Why Do Americans Go Crazy for College Sports?
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- čas přidán 5. 04. 2019
- What a stunning last-gasp win by Virginia against Auburn in the Final Four! Ever since my first couple of years living in the United States, when Indiana's own Butler University were challenging in basketball championship finals, I've been in awe of America's tradition of championing college sports - something you don't really see in the UK. But why precisely do Americans go crazy for college sports? Watch the video to get my take.
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Americans love underdogs and young amateurs playing with passion knowing that most will never play professionally. Also people love the college game atmosphere, the bands, the cheerleaders. I prefer it over professional sports.
Me too.
And the tailgating .
Indeed. College sports way better to watch. College basketball Way better than the NBA variety. March Madness as good as it gets!
Agreed. Seems better for most sport, except soccer though where mls is better than NCAA soccer.
Exactly! You put it perfectly!
It's worth pointing out that the NFL and NBA don't have minor leagues of any note. College teams fill this role.
xczechr the NBA has the G-League and the NFL just debuted the AAF this year. Before that (and still to this day) each NFL team has what they refer to as practice squads, which allows some, albeit rare, instances of players moving up the ranks.
@@scottjacoby2594 AAF is already done
Yeah thats where baseball and hockey differ from the other two. Since baseball and hockey have minor leagues not many people care about their NCAA teams.
@@scottjacoby2594 nfl practice squads only have 10 player on them, so not really an advance league structure - more of a pool of extra bodies to mimic some opponents' key players...
@@scottjacoby2594 AAF is dead and practice squads are not a league.
American here. Great explanation! Sometimes it takes an outside perspective to put something so familiar into perspective. You’re spot on with this video! 👏 👏 👏
College games are more exciting and cheaper to attend than professional team games. Pro games are too polished because the players are just too good; college sports tend to have more action because the players, though talented, are somewhat rough around the edges, and they're all struggling to prove themselves worthy of the big leagues. Being cheaper to attend, you get a better cross section of the populace at the games and the atmosphere is more exciting. And don't forget about college rivalries. People are proud of their universities. What blew me away when I lived in the Midwest (having grown up in California) was HIGH SCHOOL games being reported ON THE TV NEWS. That was alien to me.
CNVideos Yes, same here in WV. High school games on the TV news. I grew up in the DC suburbs so that shocked me too!
We even occasionally, here in Indiana, get high school games (basketball or football) aired on television, and many get broadcast on the radio.
I think a big part is the tradition. College football has it's own identity going back all the way to the late 1800's. College football gave birth to the NFL not the other way around. It's hard to imagine college football being a thing if the NFL came first.
High school games are reported on here in Pittsburgh,PA - And it's NOT like we don't have any pro sports - Football,Baseball,Hockey - Even Soccer! - The only major league we don't have is the NBA. Add to that numerous colleges - And yet High School sports are still big here!
Scott Humphereys, you are correct. If the NFL had arisen as a working class sport or if professional football teams had been established in the late 1800s ,even if derived from college football, well before the creation of the NCAA, football would have been more akin to baseball in its recruitment, developmental, and organizational structure. There would likely be a at the national level a major league and a number of different minor leagues, and additionally various regional interstate and also lower level intrastate leagues. Probably, even the European system of clubs developing their own academies and recruiting players from them would also have been established.
Very interesting point you made pointing out that college teams have a loyalty based on the fact that college teams don’t change cities.
That NCAA game between Magic and Bird actually happened 40 years ago just about five miles down the road from where I now live. It's the one and only time we've had an NCAA basketball championship in Salt Lake City. I imagine someone decided once that historic event happened nothing could ever surpass it here.
Yea, totally remember that game ! You're right. That game was history in the making
McKay always used the American pronunciation (Mah Kay) not the "Real" McKay. He later got hired as Tampa Bay's (Pro) first coach and they lost the first 26 games (over 2 seasons). Which led to his other famous quote.
"What do you think of your team's execution?"
"I'm in favor of it."
I would love to see you cover a video on the Stanley Cup playoffs and your take on hockey since it's not that popular in the UK.
He might also be moved by a biggest hockey hits video.
FYI, University of Kentucky's Rupp Arena held over 24k people until a recent "renovation" that pulled it down to about 21k. It was built originally in 1976. The school has held or been 2nd in attendance for 74 years.
Sports overall is still one of the remaining things that still bring Americans together.
@J LA You sir, need to provide evidence of you claim. SMH
It’s surprising considering how boring american sports are
Though the BlMers are trying to destroy that with Kolin Capernick trying to lead American Football players to kneel during the National Anthem good thing he is all but black balled
Going back to your alumni point, especially during football season they'll have Homecoming. Not only is it usually the first home game after a bunch of away games but universities will use it as a weekend to invite alumni / alumnae back to the school and have numerous events (fundraising for the most part honestly). Probably another reason everyone is so proud of their own schools.
Nicely done. Btw, you could've mentioned college FB in the south. It is religion down here.
SEC! SEC! SEC!
Finally someone made a video of this topic in 2019 ive been searching for answer of this question for years. Im a nfl fan from malaysia (atl falcons fan) and i remember when i discover college football and march madness i always wonder why college sport is a big deal in US? Even when i google it there is almost no explanation, the best explanation i got was its a cultural thing. With your video here the search is over
Also it kinda ironic that this video creator is non-american i always expected a real american to explain this thing
Someone from outside can see things more clearly. You don’t ask a fish about the history of water.
Butler is where the final championship basketball game is played in Hoosiers.
It all starts in high school on a smaller scale, gives something for a school to rally around. In Europe you do not have sports in your schools, it is all in a club setting.
You do not have scholarships for sports.
A very open minded assessment of what drives popularity of college sports. Thank you! The US is a very regionalized place and lots of people enjoy manifesting their regional and community pride with collegiate sports. I grew up in west Texas with its own college traditions. For example, at Texas Tech, we have a black clad rider that enters the field with the football team. The rider is not only an exciting mascot, but is also carries a lot of the identity of west Texas, as many ranches in the region are distinguished ranch horse breeders. My wife is from North Carolina and went to Duke. Many of the Tobacco Road hatreds and traditions fascinate me, as they are closely intertwined into the region’s history. Visiting NC is very unique as college basketball is a borderline religious subject 😂.
Have you ever experienced High school sports while living in Indiana? Especially basketball.
there are high school football stadiums in Texas with a seating capacity bigger than the places Germany used when they hosted the World Cup
I have British guy friends living in America that have actually grown to love college sports... I enjoy pro sports like the NHL, NBA & NFL much more than college level. However it is fun to attend college football games when two rivals like USC & UCLA play against each other. The tailgate parties before the games are fun!
Growing up as a Kentuckian we have no professional teams. It is a matter of pride and community when my Wildcats try to win a national title. We get crapped on a lot being poor and ugly stereotypes so to have something we feel good about means a lot to folks.
Of all the videos that i have watched on your "Lost in the Pond" series i have really enjoyed this particular video. i can really relate to your views on this subject!! Thumbs up!!
You forgot University Challenege, which is watched by literally dozens of people.
Excellent breakdown, thank you! I’m an American just starting to realize my own interest in college B-ball and I learned a lot from this.
The university of nebraska lincoln holds the record for longest sellout streak in college sports history at 368 games with every seat packed. Its estimated that 15% of the states population is in or around memorial stadium every sunday during football season since 1962. We also renovated the stadium in 2006 to hold 85,000 people but we still have attendances of 90k+. #goskers
Dustin Fogarty Sunday?
@@darkjedi74 oof. I meant saturday.
I’m a Cornhusker fan!
That happens in states that don't have anything else going on.
Let’s go I live in Nebraska let’s go huskers
Tremendous, thank you lad!!!
Lol !! My middle name is BAMA, named after the university of Alabama, where my dad went to school !! VERY PROUD to be named BAMA !! ROLL TIDE !!
Pick a College Team and root for them like you went to school there, you'll get into it a lot more!!
Yep for sure !! Bryant-Denny stadium, Alabama's football stadium holds like 103,000 people !! Its crazy being there in person!!
love the cubs shirt, are you getting into baseball??
Laurence, college level sports is not the only thing we go 'bonkers' about over here. You may have noticed that during the first weeks of March, the state of Illinois was having the high school level in the news as it got down to the final 4, which was televised across the state for 2 weekends from Peoria.
Also, for our friends across the pond, NCAA is the abbreviation for National Collegiate Athletic Association. The other, which isn't quite as famous, is the NIT, or National Invitational Tournament.
In Michigan, when I was growing up the Pro teams were terrible and not exciting, but The University of Michigan which I went to games from the age of 6 until I went to college (somewhere else) still resonates with me decades later. The pro teams still don't.
It’s awesome to see you so involved in the American sports scene. Go cougs!!
I am currently an engineering student at the University of Tennessee..... Thank you for your faith in our team with your bracket. I speak for all students when I say we were heart broken.
Spot on Video. College teams really fill in the gaps where the lower divisions of football in Europe do. Most College teams were there first and therefore have the long roots and traditions. March Madness is really in some ways the American version of the FA cup with Giant killing and such.
Great take on it Laurence!
You have a surprisingly good grasp of what makes college sports so popular here. Hell, probably better than most people I know who live here along the mid-Atlantic. People like myself, who come from states with no major level professional teams (Iowa in my case), the major state university is your best representative. You see that in states like Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, and others. Some of it is that a lot of these schools come from major conferences steeped in tradition, such as the Big Ten. And also, if you ask me, even the NFL cannot match the atmosphere of major college football in the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12, or PAC 12. Additionally, at the college level, you see more players you may be more familiar growing up with in high school near that university. So yes, there’s certainly a more regional aspect involved there as well.
There are so many people who don't even watch the NFL anymore, who are nevertheless rabid college football fans. I'm one of them. I'd love to see some stats on this. The NFL, and to some extent, the NBA, are just too glitzy, too packaged, too good, and, pointedly, just too professional.
I'm from North Carolina.. we have no reason to watch NBA since our college basketball is so much better.
Lies
As an American who follows a football club in England, I have always felt that American college & university teams are our version of local football clubs in Europe. Local identity is often tied into the college team, which is why many such teams often have fans who aren't alumni of the school. Some universities athletic programs have fans far beyond their home state. And just as Glasgow's Celtic FC have fans throughout the worldwide Irish and Scottish diaspora, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish have many fans among Catholics in the U.S.
College sports are just exciting! ROLL TIDE! :D (And Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, AL is one of the stadium you mentioned.)
(I've converted one of your fellow UK mates to a love of the University of Alabama football.)
As a Duke fan I did not consider Butler's 2010 championship loss "unfortunate" lol but I do respect Butler and especially Brad Stevens who coached them at the time and now coaches the Celtics.
I don't watch any other sport except college ball which I am a fanatic about. The passion, the energy, the emotion... there is something so real to it that you don't get from professional sports. There's also the ability to get and feel extremely close to your team thanks to localization, these being college kids and smaller arenas. This year I got to meet every member of my team and get a Jersey signed and that was at DUKE with 3 top 10 draft prospects including the likely #1 and #2 overall. At smaller universities it is even easier
I know I’m late to the party for this video. I just subscribed to your channel maybe a month ago. I know shame on me 😬I do Love it. I grew up in Iowa and have family who went to the University of Iowa. I been a fan of Hawkeye football for over 40 years. I do follow basketball and wrestling to. There is something following your state colleges for sports. Someone I heard years ago put it like this. You follow your college team with your heart. Your pro team with your head. Was just his opinion but when I heard it it made sense. I’m a Bears fan to. However my first LOVE it my Hawkeyes. Keep up the great work. Thanks for being so positive about America. It gets old when people keep bashing it. We’re not perfect. Who is 😀👍🏻🇺🇸
The way you pronounced John McKay's name was interesting. BTW one of the most colorful football coaches ever. Back in 1976 I think, when he was coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a reporter asked him what he thought about the execution of the terrible winless Tampa Bay team - he quipped nonchalantly " I'm all for it".
During those winter years of the “Bucs” one joke was going around in the form of a riddle: What’s the difference between Tampa and Gainesville? Tampa doesn’t have a professional football team. [Gainesville is the home of the University of Florida Gators.]
Another joke tells of a fan who left two Bucs season tickets on the dashboard of his car and left the car unlocked while shopping. When he came back he found that two more had been added.
How bad were the Bucs? When they won their first game, the losing team (the Saints) immediately fired their coach, Hank Stram.
I'll bet that bars make CRAZY tips on big sports venues like March Madness and the Super Bowl.
Yay. Love your T-shirt.
Glad to hear you have Butler alumni in the family. Go Bulldogs!
Good vid. I think the rams were first in Los Angeles before moving to the other places and then going back to LA. I remember them in LA back in the sixties and seventies.
I'm an old 50's and 60's Rams fan. The Rams were first established in Cleveland in 1936 and moved to Los Angeles in 1946. They gained prominence in the early 50's in Los Angeles with players such as QB Bob Waterfield and running back (Crazy Legs) Elroy Hirsch. Note: after the Rams left Cleveland in 1946, Paul Brown's Cleveland Browns joined the NFL and established themselves as an NFL powerhouse back then.
@@daveyinsc okay, thank you for giving me the additional information. I appreciate it.
There was at least one case where a university did move. Wake Forest University moved from Wake Forest, NC to Winston-Salem, NC - over 100 miles away - back in the 1950s.
It’s funny that as a graduate of the Univ of Maryland, I am fiercely loyal to the Terps and will root them on, wearing my UM sweatshirt, even though I don’t really care that much about sports! So you’re right about the pride and loyalty aspect. Thanks for the great research on the history of it all. Loved this!
I didn’t think our fascination with colligate sports were strange until I looked up sport stadium capacity, and saw 4 of the top 5 were in the US, with 2 in the same Conference. (SEC all day😎). It’s not just watching the game because you grow up with the rivalries engrained (the “split house” license plates with 2 schools) but it’s all the periphery as well. A musician growing up wanting to play on the field, the young kids wanting to be on the cheer/dance/ baton/ flag teams, the players, the trainers, the guys who always wanted to coach, the family atmosphere/ party atmosphere of tailgate, everyone and I mean everyone in your city wearing the schools colors, the public schools also wearing the university colors, the official and unofficial song of the school playing, and so much more. It’s a full on cultural immersion. For me it was always hearing “It’s football time in Tennessee” on the radio and the stadium and then “Rocky Top” playing everywhere days leading up to and the game day.
Everyone can get into colligate sports
We can cheer on the state or local teams, and get the same effect as Brits get for the city football teams our major city teams play on a national level that it's hard for a local fellow to go to the games but the college teams tend to play in a more regional area . We support regional teams as well but the truth is the university is equivalent of our local teams! I don't spend that much time on them myself but I watch the local community teams regularly, it's part of your community pride ,I love to watch the kids games for the fun of the game, the pro sports are professionals and no were here as fun to watch as a kids game, especially when they are just learning to play ! Pee wee football is a helva lot more fun to watch than a super bowl!!!
Just a heads up and I know you have discussed the differences is pronunciation here and in the UK. The USC coach' you mentioned, his last name is pronounced "Muh-K" rhyming with "The play".
One of the draws for college sports vs pro sports is also the pageantry that is involved with the sport. A town like Tuscaloosa, home of the University of Alabama, with a population of 100k, more than doubles that many people on a fall college football Saturday, for a home game. They have 50k plus people, at any given time on those Saturdays, gathered on just one area of the campus, called the quad. All these people are socializing, drinking, cooking on grills aka tailgating. There are a bunch of smaller tailgating areas dotting the area, as well. These schools also have their own marching bands complete with school fight songs. Other than maybe the Green Bay Packers of the NFL, very few pro teams have anything quite resembling this type of atmosphere. It is similar to pageantry that surrounds world soccer/futbol. Except, instead of rallying around a particular country or city, it is rallying around a certain university.
The one thing that I think truly keeps college sports from overtaking pro sports, in viewership on TV, is the number of teams. The NFL is 32 teams, whereas college football is several hundred teams. On a fall Sunday, there may be 4 NFL games on TV, whereas on a fall Saturday there are anywhere from 12-20 cfb games being broadcast. That splits the viewership into many more slices. Also, more people are at home on a Sunday, than on a Saturday.
Excellent analysis. I really appreciated your point about the colleges not moving locations, which I had not thought of before. When it comes to basketball, there is no comparison between the college game and the NBA. All the pros seem to want to do is run and gun. Up and down the floor, no plays and no passing. The college game is the polar opposite. There is one sport where things are a bit different: baseball. In baseball, a player is eligible to be drafted right out of high school. They also have the option to declare for the draft, but to go to college if the draft doesn't come out the way they want it to. Pro baseball comes in many different levels. The bottom rung is usually Rookie League, then there is single A, double A, Triple A, and the majors. Each major league team has one or more teams at each level. The result of this, for me, is that I have an interest in pro baseball (whatever level) that I don't have in any other pro sport. I do like college baseball a little bit, but just when there is no other game to attend. I'd love to hear your analysis of the baseball system, relative popularity, etc.
Most UK football teams don't change locations either.
At Oklahoma Panhandle State University, where I graduated out of with a meat science degree, we have National Champions in the rodeo arena. We have won CNFR multiple times. We also have College World Finals champions rodeoing on the PBR (Professional Bull Riders) and PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association which women are a part of) Down the road from there is Texas Tech who has the world champion meat judging team. Both schools recruit world wide.
In my area we usually root for Illini, but I'm not really into college sports. I do like your shirt though, Go Cubs!
I'm not a huge sports fan, admittedly, but I've not watched an NFL game in many years. I watched nearly every game from my local college team though, even though I'm not an alumn. Go Vols!
I can't speak for everyone else but filling out a bracket is super fun. And if you go to a college that has a major program there's something about making a playoff or tournament run that can rally the students. Unfortunately my schools (AZ State and SMU) suck haha
Edit: unfortunately I have no one left in my Final Four, so...go Michigan State I guess.
My basketball bracket gets highlighted pink for errors and green for correct guesses. I try for better than 50% correct. WKU Hilltopper alumna here. GO TOPS!
My dad is also from Britain. Actually he has been in the US since 2000. He is an alumni of Georgia Southern. And I’m studying at Georgia Southern. He wonders why college football is a big deal😂😂.
Butler is a beautiful school with one of the best places in the country to watch college basketball!👍
Usually the person who wins a final four bracket is a secretary that knows nothing about college basketball but picks based on the team names and the color of their uniforms.
Go to a High School Football game in Texas.
Just do it.
In the past, college sports were viewed as a more pure form of sport due to the amateur status and not being corrupted by the endless pursuit of money and fame as professional athletes. Sadly, that is no longer the case as money has become a huge corrupting force in college athletics but the popularity continues.
Where I live all the local news channels and newspapers cover high school as well as college sports. We have 5 different colleges and dozens of high schools. Believe it or not, sports are common in grammar schools as well, with "T"-ball and "Pop Warner" football being popular. And it's not just football, basketball and baseball, but track, wrestling, soccer,cross country, volleyball and tennis also gets covered. Question: did your school have a golf team? Mine did, my brother joined it using some old used golf clubs he found, mainly I think because it was easier then running. Then there are intramural sports such as tennis and volley ball played as recreation rather then school against school.
As a Hoosier (Go Big Red!) I find that there's a purity in college sports (particularly basketball and football) that doesn't exist in pro sports. It's not about the money for the players. It's not as much about individuals, but about the team. I do pull for the Chicago Bears (pro football) and Indiana Pacers (pro basketball) too, but if I miss a game it's not a big deal to me. I never miss an IU basketball game (even when they're not good) or a Notre Dame football game. There's just something special about the atmosphere and I do think the regionalism of college conferences (Big Ten being mostly Midwestern teams, SEC being mostly deep south teams, etc.) plays a role in that too. Big time rivalries exist, such as North Carolina vs. Duke, Michigan vs. Ohio St., or Alabama vs. Auburn which makes it far more exciting than most NBA or NFL games. There are some regions of the country that much prefer pro sports though.
It’s funny being a Kentucky fan and hearing that football is bigger nationwide than basketball. #BBN
As a Kentuckian, we take our college basketball VERY seriously. At the University of Kentucky, Coach Calipari is one of the highest paid college basketball coaches in the country, rivaling the salary of some professional coaches. I think he's paid $8M a year now. I work at UK and I barely get a raise every year, so I kinda roll my eyes at his salary, but I know that the sport brings in a lot of revenue, so I don't mind so much really. The fans here are very dedicated and will travel long distances to watch a game, even for minor games. And most fans are not alumni. Everyone wears Kentucky apparel here. :) Unless you're a Cardinals fan... lol
I think if we ever got a professional team in this state, we might adopt it just because we love basketball here, but the love for UK would never die down. I prefer college over pro because of the atmosphere, and because it's interesting to watch the team learn to work together and grow, then see at the end of the season who gets picked for the draft.
The first intercollegiate basketball games were not in the NCAA. They were at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, PA and Geneva only recently joined the NCAA.
lol its true, even the idea of "high school football teams" is weird, when i was growing up in the uK if you was on the "school football team" it wouldnt be anything to boast about lol.
For me I support my local teams (mostly the university ones) coming from Tucson AZ we have a pretty good selection of high ranking sports teams to go for. But if its pro sports or other teams other than soccer I couldn't care less. I'm one of those give me something to go for and I will give my energy to it no questions asked :P
In the collegiate tournaments, you can see which schools have a good system (good coach). The player is not as important as the team. In the professional leagues, there's so much attention paid to individual players, with all the free agency and $$$ issues.
- One of the other things that you did not touch on is that American sports do not have a pyramid structure with a National Association or Federation responsible for administering the sport at the top as exists in Britain and much of the rest of the world.
In Britain for example, just about every city, town, village, and hamlet has at least one soccer team that is part of some regularly scheduled league and Cup competition at some level be it fully armature, semi professional, or professional at the Championship and Premier League level and that is where local most of the local interest lies. All these clubs are part of the Football Association. The league competitions that they partake in maybe localized, regional, or national. Even though below League 1, there is very little national advertisement and televization outside of FA Cup competitions, the communities go out and fully support the teams.
The same situation is replicated to a certain extent in Rugby Union in the South and Midlands of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland and also in Rugby League in Northern England. So it can be said for cricket during the summer across much of England. These clubs are all part of a national Rugby Union, Rugby League, or Cricket Association or Board, whatever the appellation might be.
In the United States in basketball and especially football there isn't such an organization that comprehensively oversees the sports across the country. In football, there are no structured leagues at localized and intrastate levels among adults that are sanctioned by a formal association that is part of National Federation. Essentially properly organized football for adults who do not make it to college or the NFL stops.
In basketball this is considerably less the case, but in baseball and ice hockey - in regions where ice hockey is very popular such as the Great Plains and Great Lakes and the North East - there's a similar situation to what exists in Britain. Football and basketball are regarded as college originated sports, especially football. In fact, well scheduled college football competitions began long before the creation of the NFL. Baseball, however, is a working class orginiated sport and professional baseball supercedes the MLB in age. There are plenty of localized and intrastate competitions of amateur and semi professional teams, and just about every county or sub county will have at least one team in baseball and ice hockey. From spring through to early autumn they capture the attention of many communities. Also, unlike football, people keep playing baseball and ice hockey well into adulthood.
Although I'm a fan of MLB, NFL and the NHL, I think of the NBA as being "lesser" versus NCAA basketball, I can't even tell you who won the NBA championship last year, but I'm all in on March Madness and college hoops generally even if "my" Pitt Panthers aren't what they used to be, lol.
Warriors won the championship but that kinda proved your point... nowhere really cares about the NBA
There are also the "Big 10" teams which have many insane fans!
Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Tennessee, UCLA, and a couple of others have stadiums of over 100,000 capacity. Michigan Stadium, the largest, is known as "The Big House".
It is worth mentioning, most college athletes don't get a full ride (scholarship for full cost of college). For example DI wrestling gets 9.9 scholarships with 10 roster spots to fill, plus backups and other athletes developing trying to get to that level or practice partners. So yeah not even a full scholarship per meet competitor per NCAA rules and that happens in other sports.
Great job summing up why we love college sports. Go Dawgs! (Georgia Bulldogs).
I love basketball but I like March Madness more than the NBA. I like the suspense of not knowing who will advance, and with the best out of 7 format, in the NBA the higher seeded team almost always wins. There’s not really any suspense until the finals or the semifinals. With college basketball the 16th seeded team can knock out the 1st seeded team in the first round, and that’s it for the 1st seeded team. That alone makes the tournament a lot more exciting, plus it’s fun to root for the underdog.
I’m originally from Louisiana (Geaux Tigers!), but now live in TN. These are two very big college sports states (along with pretty much every southern state). It makes me think of a great quote from the 80’s tv show “Designing Women,” where Julia Sugarbaker stated, “There’s an old saying that in the East, football is a cultural exercise, in the Midwest it’s cannibalism, in the West it’s a tourist attraction, but in the South, it’s a Religion!” So sad, but so true.
I never understood it, college sports never made a lot of sense to me. Until I went to college. Then I understood it all.
It's as much about "support the community by supporting the local team!" (college or otherwise) as it is anything else. Rallying around the team brings a sense of pride about your community. A sense, too, that your local team is the underdog going up against the world. Chicago Cubs for example.
Basketball is awesome! I live in Indiana, but am a UK fan. The wildcats. They say we are the craziest fans 😜
When my University (Lehigh) defeated Duke in the 2012 tournament they rang the parish church bell and people poured out into the streets singing Lehigh songs. We lost the next game, but one of our players got into the NBA.
I went to SIU-Carbondale, but I was never that big of a fan of its teams. We weren't a Division I school to begin with, but they did play Division I schools from time to time, getting their butt kicked in the process. But I'm a fan of the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. As some of our friends were alumni of that school.
I don't really get into sports, closest I do is traditional martial arts...
Only exception is the Army-Navy game, because I was in the Navy, and though I was enlisted, Navy is still my team. Alas, we lost by 3 points (a field goal) to the Army this year, 2022. Don't worry, we'll get the Army again next year 🙂
I think another big reason why we prefer college sports is that the young athletes are playing just to win in college and not for money. Pro players will usually give 100% effort, while in college they give 200%.
Laurence, universities depend on alumnae to support them long after graduation due to their loyalty. Within each state, there are friendly rivalries between them. For example, here in Indiana, Purdue University & Indiana University have disdain for one another. (Go Purdue!)
I know for the MLB there’s not many pro teams to represent some states. For example, for southern states, there’s two for Florida and two in Texas, but they’re expansion teams, which are still young franchises. Also, Atlanta Braves we’re originally a Boston team.
I think you have a good grasp on the reasons college sports are more popular. I, myself, am not a huge sports fan but I know my father became disgusted with Pro sports (football and basketball) due in large part to an overtaking or showmanship type of behavior as opposed to real sportsmanship type of behavior. He rarely watched Pro sports but always watched college sports. Interestingly enough, it didn't matter if it was his "local" team playing or not.
Also, the tribal mentality of supporting your college team no matter what extends to the local area and/or state regardless of whether or not folks attended the college or even graduated from the college.
one thing left out is most of the people on a college team are from that area which makes the rivalry bigger than a pro team. just name one player on the New England Patriots from Massachusetts. it feels like they are only there for the money/fame and not the love for the team or the region.
Fun fact I picked Virginia to win it all in my original bracket I really like all your videos
What's your Instagram handle again? I didn't quite catch it.
It'll be in the next video!
It’s so difficult to explain to non Americans. I think it might begin to stem from the way we are about high school sports. It then blends into college life. The undergraduate life is an extension of high school life, to some degree. You develop a regional pride. For example in the South, college football is nearly a religious institution. I live in Alabama and my daughter graduated from Auburn University so we are AU family strong (War Eagle!) our mascot is Aubie the Tiger. So why do we scream War Eagle at our games and have a Golden Eagle 🦅 fly around our stadium before each game? It’s complicated! Ask Alabama why their mascot is an elephant and they scream Roll Tide Roll?! (Ugh, it almost made my fingers cramp to type RTR)😜 Obviously we are massive instate rivals.
It’s fantastic fun and binds is together as Alabamians and Southerners. Tailgating and having a blast!
You are spot on in your evaluation.
I love the soul and identity of collegiate sports!
So you go ahead and enjoy it fiercely and passionately because it’s so dang American 😊
One other key reason: American universities and colleges have realized that they can make A LOT of money off of their athletic departments. College athletics garner revenue directly in the form of TV rights, gate revenue and branded gear and indirectly in the form of alumni donations. This is especially true of schools with big-time football and basketball programs. As a result, schools dedicate huge budgets to marketing their teams, getting the best coaches and building lavish facilities. Schools are very savvy in marketing their brands with catchy slogans ("roll Tide!"), logos/mascots (Longhorns, Buckeyes, Bulldogs) and iconic school colors (IU Crimson & Cream, Notre Dame gold, UT orange etc). Combining this marketing savvy with the emotional connection people feel for "their" school is extraordinarily powerful.
ONe of these days you need to go to Alabama in November during the Iron Bowl. It's an experience like none other in the country. It's college rivalry at it's peak.
The Iron Bowl, The Cocktail Party, OU-Texas are all a must do for a big football fan, they are all special events. I want to make it out east sometime for some of the big SEC rivalry games.
@@bluedogok You can say that again.
We also tend to ‘tailgate’ at our college sports event a lot. At least I know we do here in the south. Go Gators!
GO GATORS!!
ROLL TIDE ROLL !!! ❤ 🐘 ❤ 🏉
I’m posting this a few months late but another thing about college sports is tail-gaiting. I live in a college town in the SW part of US and the fall is such a huge time of year when football season kicks off. Our entire town in pretty much planned around football season. Tail gaiting is a BIG DEAL!
A lot of smaller communities don’t have any professional teams but do have a division 1 college team. Alabama for example doesn’t have a single major league team of any sport but has 2 top notch div. 1 college teams. I think folks just like to route for a local team.
You make a good point, pro teams are owned by a family of a group of people and they can move the team any where they want, there some old timers that still are angry that the dodgers moved to LA, but a college is permanent,also many people here have very sweet memories of college life, you make many good friends join clubs ,fraternities/sororities and if you were a loser in HS , college is chance to reinvent yourself.
College alumni organizations support athletic teams through booster clubs , these clubs put events like bbqs, 📗📘 fairs , movie nights etc to raise money 💶💷 for both the club and the university's athletic department. Booster clubs also raise money for scholarships , both academic and athletic.
Many of the most popular college teams are located in smaller cities where there are no major league sports franchises (there may be minor league baseball, basketball or hockey...but there is really no minor league American football of any size). Michigan is located in Ann Arbor, which has no major league sports franchises. Penn State as well is located in a small college town in the center of the state. I attended Syracuse, where the SU sports games are MUCH more highly attended than the minor league baseball team, the Syracuse Chiefs...and most of the people attending are local residents rather than students, many of whom come from out of the area to go to college. In certain (many) locales, if you want to be a sports fan, college sports are your only option.
Even Columbus, OH, a fairly large city, didn't have any major league teams until 1994, and the first was in the MLS (and let's face it, soccer is a minor league sport as far as America cares) and then an NHL team in 2000. Ohio State was, and frankly still is, the only game in town.
@@bob_._. Beat Michigan !
@@lylestavast7652 Wouldn't want Harbaugh to ruin his perfect record. :D
@@bob_._. lived 8 years in Dayton, adopted tOSU...
I love your shirt.