For years friends and even family have smirked and thumbed their noses at me while I proclaimed the competitive nature and spirit of professional sports. They’ll nod, smile, and quickly remind me that college athletics are better. There’s more purity to the game, they say. There’s competitive balance, they exclaim. I’m finally calling bullshit on this entire college vs. pro debate. There is no way collegiate sports can even be mentioned in the same breath as professional athletics. This is a matter of two entirely separate universes slammed together in a fashion that belies comparison and moreover, gives false praise to college athletics as the ‘Rudy league’ where everyone has a chance to compete.
Lets talk anecdotally for a minute here. Imagine you are one of the 128 FBS football schools. That means your school is allowed to field a team that can feasibly compete with any other team in the country. On the surface this sounds really great. Suddenly Southern Methodist University can show up on any given Saturday and bring their players and gameplan to contend with Alabama. Now imagine how that’s going to go for them. They are going to lose. In fact, they aren’t going to be able to compete. Most FBS teams cannot compete with the likes of Alabama, Oregon, etc. Why? Because although they are in the same FBS, they aren’t in the same orbit. The big schools simply have the name recognition and financial backing to buy better student-athletes.
Yep, I said buy.
Even if you aren’t paying kids under the table you are providing them scholarships and your name recognition and connection to the NFL are providing them with an opportunity to be noticed and perhaps one day play for the big bucks on Sunday. This is where college football–the big college sports in general–are far worse than the pros. You see, this year the Jets stunk it up. So did the Raiders and so did the Jags. Come April those teams and a handful of others get their choice of the 10 best collegiate athletes from all 128 FBS teams (and beyond). Likewise this year Iowa State University stunk it up. What do they get to bolster their program? Nothing. What pick or recruit is rewarded to them to maintain competitive balance? None. Instead the coaches have to roadtrip door to door begging top prospects to come to a losing team to have a shot to start. Yeah, the carrot of starting is a lot to dangle, but what point is starting if you’re starting for a team that won’t win games. In fact, what sort of attitudes and players are you getting if they give up a chance to learn from Nick Saban to start immediately for a team that hasn’t been a top 25 contender since I’ve been alive?
All of the people who talk about preferring collegiate athletics aren’t really talking about competitive balance. For the most part they are talking about assurances. They are talking about the assurance that their Crimson Tide will continue to roll on into history, that their Ducks will always be mighty, and that the Seminoles will always be the last tribe standing. You don’t have to make excuses for your team like Cubs fans do.