US sports nuts explain to me the appeal of college sports

[Yads]

This is one thing that I never understood about US culture is why are college sports so popular in the US? Is it just a byproduct of sports being popular in general? I am a hockey fan, but I don't really care about junior or college hockey so I don't understand the obsession with college bball and football.

[Victor]

games are exciting and skill level is high.

its cool to watch players develop and see them before they are pros.

[tshort]

People generally have real personal connections to universities.

CollegeBB >>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;>> NBA

CollegeFB >= NFL

[MyTurn2Raise]

well...I like college football and college basketball, because the games are better than the pros.

Pro football doesn't have enough plays and it turns it into a large variance fest IMO.

Pro basketball has no rules and encourages individual play over team play.

[UATrewqaz]

Fan loyalty/passion is much stronger to college teams. People went to those colleges, quite often many generations. You spent alot of time/money there.

However a pro team "belongs" to a whole city? Am I supposed to be an Atlanta Falcolns fan because I've lived in Atlanta like 3 years now?

Plus pro sports are all about the money (yes I know college sports mostly are too) and free agency sucks.

[MoreWineII]

[ QUOTE ]
People generally have real personal connections to universities.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this is the best answer. People usually know someone who attends a school they like to root for or they are an alumni themself. Or perhaps they just grew up in a state where a particular school is very popular sports-wise.

Also, pro teams tend to be focused on one city, college teams have a wider fan base.

Also, the rivalries are better (imo).

Also, it seems more genuine and the players more accessible. I don't doubt there's money flying around but it's not as blatant as it is in pro sports. College sports seem "cleaner" somehow.

[disjunction]

Rooting for a pro team = rooting for a uniform

Rooting for a college team = Retroactively trying to justify paying $100K+ in tuition.

[AJW]

I'm not an American but I can see one giant reason why you might choose to support a Colleague team. They can’t move you can’t be a happy fan of a team one day only to wake up and find out they are [censored] off to the other end of the country. Indeed I find it quite hard to see why people support a franchise that moves into their city. It seems a bit like being a fan of the local Wal-Mart.

[Green Kool Aid]

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLLLOLO @ people saying college sports are better.

the crowd is louder in college sports. the quality of play is better in pro sports. i value the second one higher. thefore, i prefer pro sports.

[Semtex]

[ QUOTE ]
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLLLOLO @ people saying college sports are better.

the crowd is louder in college sports. the quality of play is better in pro sports. i value the second one higher. thefore, i prefer pro sports.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is most definitely true for the NFL, but the level of competition is high enough that people justify following their college team. With basketball however, even though the quality of play might be better in the NBA, the quality of the game itself is crap. The NBA is basically a fancy show. Every year it becomes less and less about basketball.

A big appeal of college sports is you have guys that have no hope of going pro giving it their all every game while in the pros you have superstars like Vince Carter/Randy Moss who admit to not giving a [censored] because they hate their team/city/etc.