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Three Reasons Why College Football is the Greatest Sport in the U.S.

By Chris Peterson| Sep 10, 2015 8:50:00 AM | 0 Comments

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Baseball has been my passion and favorite sport since I was seven years old; I share season tickets to Orlando Magic games and watch more NBA than any other sport throughout the year; and my favorite event to watch on TV is golf’s U.S. Open.  However, there is no doubt in my mind that the greatest sport in the U.S. is college football.  Although I can name dozens of reasons, I’ve shared my top three below. 

  1. The players are loyal to one team forever.  Derek Jeter, John Elway, Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, Dan Marino, Ray Lewis, and Tony Gwynn.  I just gave myself 30 seconds to name professional athletes that played for one team their entire career and will be ambassadors for that team forever.  If I gave it more thought, I could name more.  However, 99%+ of college football players only play for one team, and stay committed to that team for the rest of their lives.  As fans and alumni, we can cheer for the team and the players because we know they won’t be playing for our rivals next year. 

Take the example of Aaron Rodgers cheering for the University of Wisconsin in the NCAA basketball tournament last spring.  He’s lived in Wisconsin for 10 years, he plays for the Packers, and his alma mater, University of California, wasn’t even in the tournament.  However, this made the news because people considered his actions disloyal to CAL.  This wouldn’t even be a story in the local news if he were cheering for the Milwaukee Bucks over the Golden State Warriors; but the expected level of loyalty in college football in almost fanatical.

  1. College towns.  For one day, a city with less than 100,000 residents has about 100,000 visitors … and it’s amazing.  I love going to any sporting event in Boston or Chicago, but I’ll take Knoxville, Stillwater, or Gainesville on a fall Saturday any day. 

Tailgating takes over the community.  It’s not in an enormous parking lot.  Tailgating is practiced in strangers’ front yards, dormitory parking lots, student unions, fraternity houses, and yes, the local college bars.  There is no better environment in the sporting world.

  1. The players choose their teams.  Professional athletes get drafted and have virtually no influence on the teams they join.  Of course, free agency gives them the ability to move later in their career, but that just leads to a lack of loyalty to one team (see #1 above).  When you watch the players run out of the tunnel for a college game, you can tell they’ve been dreaming about playing for their team forever.  Their joy is contagious throughout the stadium, and makes for an electricity that’s hard to duplicate anywhere else.

To be fair, you could substitute “basketball”, “baseball”, “hockey”, or whatever other college sport for “football” and these three arguments hold.  However, no other college sport packs the city like football.  Sure, the folks at Duke or Kentucky might disagree, but show me another college sport that brings in 100,000 fans for a meaningless non-conference game with a 55 point spread.

If you don’t believe me, check out a game this fall.  Its early September … you’ve got plenty of time!

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