Why the world finds American sports strange
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- čas přidán 7. 05. 2024
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The NFL is the most popular sport in America. But it does not sell the most tickets or enjoy the strongest hold over communities.
That’s college football. But if the NFL is the USA’s most popular entertainment product, why does college football pull in higher attendances?
Nick Harris writes. Philippe Fenner illustrates.
#NFL #CollegeFootball #Sport
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Additional footage sourced from freestockfootagearchive.com - Sport
"Why the world finds American sports strange" - this video doesn't really reflect the title.
I agree
This video is a joke. Any editor made it should be fired
@@HaiLeQuang I wouldn't go that far
@@HaiLeQuang that’s very harsh
@@HaiLeQuangthis comment is very harsh, whoever made it should be forced to live in squalor for the rest of their days!
American here, hadnt noticed how unappealing our accents are until comparing this vid with the main channel
To be fair, it's more this guy has a grating American accent and the other guy has a very smooth English one. There are loads of great American accents, (I particularly like the southern ones) just not this one.
@@BeBe-vh4ryThe southern ones are so good, right? 😅
@@BeBe-vh4rythere are also some terrible English and British accents. I don’t think this narrator’s voice is particularly terrible, but the pace of the video is not quite as relaxed as the Devine (pun intended) originals. That’s what I love about Tifo animated more than anything. They’re so relaxing while also informative and entertaining.
Awful isn’t it. We need the tifo football voice guy on here
@@knihovnik2Yea I've always been slightly confused at the way some Americans insult southern accents, because to my English ear they sound cool asf.
Something I think Europeans don’t appreciate enough probably because it’s very common to them is the fact that every small town no matter how small, has a club, and you can participate in it.
You have no idea how difficult it is to play organized sport after schooling is over as an adult. It is practically nonexistent which has pretty much led to the standard that all children can play sports, but after childhood it’s on the athletically gifted. The average American will never get a chance to play 11 on 11 tackle football like they did in high school.
Adult amateur tackle football leagues need to be a thing. Even without pads would be cool. I would definitely be down to play. There are sometimes 7on7 touch tournaments where I live and I play in them sometimes
@@drakemartin2252you can find a lot of them along the east coast. Problem is, the leagues tend to have trouble staying together
Never relized that there is almost no amateur leagues in america. Football in germany isin't a big thing overall, because most germans don't know the rules of it and most don't want to bother and learn them. Let's be honest it is a very complicated sport with lots of shenanigans.
I never saw through either until I startet playing with 23. I got recruited by a bouncer at my local bar after I got into a bar fight. Then I startet out as a defense end and switched to defense tackle at some point. I had no idea what I was doing at the beginning and my coach told me to get the guy who was carrying the ball and I literally learned the rules by playing the game, but after I learned them I fell in love with the sport.
Good thing about germany is schools and sports are separated from each other. You don't have to be part of a school or college to play a sport. You just have to join a club and that's it. Citys usually support sports clubs like this and allocate playing fields and sports halls to clubs after school hours (usually 15:00 - 6:00). The thing is to get support like this for your club it is mandatory by the club to have a youth branch wich is normally coached by adult players no matter what sport.
Kinda strange to think that i can play 11v11 tackle in MULTIPLE leagues just in northern germany for lots of teams and most americans cant @@drakemartin2252
@@drakemartin2252 The liability insurance would be insane for whoever organizes adult tackle football so the sign up fees would be very high, maybe even cost prohibitive. In addition, if an injury occurs, it can affect the player's ability to work their day job.
This video has little to nothing to do with the title
I think they call that Click-bait
As a Brit who loves Tifo Football, was excited to watch this. However, I think the video doesn't explain why the World (which should be capitalised in the title) finds American sports strange so much as it just lists a bunch of facts about how popular and rich college football is. Lower-league football is also remarkably well-attended in the UK comparatively with other countries. Personally, the reason I find American sports strange is the franchise system, which sees a closed-shop prevent relegation/promotion (limiting jeopardy), and the ability of clubs to relocate across the country, all to keep them financially profitable (putting the CEOs ahead of the fans), but that's just my opinion.
I'm not one of those stupid Americans that are gonna argue to death with you (I'm not American at all), but I just want to say that thanks to the franchise system, we can have drafts, and drafts mean bad teams get better, and bad teams getting better means one team doesn't win the league every year.
God do I hate Manchester City
Yes they actually benefit from being the worst in the league and with draft picks making the bottom of the divisions not competitive at all
@@danielrocketrais I like the idea of a closed league, but rewarding the worst teams with money, maybe players is ok, is a breeding ground for jeopardy not competition as you've suggested.
I'd like to work out the dynamics of a closed league without rewarding the worst teams. A closed with an open approach.
@@gabrielalohan728The idea in theory is that, if you don’t reward those teams that finish last in their division, then they can’t select who is (in theory), the best player in the draft, helping lift them up and make them competitive again, just looks at the Bengals and Joe Burrow. Now of course this does not always work, you need a good management team, coaching, and a good supporting cast. Look at the Browns from 1999 to around 2018, prime example of that not really working in that way. The idea is to keep parity within the league (plus having a hard salary cap of around $230M), and distributing the revenue equally is one way of trying to do that
Why should World be capitalized?
feel like this vid should be called “what is college football” or something idk
Yeah, deplorable video!
The first 3 minutes of this video could be completely refuted with the two words 'stadium capacity'.
Right he's just lying. i think some of the data he took included tailgaters paying for spots who didn't actually go into the stadium
One word: “Baseball”
I get what your saying but for 13 teams to have average over 100,000, which are sell outs at all of them, is kinda insane. He mentioned that Michigan sold out games for 44 years until covid ended the streak.
@GodfatherBoxSet
Yeah true those are Impressive numbers, alot of European football clubs fail to fill stadiums, not sure about the population distribution of America, probably alot of reasons involved but yeah its Impressive regardless.
@JD-hx7yd for an idea on population and how incredibly large the crowds at college football games are I'll use Michigan. They are in Ann Arbor which had a population of 121k, so them getting on average 109k fans is insane. Penn State doubles their population on game games where they go over 100k in the stadium, same with Alabama. For context it would be like putting the entire town of Lincoln in a stadium to watch Lincoln city.
Interviewer: Why the world finds American sports strange?
Me: Ummm, commercials and too many rules.
actually those are valid reasons
@@lechosenone7016if u watched soccer for the first time u would pretty much immediately understand the rules.I watched the superbowl for the first time and it was soo confusing.
@@uzaidgurjee4798 why not learning the rules then ?
@@aymerickverin2523 why should he?
@@666blubber666 and why not ?
You kind of skipped over a bunch of important points. Initially, the Ivy League schools, the first colleges in the US, believed in the ancient Greek model of education, academics but also athletics. That more-or-less became the standard for college sports. What wasn't mentioned that many universities in the US are land-grant schools. They mostly located in fairly isolated parts of the state (usually away from major population centers) to assist local farmers in education and development of crops, in addition to educating professionals, like teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. Currently, college football is huge because of the television rights going up. Both college football and basketball are what is called revenue-generating sports, meaning they bring in the revenue to the athletic department to fund the other sports within the department.
Wrong
They must not put much of that money into the other sports. Have you seen the other sports?
@@MbisonBalrogBut that's the point: The other sports don't *need* much money. Just facilities and coaching for the players, who are doing it for their own amusement.
@@goodmaro truth be told football and BBall only have playing surface as greatest expense. They generate more than enough. It is excessive. They 💰 is not making tuition any cheaper.
@@MbisonBalrogthey do. A typical mid size to big US college is losing money on every sport except these two. All the other sports run deficits
Nebraska's stadium becomes the third largest city in Nebraska on game day Saturdays.
and set the world record for largest female sporting event on a week day
@@tightbhole420 True!
There are only two cities worth visiting and they are Lincoln and Omaha.
same with Penn State
West Virginia’s becomes the most on game days
Without the editing and graphics, this video is a high schooler’s class project
Doesn't work without Joe Devine's voice.
2:40 "some soccer fans will be familiar with Michigan stadium" from some friendly in the summer a long time ago??? trust me, nobody remembers it lmao
I do
@@dillonnav I do too, never watched a friendly with that electrifying an atmosphere
A symptom of the issue is that you define the NFL and College football as seperate sports in the opening segment of the video. Sports in North America hold a different role in society compared to most other cultures, and I think that is why they seem weird. That's my take at least.
How do sports in North America hold a different role in society compared to other cultures/countries?
@@DarkFriday1408 A league in North America is its own company and it can do as it likes with its entities. That's why teams, which are not clubs at all, can be relocated, moved around and rebranded at a moments notice. Professional sports in NA stems from the corporate side.
@@pohjan4Basically traditional sporting models are closer to American College teams in terms of community integration and long-standing historical traditions. But American professional clubs in almost every sport are franchises first, rather than being ingrained in a particular city. Also, closed vs open leagues is another thing. Did I get it right?
@@pohjan4you overestimate how easy it is for a team to relocate and rebrand. It doesn’t happen at a moments notice. And doesn’t happen at all if the franchise makes money. The only other issue is leasing stadiums, which has caused moves before.
@@pohjan4college teams are not franchises
College Football has a better atmosphere than Pro Football. In Michigan Stadium, for example, 30K students (mostly ages 17-25, and way more enthusiastic than average fans) and locals walk to the game. Some non-football fans go to the games just for the band, or to sing "Mr. Brightside", or just to get "the college experience". It is a community thing. Only ~7 home games means it is very scarce. Even many people who are NOT local, but used be locals, and come in overnight.
I disagree. Arrowhead is the best atmosphere for a football game. I’m from KC. College football is ok, but it’s not the nfl. Nfl is king
@T_Chainz I'm mean...you're from kc....it's not like college football in Missouri has a history of success
@@ZiggyZou The reason why I think College is better than pro is 30%+ of the crowd is between the ages of 17-25. Detroit Lions had a fantastic crowd, no doubt for the playoff games, but it is still a notch below Michigan Stadium or the atmospheres in Columbus, Happy Valley, Wisconsin or Nebraska.
Bigger stadiums with bench seats, where everyone is standing most of the game is way more common in college v. pro.
@@ZiggyZou you clearly dont watch CFB, just search up Neyland Stadium or Penn State Whiteout, you'll see.....
Same for Texas A&M. I have been to plenty of football games in my life (UNC Tar Heels, Carolina Panthers, a Dallas Cowboys Game, and tons of Aggie Football games), but the atmosphere in Kyle Field is amazing and always rowdy. It's a fun experience (same could be said about UNC Basketball games; football is a bit lacking due to their basketball prestige). Just knowing that these players are your fellow classmates, makes them feel far more relatable than professionals do, and that there is a sense of pride for the school and town within the programs (increasingly less so in recent years due to the eased restrictions on the transfer portal).
I've been into NBA and NFL for several years now. as an Asian, what I find strange about American sport is how tf do the audiences put up with the silly amount of ads in between small portions of the game.
We do what all Americans do.
We get snacks.
It doesn't seem odd to us at all, because we are used to ads popping up in every other aspect of our lives. Seeing them come up at a sports arena doesn't seem any different.
Pee break
I think u may wanna visit a doctor (if ur insurance covers that) when u have to pee 10 times per drive @@felixlara2945
That’s when you scroll on your phone for 3 minutes until it comes back on
Germany here. The only thing the world finds weird about american sports, is that you guys don't have real nonprofessional sports leagues. Where regular people play after their 9 to 5.
The big problem is that American football is extremely taxing on your body, requiring absolute peak physical condition in order to play as an adult. Combined with the fact that the equipment needed to play and practice American football is extremely expensive. I'm only 21and I know I'll never get the chance to play organized tackle football again. Whereas many popular European sports only require a ball, a field, and the ability to run.
We do but only in more suburban cities and its not super common
We (im Canadian so similar cultures) do for most the most part. It’s just football is an insanely physical sport so it’s hard to do that as just a rec league thing
There's hundreds actually. From softball to pickle ball, bowling, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, flag football. There's tons of sports one can join in on. I just got back from a softball tournament held in Las Vegas.
We do. It's called softball (LOL!). And we have those in most if not all sports, but it's nothing like Sunday football in Europe.
I am a Michigan alum and have worked every home game for the past 24 years (and the Man. U/Real Madrid game in 2014!) The crowd is one thing, the traffic another. Ann Arbor is an urban area but it’s not a megalopolis by any means. The Stadium is several miles from the expressway and a large number of those 110k people drive to the games from outside of town. Getting out of town after the games can take nearly as long as the games themselves! So, it’s going to eat up pretty much that entire day to get to the overpriced parking near the stadium, park, get into the stadium, watch the game, get back out to your car and get home. It takes dedication to put up with that over and over again! Or getting paid (it’s overtime for me so, I’m 100% going to put up with it!) I’ve missed weddings because people were silly enough to schedule said wedding in the fall… you don’t schedule ANYTHING you want well attended in a college town on a Saturday in the fall! Everyone will be at the game instead! 😂
this is an interesting tidbit. thanks for sharing.
I have got my spot to park. If you walk in from downtown (1/2 mile), it is not that hard to get on Main Street and then get to M14. I have even walked all the way in from North Campus. You just have to know the "secret spots" and you can get in/out of there in under 30 minutes. Also, taking in the city of Ann Arbor after a game reduces the traffic if you leave later. Honestly, it is way easier to get in/out than the Rose Bowl (which required a far longer walk for me) or NFL stadiums with giant parking lots surrounding them... for example, Gillette Stadium.
yes as an undergrad there it was called "football saturday" because it took up your entire day!
I just park at the parking structures around Main Street which are surprisingly not super crowded, and always eat after the game, so the traffic is fine by the time I leave. But yeah it’s a whole day thing. Just hanging out with the crowd and stuff. I love it.
@@fornana Amazing how many people accept paying $60 AND waiting for massive traffic when you could literally walk past the traffic and get to your car in a $15 lot (or FREE on the street in the Old West Side) and get out of there in a fraction of the time INCLUDING THE WALK TIME. For an average person, a half mile walk is about 10-12 minutes.
It's just like why European soccer teams are so passionate. your closer to the university rather than a cirty. For examples, someone In Alabama will be a bigger Tide fan then a Falcon fan.
I think it's actually mostly because there's no aritificial restriction like in the franchise model so you have teams at schools in areas without pro teams and multiple teams in an area (think the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University both in Cincinnati, OH a city that doesn't have a pro basketball team). It's actually more like European soccer that way in that (outside of the Green Bay Packers or Saskatchewan Roughriders) you don't have to have a high population as a prerequsite to have one or even multiple college sports teams lol (the state of Ohio has more Division I FBS football schools than the state of New York).
tide is a great laundry detergent
The Alabama and falcons is not a good example since the falcons are a completely different state but I get what you’re trying to say
@@kurtwagner350 It's the closet team though that's why it's good.
@@Elge703 not really, the distance from Tuscaloosa to Atlanta is more then the distance from London to Liverpool
Fun fact, the last shot of this video (pre-outro) is of Oracle Park in San Francisco, which is neither a college nor a football stadium lol
Probably a cfb game was played there.
@@MikeDindu yea it was a bowl game
The coaches at the service academies aren't actually in the military. They're civilians employed by Army Sports, a private non-profit.
True! For the benefit of foreign viewers, I will add that the players are in the military (they're playing "college" ball because they're students at military academies). The players for the Army team are students at West Point, the Navy players are students at the US Naval Academy, and the Air Force players are students US Air Force Academy.
The other thing that makes college fanbases so passionate is the fact that your hometown team can't just relocate like the professional teams can. The Crimson Tide will always be in Tuscaloosa, the Wolverines will always be in Ann Arbor, the Seminoles will always be in Tallahassee, etc.
Exactly how European/worldwide football clubs are run,which makes our fans/supporters passionate in a way NFL fans could only dream off.
@@mktf5582 I'd say that large and committed NFL fanbases (Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers) are quite passionate, and their teams don't tend to move. NFL teams don't move away from large, vibrant, impassioned fanbases; they move away from cities where the population isn't as supportive, and not that many people show up to games.
Also, alums walked the same halls, ate in the same dinning lounge, study at the same library. Participated in the university traditions. Those college athletes do the same.
@@mktf5582 I agree that the nfl is a little more corporate because of what you just said, there are passionate fans and there is lots of noise in the stadiums, however its different than Europe were the fans seemed organized as a unit rather than individuals
@@royemmer3703 You may have a point, at end of the day Europe/world football must never accept Americanization of the sports.
As a big Tifo fan…I was disappointed this was just a big stats video and not a longer and meatier discussion. You barely touched on the HUGE fact that most of those big teams are the ONLY sports team around for that area and how this is also a outgrowth of the fact that most US leagues control who gets what team and where…as opposed to in Europe where each town can have its own local team that is INDEPENDENT! Most “minor league” pro sports teams have no control over their own team- just feeders for the big pro teams.
Hope y’all can make better more detailed and nuanced videos going forward.
College Football isn’t really a minor sports league. The XFL and USFL are though
I mean, the average attendance doesn't really reflect the following of the sport, in the premier league, there's like 6-8 big teams, depending on what you consider a big team. But those attendance averages are down to stadium capacity, cause Football (Soccer) draws way more attention world wide.
Video doesn't mention that NFL stadium capacities are also lower than the biggest college stadiums. NFL stadiums seat between 60k-80k. The NFL doesn't care that much about capacity as much as it does number of luxury boxes. That brings in more money than selling individual seats in the bleachers. Also a reason that American football attendance is so high is due to the low number of games compared to most sports. NFL teams get 8-9 home games a season, colleges only about six.
There are way more top flight Euro soccer teams per capita and area then NFL and College football teams. They also play many more home games. People have pack in to watch American football or else wait next year.
@@SheaHarrisone thing the video briefly touches on is the cost for attendance between college and NFL.
They mention that Michigan averages about $82 per ticket, which is not the highest in the sport but also not an unusual amount.
The NFL, meanwhile, had an average ticket price of $377 last season.
@@MbisonBalrog Not true. Due to the salary cap and revenue sharing (everything outside of what you sell in your stadium is split 32 ways) the NFL has the best competitive balance of any league in the world. If teams are good, it's because their organization is good, not because they can outspend their rivals (like the Big 6. . . er, 7)
@@careyfreeman5056 what that has do with what I wrote
European here, American Football is my favorite sport, slightly above Association Football.
American here and Soccer is my favorite sport, just above American football! 😂
Free trade indeed! 🤣🤣🤣
As a Brit who is obsessed with the NFL, the only reason I cannot get into college football is because I have no college ties. I have to watch as a neutral. But I’m desperate to pick a team
im Canadian so I kinda go through the same thing, for me im okay watching as a neutral but pick any team that excites you tbh
In college football, all kinds of things still happen during games, and the vast majority of players will never play a single snap of professional ball. The games are usually full of passion, traditions, unusual events, and strong emotions as a result.
Plus, there is markedly less gambling associated with college football still, and outside control of games’ outcomes is far less conspicuous. The NFL barely tries to hide the fact any longer that they control the outcomes of their games through centralized officiating from their NYC Control Center to have control over the odds and bets.
As an American, I've had that same problem with getting into the European soccer/football leagues--no geographic ties. Because of this, I tend to watch the teams with US internationals (which has me following the likes of AC Milan, PSV, and Fulham right now). Sure, this method can lead to rooting hard for a team and then having to change teams during the transfer window, but I figure that's a taste of what the footballers themselves experience.
This method used to result in watching just a few (usually mediocre) clubs; I would watch the Champions League and root for teams like Anderlecht that could only hope to steal a point or two, and weren't even likely to make the Europa League. That's changed rapidly just over the last few years, really just since Christian Pulisic started getting meaningful minutes for Dortmund.
Also college football stadiums don’t have seats. They are stands or benches. That is how pack in that many.
That's not true in every stadium, also some play in NFL stadiums.
4:18 - That's because colleges in the USA (public and private) are just not the same compared to colleges/universities overseas, in terms of funding, operations. They're in effect just another for profit enterprise like your Apple, Microsoft, etc.
I’m not sure if you’ve ever been to college buts it’s not at all like that, I’d compare it more to a village than a corporation, like you can live there for months on end without ever leaving campus.
Most universities in the US are non-profit. In fact, most of the funding for programs are universities come from the revenue of their football and basketball teams. They almost exclusively lose money every year.
@@GodfatherBoxSetAmericans dnt pay tuition?
@mckillalaberry we do. I paid 20k a semester at Kentucky. It's because they fully re invest everything they earn and do it so they continue to get funding from their states.
I did a project where I went through the my universities Financials from 2018 and they only had total income of 2 million
@@TheSexhaver2625 You're being nostalgic. They are ABSOLUTELY run like corporations. Why do you think tuition keeps going up here while it's basically free in Europe?
Euro soccer has lower attendance cuz play so many more home games. College football plays 5 home games. Fans have few chances so they pack in
The physical toll that the game takes on the players' bodies pretty much ensures that we'd never see a 30-40 game season.
@@cerberus2654 Rugby does. Hockey plays 80. American football has substitutions and not as many plays.
@MbisonBalrog rugby is a contact sport, football is a collision sport. The average nfl career is 3 seasons.
@@cerberus2654 rugby has plenty collisions just watch HLs.
Many collisions in rugby just watch HLs@@cerberus2654
I'm Brazilian but I'm like hey, if millions are enjoying maybe I'm missing something. And American football is brutal (in that American way) and intoxicatingly fun to watch. I've been watching the NFL since the mid-1990s (when a local channel started to broadcast it) and that Bills unbelievable run just made me a lifelong fan (but my favorite era is Peyton Manning & the Colts.) But yeah I'm not that into college football as I'm not American (meaning it's deeply local.)
Absolutely. I'm from Iowa. We have a population of 3 million across a pretty big territory, with only a handful of very small cities, no its not an attractive market for pro sports. Instead, have TWO major university teams that each draw over 60,000 fans and are nationally relevant, and they Absolutely Hate each other. All Iowans have favorite pro teams, but none of them are local or represent our people or culture in any way. So the allegiances don't even come close to the passion we have for your chosen local college team between the two.
For those who are not familiar, the University of Iowa has one of the most incredible traditions in all of sport.
You can see into their football stadium from the upper floors of the adjacent University children’s hospital.
During a break in action in the 3rd quarter of their home games, the entire Hawkeye stadium turns towards the hospital, and waves their love and support to the children watching there.
It is powerful!
The University of Iowa even built an observation deck when they recently remodeled the hospital for better viewing and support.
If you’re unfamiliar with this tradition, I encourage you to check out a video of it here on YT.
That's cool. I was in Floripa last year and loved it. Hope you make it to the Eagles game in SP. This video is terrible but the thing is that the game day experience of a college football game is far superior to an NFL game. It is a massive event like a carnival. However, for TV, the NFL is obviously a much better product to enjoy for those watching at home.
Go bills!!!
CFB is a bit confusing, but it’s fun to watch once you get the hang of divisions and conferences and bowls. However, with the rise of super conferences, only maybe 12 teams will realistically have a chance of making it to the championship.
Why is a non-professional sports league the most attended in the world? Apparently this was written before NIL and the Transfer Portal.
American college sports have always been psuedo-professional. Athletes have been paid since Yale and Harvard were paying no-student rowers to compete on their teams in the late 1800s lol It's just now the farce/facade has been stripped away (and the time is coming when the athletes will be formally classified as employees and paid salaries in addition to endorsement money) lol
It’s pro now lol
Michigan fan here- our crowd DEFINITELY dipped below 100k in 2014. Our team was so bad that year that when they put the attendance on the screen at over 100k, we booed because we knew it was BS.
I'm an American and find it weird also. Especially when people are huge fans of a school that they never attended in a state they've never been.
What is weird about liking a team?
Liking a team from a far can be a bit weird (like say a random guy in Amarillo liking the longhorns despite having no connection to Austin), but if you are rooting for your hometown team, then I feel it is less weird. Like I never went to UNC, but I still cheer them on because I grew up near that campus (and had friends/former classmates go there).
Then you’ll find European sports even weirder. A bunch of Pakistanis who haven’t left their bumfuck town rooting for English teams.
@@troybaxterI think it’s ok if you actually from the state.
@@troybaxterso you’re gatekeeping teams ? “If you don’t live 0.3 seconds from the stadium then you’re not a real fan” that’s how you come across, anyone can like any team no matter where they’re from. I’m assuming if you were a 49er fan from Cali and you met someone who was a 49er fan that’s from Washington then you’d probably think you’re more of a true fan huh
I would say college football is so popular here in the same way that the football pyramid in say England. It’s generally your actual local team, or you have some connection like you’re more likely to know a player or something like that. In my area, everyone took classes or played a game of some sport or knows someone who did at their favorite school
Strong first video 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 Here from Tifo. Subscribed
Video content and Video Title have nothing in common
It felt like a scam
You covered this subject very well, I have been a Bama fan for 67 years and I am sure I can speak for Auburn fans when I say our football teams are all we got. We have to adopt any pro team from neighboring states.
Yeah, I will never have the same passion for the Saints or Pelicans as I do for LSU sports. Our college teams aren’t going anywhere, but these pro teams could leave at the drop of a hat. The connection to the local community will never the same. The Iron Bowl is such a organic rivalry that professional sports can’t replicate.
Lifelong Michigan fan and alum:
I wonder if it is possible for foreigners to comprehend the Iron Bowl, and all that it means to Alabamans and college football fans.
It is so much more than fandom and sport.
And don’t even get me started on your epic tailgating.
@@tmike_tc That's a good question, I think it's more of an American problem, Americans don't travel compared to people from other countries, most Americans have never even been outside the state they were raised in much less to a different country. Or they went to Florida one summer and had to drive through Alabama and drew their own conclusions without any knowledge of the history. I lived in Michigan for over 50 years and the nonsense I heard come out of peoples mouths was staggering, they trash talk the south but avoid Detroit and Flint like the plague, they will talk about the 60's in Alabama as if it was this morning and none of that exists today there's more racial tension in Michigan than anywhere in Alabama, since I moved back to Alabama not once has anyone called me a racist because I am white but in Michigan it was common. So I don't think anyone that doesn't understand our history can fully appreciate the meaning of the Iron Bowl to us.
You briefly touched on it, but it has more to do with a sense of identity. Most people will never play for or be employed by a professional sports team. However, we all feel a strong connection to the university we attended. We know that campus, we know those dorms, we attended those games in the student section back in our day as a student. It's very tribal.
Also, I don't know why other countries don't have such an emphasis on university sport. They are a huge economic windfall for US universities. Even in the non-revenue generating sports, there's alot of international students. It's not uncommon to watch the Olympics and see the competitors from different countries that attend/ed and compete/d at some US university. I mean, you watch the NCAA Track & Field Championships and it's just chalk full of Olympians or athletes who qualified for the Olympics from all around the world.
I don't know about other places, but here in Europe college or high school sports don't work because all the people who are preparing to play professionally in any sport, play in actual teams' junior academies. So the people that would be available to play for a high school or college teams are ones that don't really wish to pursue sport competitively and just want to get some exercise and have fun.
The whole system is different.
You also said that people feel a strong connection to their university, well, here, we play for our hometown's team and we do obviously get pride out of it.
"Also, I don't know why other countries don't have such an emphasis on university sport. They are a huge economic windfall for US universities."
Mostly because higher education and professional sport development are seen as incompatible and mutally exclusive lol Even in Canada where there is university sport (USports) it's nowhere near as big as the NCAA and the junior hockey development system (for kids 15-20) pays players so that if you play in the Canadian Hockey League you are ineligible to go the NCAA but you can play in USports.
The difference is largely with European open leagues and academies. The best players attend high schools connected to a major sports team, but when they graduate they become full-time (or part-time) academy players, getting ready to play professionally.
I think a big part of this is simply how many more teams per capita there are in Europe, because each country has their own leagues for the most part, meaning the college step is redundant. Due to how many clubs there are, many smaller cities have a professional club in one of the more popular sports, that draws on the entire city whether or not you particularly like the sport. So, I disagree with it being more lucrative with collegiate sports, although it certainly would be for the particular universities.
@@kiroolioneaver8532they clearly aren’t mutually exclusive. Stanford is the most successful college athletic program in the country.
@@KanyeTheGayFish69 Exception that proves the rule. You could even throw USC, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Cal, Virginia, and Duke into the mix. Also if you do a deep dive into what kinds of majors/classes some of those student-athletes are taking (think of the scandal at North Carolina in Chapel Hill another top tier academic institution or even the Varsity Blues cheating scandal at Stanford) you'll see why lol
Well done! I am from Switzerland in the center of Europe, but had the luck to spend a year at the Monterey High School in California almost 40 years ago. And even then and even in this small little high school it was simply the most normal thing to join different sports teams over the span of the year and attend the home games of our football and basketball teams. Great memories 😊!
College footballs sells more tickets because there are more games. DUH. There are only 285 NFL games per year. With 133 Division 1 college teams each having a 12 game regular season, that's almost 800 games per year, plus bowl games, to say nothing of lower division programs. So, if your city or town doesn't *have* a local NFL franchise, and you're a football fan, where else are you going to go?
It's the same in Europe, only with football clubs. There are only so many top-tier teams, and not everyone lives near one, or can afford to go to their games.
This content was a waste of time. The title doesn't even reflect the content, it focused largely on telling us about the growth of college football which doesn't amount to American sports in basketball, baseball, ice hockey, NASCAR etc and did not do a proper execution of the perception that the world has on American Sports.
The narrator is good, but bland. The illustrative points used in the video are a bit incongruous too.
Basketball is already known around the World same with Hockey but not Baseball
@@runrafarunthebestintheworld Baseball's huge in the Far East and the Caribbean.
Gridiron participation amongst youth is dying. Smart parents don’t want kids get CTE. It seems we importing more Polynesians to take over game.
@@MbisonBalrogall sports can cause cte. In fact womens soccer players are more likely to get concussions than football players.
@@KanyeTheGayFish69 but how? When soccer ball ever knock someone over?
What about stadium sizes? Total number of local attendance isn’t representative when many universities have 100k+ seaters whereas the Premier League has the Kenny
Yeah but the size reflects how many would attend, if the premier League could draw in over 100000 as an average (for the same ticket prices) they would have bigger stadiums, I think way more important is that in America they only play 7 games so it's a bigger more outstanding event then 34+ cups etc.
@@finneich5105 not necessarily true. There’s plenty of empty space for mega stadiums in the US, most European cities do not have the same luxury.
If you are not familiar, the University of Iowa and its college football program have one of the coolest traditions in all of sport. Check it out:
You can see into the football stadium from the top floors of the adjacent University children’s hospital.
The teams takes a break in the 3rd quarter of every home game so that the entire stadium can wave their love and support to the kids in the hospital all together. It is really something.
The University of Iowa even built an observation deck in to the hospital when they recently remodeled it.
WE WANT JOE!
Whats absurd is these colleges get billions from these teams yet still charge an average student 100000k to get an education. Genuinely where does all this money go?
The coach's and the Alumni Association's pockets
What are you talking about? They're non-profits so they dump the money back into the program. Nobody, outside of the coaches (who the players demand) is getting rich. We just spent 100M to create a new players facility with barber shop, recording studio, etc. . . . all because the players demanded it.
@@henrymanzano2201funding the other teams at the university
Colleges exsist to make money,they will continue to charge students all that money to keep the machine going
I would also look at it like this: College Football (and to some degree, college sports in general) much more closely resemble the club model of sports that you find in Europe. For example, we all know FC Barcelona the soccer (football) team, but there is also FC Barcelona Basquet, the basketball team. Likewise, there is the Michigan Wolverines Football Team, but also Michigan Wolverines Men's Basketball and Michigan Wolverines Women's Basketball.
Also, like many (but certainly not all) European clubs, colleges and universities are often located in relatively unglamorous or unknown locations. To use the Michigan Wolverines again, they are out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, which is only the 5th largest city in the state at around 120,000. It's not a sexy location like, say, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, or Chicago. Or to use some European counterparts, it ain't London, Barcelona, Milan, or Paris. Really, a lot of these colleges and universities are in places that look and feel more like Bournemouth, Darmstadt, Cadiz, or Salerno. I'm sure those are great places, but you wouldn't mistake them for any of the European mega-cities.
Lastly, like many clubs in Europe which date back the early 1900s or even the 1800s, these colleges have alumni networks that go back hundreds of years. As an example, the oldest American colleges/universities are from the 1600s. In yet another parallel, organized American collegiate sports date back the mid 1800s and the popularity started to take off in the early 1900s.
While I cannot say what it is like to be a fan of a club from a small town or city in Europe, I can tell you that being a fan of team from a college or university in America, especially one that is located in a relatively small town or city, can be an enormous source of local and regional pride, and sometimes that extends across the country.
Great to see Tifo branch into other sports with the same take they've shown with football!! Hopefully it takes off more than the Tifo basketball channel!
Yeah, it's absolutely crazy. The stadium at my school would be the 2nd largest in the UK by seating, but doesn't even break the top 25 in the US.
Just an FYI, the Mississippi State vs Alabama rivalry is called The Battle of Highway 82, not 92.
Everyone finds every sport strange that they don't follow
Not really. I don’t watch soccer but I get why people enjoy it
I find it strange that American Football games go for four hours, but there's only about ten seconds of actual play. The rest is ads. I would watch the sport, but the breaks in play are unbearable.
Ice hockey and basketball at least have fluidity to them, which is only spoiled by having too many timeouts.
I like NFL but only watch the highlights on YT which take at most 15 minutes,fell asleep during the superbowl in the 1st half,probably after the 30th banking app ad @@CatchMeUp
@@CatchMeUp
Just because the ball is not being handled does not mean the game is not being played. I think this is the biggest disconnect between non-Americans and American football. The time in between (no more than 40 seconds, or you get penalized) is essential for strategizing and coordinating the team. If the ball was being handled constantly the game would not be as fast and complicated.
You see the ball stationary and a guy running from one side of the field for no apparent reason. I see a formation that telegraphs a running play but the receiver just sent in motion could be being used to determine if the defense is playing man-to-man or zone which will give the quarterback an idea of where the ball should go once it is put in motion again. It is all part of the game.
Rest and substitutions is also an element of the strategy. You say you would watch American football if there were no breaks but the game could not be played the way it is uninterrupted. It would be slowed down, a lot, and become much less exciting. At least to me and most fans.
@@BowToWard86 - this is a great reply, but I'm still going to have to totally disagree with you on the basis of what you enjoy vs. what I enjoy.
I wasn't raised with Rugby League, I don't watch it all that often. Rugby League is what American Football would look like without constant stoppages, and the need to swap defence/offence/special teams on and off the field. Rugby League is by far the superior sport to watch on TV. It's not even close, and I have the same level of knowledge about it as I do for American Football.
You say you see the tactics at a stoppage. I can see that in a soccer game, or basketball game, or game of Australian Rules. These are games that are in constant motion. I feel like I could guarantee you that the sport you love would be better if it was slightly less explosive, but the play wasn't interrupted as often as it is.
I think one key point in understanding why college football is so popular is the urban/rural divide. Many of the traditional powerhouses come from mid-sized to smaller cities and/or states that will never have an NFL team: Nebraska, Alabama, Oklahoma. Even in some states that have pro teams, such as Georgia, the college football team is more popular than the pro team (Falcons) because “Georgia” is mostly identified by most fans of the state as opposed to “Atlanta,” so the state at large is more represented in name as opposed to the metropolis of the state that most within the state does not identify with.
Not to say that there aren’t urban college footballs or rural pro fans, yet, if USC is doing terribly, then the stadium will be empty, as opposed to Nebraska, which is a former powerhouse but still fills the stadium despite a lack of success in recent years. Most likely, there will never be a Nebraska pro team of any sport.
The NFL is a league not a sport lmao
Haven't finished the video, but after getting into rugby and football(soccer), I can say one thing that might be off putting to everyone else is the amount of ads in every game. Really, it's insane and I can't not notice it after watching European broadcasts.
This is why I don't see it ever catching on in Europe. Maybe the violence (its primary draw) could change that, but I know when I switch from PL to AF around noon there is about an hour adjustment period to get used to the constant commercials and stoppage.
It's not that bad, Europoors just like to gripe
Many of us DESPISE all the ads,and how not only does it take longer to play a game,but the regular season has been extended. The least effect has been on college football,where the season- which would end on January 1st,now ends on the second Monday in January. All the other major leagues now start a month earlier,and end a month later. Also, starting times are later,in order to accommodate as much of a national audience as possible (for example,the baseball "World Series" used to have deciding games end in the afternoon. Nowadays,no playoff game starts before 8:20pm Eastern time,or ends before midnight Eastern...as if people in California cared about a World Series involving two East Coast teams. They're also longer because the networks don't want you switching channels to watch something else. It's just GREED all around
@@henrymanzano2201 Nah man most of us don't care and more games means more you get to watch. Plus who really cares about college football running for a couple extra days
106,918 Wolverines per game AVERAGE for 44 consecutive years is incredible.
Go Blue!
Very well made! Subbed!
That was very informative for a real football (i.e. soccer) fan.
College football is awesome! Living the United States NFL is king kinda hahaha the games between the universities are full of history, drama, excitement and bragging rights!
I have always preferred College football over the NFL. This may change now with NIL and the portal.
nil is a good thing
Wild i saw the super bowl with some empty seats in various sections
Excellent video. Good luck with your channel.
American football has been around for 100 years and yet it's sad that not very many countries that play it but at the same time now that we know more about concussions its probably a good thing they aren't playing and Baseball might be a good sport other countries should be playing instead
If you're willing to accept the risk, play it. It's not that different from combat sports. I don't think it's wrong to promote gridiron football or rugby and hockey for that matter.
But baseball is better so we should definitely promote that haha
@@DudeTotally1000 Yeah Baseball should defienitly be global x5 x10 times 100. Problem though is Europe willing to build Baseball stadiums and do they have room for them at all.
Rugby is pretty spread worldwide
@runrafarunthebestintheworld baseball is already much more established, internationally, than football. It even inspired the creation of a sport in Finland called pesäpallo.
Baseball is huge in Latin America, and absurd in Japan.
This seemed to just explain college football and how popular it is.
I like that thumbnail of JJ! Go Blue!
I think part of the reason College sports is so big in the US is because there’s a void left in American professional sports that isn’t really a thing elsewhere: Professional teams in North America, with few exceptions, are *franchises*. What European soccer and American college football teams have in common is that they are community institutions in a way an NFL franchise could never be.
You’ve got the Indianapolis Colts that used to be the Baltimore Colts, but now Baltimore has the Baltimore Ravens, who used to be the Cleveland Browns, but Cleveland was then granted the expansion Cleveland Browns as a replacement one year after the relocation and renaming of the Ravens.
Out west the Raiders were in Oakland, then LA, then back to Oakland, now Las Vegas. LA also has the Rams, which they lost to St. Louis for a number of years, but have since returned to LA, and they also have the Chargers, who moved to LA from San Diego, and no one thought that was a good decision except for their greedy owner. The team called the Cardinals has had more relocations than championships.
In England, one billionaire bought and relocated a team to Milton Keynes twenty years ago, and they’re still one of the most hated clubs in the country. The fans of the original club started their own fan-owned team and saw them climb the promotion/relegation pyramid to the point they play in the same league as the team known to most simply as “The Franchise” and the recent victory by AFC Wimbledon over the Franchise has been touted as “a victory for football”
On the other hand, there are so many other things anchoring a University to its community that it would be very difficult to just pick up and move because another city is willing to build you a new stadium (not to mention, it’s likely unprofitable if it’s even allowed at all). So the community aspect of sport is easier to invest in and grow over decades and centuries in the collegiate sport system than in the American professional system
The level of community ownership and involvement in the running of professional soccer teams in Europe is something that simply doesn’t happen in professional sports here, but what’s sport without a sense of community? So there is a definite niche in sports fandom which professional sports manages to fill in Europe that doesn’t happen in North America, therefore, it’s natural that communities will channel their sports enthusiasm onto the stable and community-centred organization of a University over a billionaire’s private organization.
In conclusion, college football is popular in America because it fills a niche that professional football lacks, whereas professional soccer in Europe and around the world fills that niche for their communities and so there is no need to turn to amateur sport for it.
Attendance is also juiced somewhat as student tickets are free
Not so fast! Student tickets are no longer free at many universities and colleges (although they were back in the 20th century when I was in college). ;-)
I know, cheapest tickets this year for michigan were around 130
That's absolutely not true. I attended Texas A&M and went to every home game. A student sports pass is $300 (a guest pass would be an extra $500).
You should mention the stadium capacity.
For most of European soccer stadiums, the capacity doesnt allow for the average attendance numbers you are quoting for college football. So 40 - 50 000 average attendance might seem small, but thats mostly because the majority of stadiums outside of the biggest clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern or Arsenal doesnt host more than 30 - 50 000
There is enough demand for football in Europe so that certain clubs have doubled or even tripled their attendances by building new stadiums, but the US practice of the billion-dollar handout from communities to franchises in order to build huge state of the art stadiums does not really exist in Europe, which makes it more difficult for clubs.
That said, the Champions League over here is a better equivalent to US leagues, and CL attendances are closer to US attendances.
This should be called “Why this video won’t answer the question it asked!”
Also makes sense they would be highly attended seeing as there are only 6-7 home games a year and more people have a connection to a college they have been too than a team that can be moved around if the owner decides too.
This title does not fit the topic of this video
Some people can't comprehend that different places develop different cultures with different interests, sports included. Absolutely mind boggling!
Tifo is incomplete without the voiceover of Joe Devine.
Its not strange, its fascinating! How much they preserve history.👏🏾
The entire argument about average attendance is not comparable based on sample size given that soccer teams in Europe are typically playing 40-50 games a season on average, maybe 60+ for top teams competing across multiple competitions. In contrast the regular season for college football is 12 games. Try playing college football twice a week for 9 months of the year and see how those record attendance numbers hold up…
lol at the excuses give it up
@@elvangulley3210 nah its completely true, for 12 matches a season against 50 60 you have a better likelihood of attending more matches for case of 12 matches while for 50 60 you definetly wont join in on even half of them. Besides much of football fans worldwide are spread all around and are rich and poor, most professional football matches that are popular takes place in europe and for average latin american or asian its just too much of hassel getting visas or even having money to spend on ridiculously ecpensive trip to europe,
But if we see how frequent a sports is played throughout the world in bigger or a smaller local stage football easily beats american football
@callofbrokendreams and here's the excuses you can't fill up your tiny stadiums so don't think you can top college football
I love college football. I don’t like the direction it going though.
I never liked american football nor i watched a full NFL game but this video impressed me. You guys have a culture really directed to sports and profit, it's amazing
This video posed the main question for like 80% and gave a short non-answer at the end
heuuuu corporate tifo, let’s gooooo
Nothing about this video explained to me why the world finds American sports strange. All it did was list statistics.
With Michigan, don’t forget that many of those over 100,000 crowds were braving freezing, often snowy weather!
Regarding ticket prices at college games- a lot of the seats are occupied by students who get tickets at heavily reduced prices (it’s one of the perks of paying $20k plus a year for tuition). Also what else is there to do in Tuscaloosa, Ann Arbor, or Columbus? Except for an NHL team in Columbus none of these college towns have pro teams ( or much of anything else) to compete with. And college football teams onky play 5 or 6 home games a year so every game is a big local event.
No. No. No. Joe Devine. Now. NOW!
This was actually a really bad video that really never makes a point it kinda just states random facts for 8 minutes lol
I am a Dodgers fan, I am a Lakers fan, but having gone to a college like USC and graduated doesn't make me a Trojans fan, it makes me a Trojan, for life. That's loyalty and identity I can never share with any other professional sports team. It's a commonality I will share with every Trojan athlete and student as well, it's built in community for life.
I’m pretty sure the voice over on this is the lad who sees if he can stay in arenas and stadiums for as long as possible after they finished hahah
Don’t care what the world thinks of American sports. America is a powerhouse in the Olympics and American media dominates the global box office. Anyone who disagrees with me, you’re on CZcams which is an American platform.
This was not a good video to kick off with. It doesnt really explain anything and seems to pad things out with information about coach salaries 🥴
I missed tifo basketball from like 4 years ago
Alabama-Mississippi State should be the Battle for Highway 82, not 92.
Oh come on? What is this? You never talk to the point but throwing stats after stats. What a disapointing content. I'm here because of Tifo football reputation with stories & great insight, not because they taught math.
I feel exactly the same way. I fear, that this diversification will destroy the core tifo brand. It was nice while it lasted.
@@redspolk I would never comment bad vibe on any video but this is so bad, not only not at Tifo level, misleading from the title but also lazy from a journalistic perspective.
Tennessee fan here. Please make a kid version of this. So my daughters will appreciate the fact that we are among those 100k fans. 😂
There's only 100K of us?
@@FigureFarter bad habit of mine not including context. Among the 100k in the stadium. Those tickets aren’t cheap for me at least.
@@big1cam Oh the seats at Neyland
I currently work overseas and am a UGA fan. We have over 56 nationalities and at least 20 are from Europe. Honestly this is not quite how they get confused.
1. Why league champions come from playoffs instead of the regular season. For that I had to explain how anti-monopoly policies in the late 1800’s allowed the creation of 2 tier 1 baseball leagues and that caused the birth of the World Series.
2. They understand College football better when I explain that they funded like a traditional football club. That the coaches coaches are paid for by booster clubs not taxpayers.
3. The lack of regulation. I put it simply like this. No matter what league there is just financial limits you can’t overcome. For example stadium capacity. Honestly does anyone expect Luton to ever be able to stay above league 1 when they only have a stadium with 12000 capacity? So instead of selling false hope teams stay in leagues they can conceivably compete financially. I know there is a loss of romanticism, but you don’t have teams regularly falling apart financially either.
bro mentioned rivalries without Michigan OSU?! Iron bowl isn't as good but it also deserved a mention
Comments are bizarre. Video 100% relates to the title. Some can admit it, but everyone else is just disguising the fact they like Joes voice more.
there might be some truth to your statement, but kicking off a new channel with an uninspired video like this surely doesn't help to win over fans of the old channel
I shall report back to the team that we were not inspired enough!
@@joedevine4746 maybe they could get some inspiration from watching the tifo football channel ;)
I'm sorry if my earlier comment was a bit harsh. The video just didn't live up to my high expectations...
That’s ok - but remember that we are real people who sometimes read the comments and have feelings!
This is a bad video.
Reasons why the World finds American sports so strange are not because college football is very popular and everyone watches the Super Bowl.
It’s that nearly all leagues in all sports are closed. With no relegation or promotion there’s no punishment for poor performance. No league tiering system means that a team could finish dead last 2 or 3 seasons in a row and plateau. A second tier makes it so the lower half of the table have something to fight for, and so poorer (financially speaking this time) teams can have a more even playing field.
The franchises too make non-USAians confused. How can a team move across the country, and retain the same location name? It would be like Tottenham Hotspur playing their games in a stadium in Essex. Or Leeds playing in a stadium in Hull.
When teams are brands, rather than communities, it takes the essence of the sport away. Why do so little foreign fans watch the MLS? Football is the most popular sport in the world and the USA is one of the most populous countries, yet foreign viewing figures are around the same as Portugal or The Netherlands (for major matches, which is all I could find comparative data for).
What you have in baseball, hockey, and even to some extent in basketball, is promotion and relegation of individual players. And then there are the professional individual sports like golf, where everyone's their own "franchise".
a sport doesn’t need pro/rel imo. And I just don’t think it would work in america at all honestly
I think one big aspect as to why college sports are so popular here is that colleges are by nature community based. They’re public institutions and there is more of them than NFL teams so like Alabama University is big because Alabama has no pro teams but they have colleges and thats the same for many states and people yearn for a local team that they can support and go watch live in person. America is huge and sports obsessed so it’s just natural that college sports would be a huge hit here. Also, its where our young talent comes from and just like in European football clubs we adore the next generation of american talent!
Home games a year:
European Football - 20-30
NFL football - 8-9
College football - 6
College football teams play just 6 home games in the entire year. Maybe that has something to do with it
Long time Tifo fan, even longer time NFL fan, hated this video.
If American football is so amazing why does almost nobody play it outside of the US?
Like a lot of things, pretty sure Americans don't care if the rest of the world likes what they like. But the NFL is starting to have games in the U.K. and Germany and is building fan bases in Europe for American football. Eventually, it will likely have popularity around the world, it's just going to take awhile to introduce it.
Because, in the 19th century, while the US was still developing the game that would become American football, soccer was already spreading throughout the world and establishing itself.
@@ThunderPants13Just because a few games are being played outside USA does not mean it is becoming MUCH MORE popular.
@@mktf5582 Where in my comment did I say it was becoming MUCH MORE popular? Just saying it's gaining a foothold in Europe and will likely continue to gain in popularity outside the U.S.
@@ThunderPants13 Just making the point that there is not avid/passionate fan bases/supporters in Europe like in USA.
Historic college football stadium Oracle Park at the end
I don't need American football 😡
Yes you do