Why do some people support their Uni and even and keep track of the games though it’s been years since they graduated?
How prestigeous is it to coach a College team coz the salaries they draw i felt were pretty impressive

39 comments

  1. College ball is huge in the US.

    Supporting your school team is up to the alumni. They support them for fun. Tailgating. And weekend getaways.

    Successful College coaches make bank for being successful.

  2. College football has followings from people who didn’t even attend the college. I’m not sure if it’s as big but it’s pretty darn close. In college towns/areas it’s probably even bigger then the national level. Despite growing up in the south in a state that is very football focused I’ve never understood and can’t actually sit through a game, but that true of any sport.

  4. It’s arguably bigger in some areas of the country. Not everyone has a local NFL team, but there is a college in every state.

  6. Remember that college football was first played in 1869 and the NFL didn’t start until 1920…and that was mostly piggybacking off the popularity of the college game.

    Also remember that like seven of the top ten stadiums in the world are used for seven of so college football games each.

    Depending on where you live college football can be an afterthought to the NFL like in the Northeast or bigger than the NFL like in the Southeast.

    Sixty years ago there were only 14 NFL teams while pretty much ever state had at least two college teams so it was common for even Americans who didn’t go to college to have a team to root for.

    College football has much more pomp and pagentry than the NFL. And games are typically much cheaper to attend than the NFL.

    I went to a big time football school, huge stadium, on TV all the time, etc. It was a lot of fun and is a guaranteed way to connect with others by talking about the team anywhere I go in the US.

    Considering as how the football coach is the highest paid public employee in about half the states, above med school deans and the state’s governor, yeah it a big job. Of course it’s also a very stressful job. One of my school’s old coaches considered his service in WWII Naval combat as a nice vacation from coaching.

    Just check out r/cfb and understand we are almost six months from the season start.

  8. Absolutely and funny you say that because millions of fans support teams they didn’t even attend. I went to a small liberal arts university and my favorite team is Tennessee

  11. I would say collectively there are more college fans than NFL fans. However, those fan bases are largely split up on focus mostly on regional. Like the College Football Championship usually doesn’t bring in as many viewers as the Superbowl. And Weekly NFL rating are higher than weekly College football ratings, because each college team has a mostly regional fan base. Rather than many NFL teams who have followings and fans all across the nation.

  12. The US is huge and there are only 32 NFL teams. So, for many americans the nearest NFL team plays *many hours* away.

    There are *thousands* of college teams, so it is considerably easier to follow a local college team.

    Also, the best of those players will go on to play in the NFL.

    Many will also say the young guys trying to get into the NFL have more “heart,” play harder, and take more chances in an attempt to set themselves apart. The speed of play is definitely faster in college.

    It’s also ***cheaper*** to go to college games.

  13. As has been said, it’s bigger overall because college football came before NFL.

  14. I mean, doesn’t it make more sense to support the team at the college you went to than it does to support a pro team that you have no personal connection to except (maybe) living in their city?

  15. It really depends. In the south, football is religion and college is absolutely bigger. If you’ve lived in a state for your whole life, you’ll be a bigger fan of your state’s college football team and it’s popular in rural areas. For most residents of big cities and suburbs, the closest NFL team gets the most attention.

  16. Never realized how big a deal it was until I moved to Texas what’s the saying? You never graduate?

  17. College football is the way we get more local teams, where we see developing talent, and how we round out game schedules when the NFL just doesn’t have enough teams we care about. Same idea with basketball.

    So…yeah it’s big. Probably more fans total, but split across more teams and games so you won’t hit like super bowl viewership on a single event.

    IME college fans are a lot more fun, too.

    It doesn’t stop being the sport just because the players are a smidge younger, and I have a much stronger connection to my college team than the NFL franchises in my state.

  19. College football is huge, certainly on par with NFL. It’s not just following the school one went to — there are countless fans who never attended a school (or any college) who are fans. Especially in states/cities without pro teams, you’ll see huge followings of schools like Alabama or Nebraska. College teams often have stadiums even bigger than NFL teams and the sheer number of teams mean more fans overall — there are 120 or so teams in the top category of college football vs. 32 NFL teams.

  21. In certain parts of the country it’s MASSIVE.

    The NFL is spread pretty thin, and a lot of people live far away from the nearest market. This is one of the reasons–but by no means the only reason–that University of Alabama football is such an imcomprehensibly huge deal for the people of Alabama.

  22. ***Why do some people support their Uni and even and keep track of the games though it’s been years since they graduated?***

    Actually, university teams are supported outside students and alumni of the university. The biggest university teams are seen as representing their states at large and most people who go to a game and watch them actually did not actually attend the university or even know someone who does. Of course, tons of students and friends/family of students also support the university’s team but it is far beyond that.

    ***How prestigeous is it to coach a College team coz the salaries they draw i felt were pretty impressive***

    It’s pretty prestigious and their salaries are impressive, but it is not as prestigious as being an NFL coach, full stop. This kind of answers your question. The NFL IS bigger than college (for example, the Super Bowl is much more watched than the College National Championship most recently about 112mil viewers to 20mil) but in the South actually college is bigger for a lot of people. This has a lot to do with that the fact that American football was originally a university sport (whereas baseball was the big professional game). But when professional football emerged, it was heavily concentrated on the East Coast and Midwest. Southern pro teams are comparatively newer than their college counterparts and so the college teams are held in more reverence because they are older and have more history.

    Incidentally, this helps the South’s stature in Pro Football though. The South’s SEC college football conference is by far the strongest in the country and a large share of the big pro stars come from SEC universities.

  24. College football is the #2 draw in the United States. It is second only to the NFL. Being the head coach of a Power 5 college is an extremely prestigious job that pays handsomely.

    For reference, Mel Tucker (Michigan State coach) just signed a 10/$95 million deal. Lincoln Riley (USC coach) signed one of the best contracts of all time which included: $110 million, USC buying both of his two homes in Oklahoma for $500,000 over asking price, USC buying him a $6 million home in LA plus unlimited use of USC privates jet for him and his family.

    College football is viewed as the NFL’s minor leagues, but the revenue numbers it generates are insane. Last year, I believe the University of Texas reported a $92 million profit from college football

  25. I live in Ohio where in the middle of the state, you have a huge university (Ohio State University) with a very popular and successful college football team. In the north, you have the Cleveland Browns NFL team and in the south, the Cincinnati Bengals. OSU football is a much bigger deal across the state than either NFL team. The OSU coach also usually makes more than either of the NFL coaches (although contracts do change, but last I looked, OSU= 6.6 Million, Cleveland 6 million and Cincinnati 5 Million) per year.

  26. >though it’s been years since they graduated

    Many teams will also have a ton of fans who never even went to college. That’s definitely the case for the team I root for at least.

  27. In Texas, College Football is bigger, with more fans and marketing, than the NFL

  28. Bigger. Stadiums are significantly larger and I feel like outside of the super bowl, most people pay more attention to the goings on in cfb

  30. Tennessee here, and Id 100% say people care more about College rather than NFL. Maybe it’s because nobody knows who the Tennessee Titans are.

  31. It really depends on the part of the country too. I’m in the Northeast where college sports are a lot more hockey centered, so we follow the NFL more than CFB.

    When I visited Texas tho, I was amazed how serious people took the CFB and high school football scene.

  32. Yes also some College football stadiums are bigger than NFL stadiums example Alabamas football’s stadium Bryant deny stadium has a capacity of over 100,000

  34. It’s very region dependent. Here in California, I don’t know anyone who really cares about college football, but I know tons of NFL fans.

  35. The football coach at the state university is the highest paid public employee in most states, unless they have a better basketball program.

  36. Some states even have multiple teams that go against each other or other state college teams. In my state we have University of Michigan (Michigan) or Michigan State (State), so it’s not uncommon to be asked if your family is a Michigan or State fan and also to see stores that sell apparel for both colleges. We also tend to go against Ohio college teams too, so there’s a bit of a rivalry between the states.

  37. It’s about as big, but it’s bigger in places without a pro team or down south. I’m from Nebraska and we have no pro teams so Nebraska football is it. Iowa is a bit similar but they have two major teams in Iowa and Iowa State. Also while a lot of the fans are alums, many just support the team in their state or one they grew up following.

  38. College Football is a lot more regional than the NFL. There are major college teams all over the country, but the South in particular is absolutely obsessed with College Football. Those schools draw massive crowds, and a pretty disproportionate number of top teams, both in caliber and popularity (Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Florida State, Georgia, etc.), are from there.

  39. College sports are something everyone will go through if given the opportunity, whether you are an athlete or just a fan of your school. After you graduate, that is your alma matter and it was a home for you for 4 years (or however long you were in that school for) so there is that emotional side of it. People will always want their alma matter to succeed. There are colleges all around the US which are way more schools than NFL teams!

    In some instances, many college football athletes are drafted for the NFL and people might follow those individual players but maybe not the entire team as their preference is another!

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