A college football comic with a meme reference? WHAT HAVE I BECOME??!?

Anyway, I get a small number of people constantly ask me why I don’t do college stuff, am I ever going to do college stuff, waaa waaa I want to see college stuff. I’d like to take this moment to address college ball in The Draw Play.

Pro Football is my jam. I grew up in the Chesapeake Bay area, near Annapolis. There was no college team worth giving a crap about around there. My dad went to nerd college, and my mom went to a smaller school, neither school contained a big football program. So there was no “blood” in the family. I also went to a nerd college, where being a football fan actually made me a minority. I never played football in school (I was too skinny and apathetic to care about actually playing). I’ve literally never had a reason to care about college ball, so I’ve never followed it. It was only till I moved to Portland, a town of college fans, that I even started paying the faintest attention. Contrast that with pro ball, something I’ve loved since I was a wee lad. My dad is from New York, my mom didn’t have a team and adopted his. I was hooked on the Giants before the Ravens came around.

There’s something different about college fandom then pro fandom. There is a strong connection people get with the sport, even if they never played it, simply because it’s the school they went to, and the school is a part of them. It’s a stronger connection than a city or family who liked a team. That’s why you have situations like Penn State where lots of people will go to great lengths to defend a child molester enabler despite never having done anything close to football. It’s almost in their blood. An attack on the school is an attack on them. In the NFL, if someone disses your city, you might be mad but it doesn’t get you as riled up. You aren’t going to defend Dallas from the haters like you will defend the university of Texas from haters. Dallas can take care of itself, and doesn’t care about you. The Longhorns DO! Because you’re a Longhorn! Say that to my face, punk! (side note, the longhorns don’t actually care about you)

But because college ball is like that, it’s harder to break in from the outside if you’ve never had a close connection. That’s not an issue in pro ball. In pro ball you can find a player you like, latch on to him and become a fan of his team through that player. You can’t really do that with college ball, because players only last at most 4 years. You don’t see anyone becoming a fan of Michigan because of Tom Brady, but you see people become Patriots fans because of him.

Essentially, to me, college ball always felt less about the sport itself, and more about the greater community. The community of that college. The rivalries between communities. When you aren’t a member of one of those communities, it’s hard to care. Pro ball always felt more about the sport itself, with the community being less defined and less important. When I watch college ball, all I end up seeing are things that annoy me. The talent gap being the main one. College ball feels like it’s a bunch of average dudes and one or two NFL bound players per team, and those players are basically the whole team. They are so completely above everyone else on the field that it just gets boring to watch these future draft picks constantly clown these joes. But in the NFL, everyone is that 1%. Everyone in the NFL was one of those college stars. Things feel more even. it’s not perfect, but it feels a lot closer. There are other things I don’t like about college ball, such as the almost excessive number of teams, the NCAA itself, the godawful BCS, the constant undefeated seasons (In pro ball a team has gone undefeated exactly once in the superbowl era. It happens literally every year in college ball). I also hate that the big schools always get the big recruits, always get the favorable BCS standings, and the smaller schools will never have a chance to prove themselves.

But what this all boils down to is I don’t watch nor really understand college ball on the same level that I appreciate pro ball. One rule I’ve always held dear in my art and humor, is that to truly make fun of something, you have to know it. To understand it. Otherwise you are just a guy on the outside making snarky comments at what you think things are. Anyone can do that. It takes someone who understands and loves the subject to truly pick the thing apart. I mock pro football because I love pro football. I can’t mock college ball because I don’t know college ball. Maybe one day I will.

So if you want more college comics, don’t get your hopes too high. I’m open to it, but I feel like I can only make snarky comments at this point, instead of going the deeper, less trafficked route my pro knowledge allows me to do.