I still do not understand such allegiance to a pro team. Here in the South college football rules. Come to think of it, I had the same experience in Pennsylvania. Raised a Penn St. fan. Graduated from Auburn, now a Tiger. WDE! Really, someone explain it to me. My Grandpa and Dad are both PSU men. I have an Auburn degree. I like pro football, but a loss or win by my team does not have the same impact.
I would agree with what you said before I moved to Wisconsin. The Packers are different. They are not owned by some rich play boy. They are owned by the people of Wisconsin, and stadium improvements are financed by occasional “stock sales”. The stock is worthless and cannot be transferred, or re-sold, but people line up to buy it at $250 a copy so they can call themselves “owners”.
The Packers are as close to a community team as any college team could be. They are part of the fiber of Wisconsin as much as Auburn is part of Alabama. There’s no owner, just a bunch of folks who shelled out for stock and season tickets.
I have a co-worker who’s an Auburn alum and I’d say my connection to the Packers is greater than her connection to Auburn even though she spent four years at the school.
Well, for 1, there are only a small # of teams to keep track of, and they all are in the same exact league.
There is only 1 goal, not 75 watered-down meaningless goals.
The guys are there for a long time, not big changes every year, and every 4 years. No turnstiles constantly turning. People you can warm up to rather than wave goodbye when they were becoming familiar.
College is supposed to be for collegiates (LOL), not old people!
Some of us don’t get the other way around!
(And we’ll remain silent on the PSU thing...)
But when it comes right down to it, the vast majority of college games are just downright boring. The average margin of victory in pro football is in the mid single digits. The average margin of victory in pro football is around 30 points. Most games are blowouts, and even the good teams spend 2 or 3 games a season playing terrible competition, like FCS schools or teams that barely field a squad.
Even teams that are supposedly well matched can end up in a blowout, case in point the PSU/Wiscosin game at the end of the season. There's several Texas Tech fans in my family, and the unranked Red Raiders beat #1 Oklahoma on the road 41-38, then 3 weeks later lose to Oklahoma State 66-6 at home. 66 points? Seriously? Who wants to watch blowouts all day?
Stuff like that doesn't happen in the pros, and in regular season college football, in any given week you're lucky if you get 1 or 2 games that are even competitive. The Bowl Games are usually much better, but the whole BCS Bowl system is so corrupted by the sponsors that we'll never be able to get the real playoff system that everybody wants because there's too much corporate money on the line. And don't tell me that you can't have a playoff in college football because the FCS/Division II/Division III teams have been doing it for decades. You can keep the bowl system as consolation games for those that don't make the final two.
In the pros, you can watch every game with the Sunday Ticket, line up a good fantasy team with some friends and a friendly buy in, and nearly all of the games are competitive. The traditions and history might not be there, but the quality of the football is much, much better.
You also won't find two teams from the same division of the same conference playing in the Super Bowl that's for sure. In college football, the championship game is an SEC West division rematch. Whoop dee friggin' doo.
Should read:
The average margin of victory in pro football is in the mid single digits. The average margin of victory in college football is around 30 points.