time playing football was I guarantee they would say back in college. I have seen multiple interviews with players asking the same question and they all have the same answer... 'Back in college'

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Re: Most Popular Football in America - NFL or College?

Postby mikehill » Wed Jan 29, 2014 3:19 pm

Really?

BCS Championship...Florida State vs Auburn......."Live" viewership... 94,208...in attendance.

Super Bowl XLVII...Ravens vs 49ers......................"Live" viewership... 74,024...in attendance.

Looks like college is more popular with real "Live" people...people who take their eyes off "The Screen"...and leave the house once and a while. 8-)

Ticket prices might be the reason why :)
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Re: Most Popular Football in America - NFL or College?

Postby lionsfan » Wed Jan 29, 2014 4:55 pm

mikehill wrote:
Really?

BCS Championship...Florida State vs Auburn......."Live" viewership... 94,208...in attendance.

Super Bowl XLVII...Ravens vs 49ers......................"Live" viewership... 74,024...in attendance.

Looks like college is more popular with real "Live" people...people who take their eyes off "The Screen"...and leave the house once and a while. 8-)

Ticket prices might be the reason why :)

Stadium capacity might be another reason too ;)

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Re: Most Popular Football in America - NFL or College?

Postby RevanFan » Wed Jan 29, 2014 5:52 pm

lionsfan wrote:
mikehill wrote:
Really?

BCS Championship...Florida State vs Auburn......."Live" viewership... 94,208...in attendance.

Super Bowl XLVII...Ravens vs 49ers......................"Live" viewership... 74,024...in attendance.

Looks like college is more popular with real "Live" people...people who take their eyes off "The Screen"...and leave the house once and a while. 8-)

Ticket prices might be the reason why :)

Stadium capacity might be another reason too ;)

True. The Super Bowl in Dallas had over 100,000 people come to the game and see it in person.
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Re: Most Popular Football in America - NFL or College?

Postby slydways » Wed Jan 29, 2014 6:03 pm

Super Bowl in Dallas...one time...1000,000

Every Week at Ohio State , Michigan , Tennessee , and other schools...OVER 100,000...

NFL can never win the numbers game for attendance...remember 710 College Stadiums...32 NFL stadiums...you do the math. :ugeek:

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Re: Most Popular Football in America - NFL or College?

Postby slydways » Wed Jan 29, 2014 6:37 pm

Total Attendance for College vs NFL...2012

Div I BCS 2012...34,243,131...............twice as many people as................ NFL 2012...17,124,389

And that is just the top division...126 teams....there are 584 more teams in 4 more divisions to count yet.

I would guess...

Div I FBS...20,000,000
Div II..........10,000,000
Div III...........5,000,000
NAIA............1,000,000
Total. ........36,000,000

That would mean College Football has 4x more people in attendance on any given weekend than the NFL. So...in America...

I think that means that College Football is 4 times more popular than the nfl

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Re: Most Popular Football in America - NFL or College?

Postby BelieverInTeal » Wed Jan 29, 2014 6:53 pm

slydways wrote:Super Bowl in Dallas...one time...1000,000

Every Week at Ohio State , Michigan , Tennessee , and other schools...OVER 100,000...

NFL can never win the numbers game for attendance...remember 710 College Stadiums...32 NFL stadiums...you do the math. :ugeek:

Does the number of people in the stands still matter? In order to prove that, you would have to demonstrate that the number of people in the stands is how either NFL or NCAA teams define success.

You're right, the NFL will never win the numbers game for attendance...but it doesn't have to. Attendance in the stands does not matter when what the owners are more concerned about are private boxes. Here's an example: The NFL can choose to the Rose Bowl but they won't and it's not going to be because there isn't a team in LA. It's because the Rose Bowl does not have enough private boxes. You can say that there were 100,000 people at Cowboys Stadium but that's not what the Cowboys had in mind when they built the place. Jerry Jones wanted as many private boxes as possible because selling one of those is more lucrative than selling 100 tickets.

Do not forget that not everyone can attend the games live in stadium. That's why there's television and the numbers I have posted suggest that the opposite of what you're saying is true.
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