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.
I’m a Canadian and spent a year working in Mississippi. When I there a guy asked me which football team I liked. When I said Oakland, he got a bit of a dejected look and said, “oh. You like pro football.” I didn’t really have a response because the rabid following of college football in the states was foreign to me. Your description sums the situation up perfectly. I didn’t have that community connection to my college and became a Raiders fan because of Bo Jackson. Bo is long gone but I still suffer with my Raiders for 17 weeks in the fall.
Cheer up, I think Oakland is on the upswing.
Well put; I understand your preference for pro ball a lot better now, and a lot of your points I agree with (BCS sucks, so does the NCAA most of the time, talent gap to an extent, community aspect of college ball in particular). I disagree with the vehemence aspect of college football, but only in my specific circumstance: after being disappointed literally every single year in how close-but-not-close-enough Georgia Tech comes, one learns to not take things personally, purely as a method for survival.
I think I have a hard time with pro ball specifically because I played the sport for four years, and I feel like between college and pro, there’s a lot of grit and discipline and fundamental technique that’s lost to the 1%. From my [admittedly limited] perspective, it’s more about raw talent than simple hard work, and that just doesn’t jive with me. Personal preference, though.
In regarding your second paragraph, that’s mainly what I talk about when referring to the talent gap. You can essentially coast through college on raw talent if you are good enough, and many players do (but to be fair, a lot of those players also work really hard as well).
But once those raw talents hit the NFL, they have to learn to work because they are now facing teams made entirely of other people who did the same. You can’t really coast through the NFL on raw ability alone (maybe a year or two with youth and health), which is why you have high profile busts like Jamarcus Russell. Jamarcus had enough raw talent to own in college ball, but his work ethic was awful and when he went against other top players who studied and worked, he got completely destroyed. Contrast that with Peyton Manning, a man who spent hours every day in front of game film, even in college, working his ass off, and it translated well to the pros. Once these players reach the NFL, the good ones learn to buckle down and not rely purely on talent, The great ones already knew how to do that, and the bad ones don’t and fade into obscurity.
yo i didnt read like anything but i saw one guy invoked grit and discipline. lol
That’s an adorable hedgehog.
Ok, I’ve met Sonic, and he doesn’t look anything like that.
Yeah right. Come clean. You only don’t do college comics because the real RGIII, good old Sexy Rexy, won’t give you kickbacks the way he does for pro references…
yo i could neva beat that one level where that goddamn water float up from the floor and start drownin ur ass
I could never beat that fucking barrel in 3. I was able to handily beat the game as Knuckles though, which I’ve heard was harder for some reason…
Yeah, despite going to a college with an FBS team (Go Aztecs!) it’s overall fairly hard for me to care about college football. Because even if we go undefeated, we still have exactly zero shot to win the national championship. (The fact that there’s no playoff system is part of the reason why there are so many undefeated teams.)
Even the new “College Football Playoff” that is being surmised doesn’t really change anything. Frankly, I think the 5 major conferences and the 5 minor conferences that make up the “Football Bowl Subdivision” should really themselves be two separate divisions if they’re not going to give the minors a chance. Bit of a joke, though, as the MWC plays better football than the ACC most of the time and occasionally than one of the “Big”s as well.
Ultimately, the talent gap as far as the majority of players isn’t a huge issue — I see prospects that can come out of any team, and it’s fairly balanced at about 70% of the positions… until we get to… the offensive and defensive lines. This is where the mismatches are created, as the SEC and other major conferences really “beef up” and get the best athletes on the lines, and the lesser teams tend to get manhandled.
Perhaps a soccer-style relegation system needs to be enforced for NCAAF? Or something else? Idk, there are a lot of ways to make college football not crappy — but nobody actually wants to do it. Sounds a lot like the politics in Washington.
So I see where you’re coming from. Pro football is a much better sport, and not just because it’s pro. (Go Chargers!)
Relegation would be the best for CFB, as it would pair the best of the best, the problem is the TV contracts and the buy out of them would be immense. Not to mention the standing of ole school rivalries. What if Auburn is relegated downward? No Iron Bowl that year? Insanity!
Also, the TV would be in love with the 4 playoff system, so much that the execs would move onto an 8 team within 5-6 years.
Uh, running into a tree wouldn’t make him lose his rings.
Dude, that tree has needles. Of course it would make him lose his rings.
I think NFL players should be paid like Old Arena2 teams. If you win that week you get twice the cash. Then if you don’t make the playoffs you forfeit 3/4ths season salary. Seriously why is anybody on the Browns, Bills, Titans, Texans, Chiefs, Raiders, Dolphins, Jags, Bucs, Panthers, Eagles, and Chargers(you get the point) being paid millions to lose on purpose? Joe Thomas contract is like paying the bouncer at the worst stripclub in America not owned by the mob a million dollar salary. He will never help them win anything.
Welp… look what ended up happening~