College Football Rocks

In my opening I told you that I would give you some background information on my odd choices for the teams that I follow.  Well, not that you asked, but I'll explain anyway.

Back when I was a kid and at the age when you start to follow sports teams, both the Ducks and the Beavers really stunk up the joint.  It always seemed they were mired at the bottom of the PAC-10 (PAC-8 in the old days).  In the age of BC (before cable) there were only 3 channels on the boob-tube (a few more if you lived near a major metro area) and it seemed like the Huskers were on the TV every Saturday.  So I became a fan.  As luck would have it later on in life I wound up being stationed in Omaha NE when the Huskers were running off three National Championships and competing for two others (curse on the Seminoles).
  As for being a fan of both the Ducks and Beavers I know that seems a little strange.  Not sure how I can explain it.  Maybe it was because the Ducks started to become a better team before the Beavers.  My Dad is an OSU grad and he thinks it blaspheme that I would root for the Ducks.  Makes for interesting times during the annual “civil war” game.  Early on, the game really meant nothing more than who would be at the bottom of the PAC-10.  But lately it has had some meaning.  Last year the winner would go to the Rose Bowl.  This year it could really make things tough for my dad and me.  UO wins out the rest of their schedule and they play for the National Championship.  But OSU needs this game to become bowl eligible.  In the past, my dad has had to weigh the impacts of each team winning and losing.  So last year he was quite upset when the Beavers lost and Oregon went to the Rose Bowl.  This year is a little different.  UO wins, hello BCS Championship Game, but no bowl game for OSU. OSU wins this weekend and the civil war, then will go to El Paso (mostly likely) and OU would head to LA and the Rose Bowl (they beat Stanford earlier this so they own the tie-breaker).
  For a team like Oregon a chance to play for all the marbles doesn’t come around often, if ever.  For teams like Nebraska, Alabama, Florida, Notre Dame, USC, they have to build an extra wing just to hold all the SWAG from the championship runs, there really is a “wait ‘til next year” feeling around their programs. This opportunity may not come around again in my lifetime.

College football in general is just more fun to watch than the pro game.  I like seeing an individual dominate game the way a guy like Mike Rozier (NU 1983), or Tim Tebow (UF, 2009) can.
 I have a theory on the reason why someone can take over a college game but that level of dominance doesn’t translate to the NFL.  It has to do with skill level.  When a guy is an NFL skill level player he is going against a few guys that might be at the same or nearly the same level.  But for the most part, the players on the field are not as good so the individual’s skill outshines the majority of the players.  He is the best of the best.  But when he reaches the NFL, he is now playing against guys that were the best players on their respective college teams.  No longer is that one guy the dominate player of the field because of his speed, strength or agility.  When he gets to the NFL he is now playing alongside and against guys that are as fast, and as strong, and as agile as he is.

 Of course there are those transcendent players like Brown, Montana, Rice, Dorsett, Unitas, White, and Baugh who are even better than the best of the best.  There is a reason why there is a Hall of Fame and only a very select few make it.  It is reserved for the “transcendent few”.