For example, look at the Arkansas Razorbacks football team. Arkansas has no professional sports organizations in the whole state. People latch on to the Razorbacks as their professional team. Darren McFadden became a superstar playing in a state with no professional team but excelled at the college level. Another great example is at Utah and Boise State. The only professional team in either state is the Utah Jazz NBA team. Neither have a professional football team. Both states connect better to their collegiate teams. Utah and Boise State have had a lot of success as smaller schools competing against the bigger schools. I think most of the focus of sports fans in these states are on their football programs. Even in states where professional sports are prominent, like in Ohio, a lot of people enjoy watching the Ohio State Buckeyes rather than any other team. I think this is because of the success Ohio State has had and a fan likes to root for a winner. All other teams in Ohio have had very little success and sometimes its hard to be a fan of those teams.
Another point to be made is the following of the NCAA basketball tournament. It alone is the biggest sporting event in the United States. Every game is bet on and people do brackets and pay attention to the tournament even if the team they root for isn't in the tournament. I used to watch the games in class in high school on a five inch TV to keep up with the games.
The final reason is that collegiate athletics are pure. Players aren't competing for money but for pride. It's not about that next paycheck but for your school and the fans of your program and the history. That isn't seen nearly as much in professional sports.
All of these reason are why I think college football and basketball are taking over the sporting world.
2 comments:
I agree when you say certain places that only have small, non-professional teams help their popularity (Arkansas Razorbacks). It was brought to my attention that a Arena Football Team (in division 2) in a small town that has 0 other teams gets great fan support and a ton of sponsors.
Also, I agree the pro sports are as exciting as collegiate sports because of the whole paycheck thing. If you watch a collegiate basketball game you will see amazing defense played by most of the teams playing. When you watch the pros it seems like people are just going through the motions sometimes just to get to the offensive end so they can showcase why they are getting paid. Only a handfull of people in the NBA play great defense while there are many people in college that put their heart and soul into every play/game they are apart of.
I agree with you in part about the growing popularity of college football and basketball. Nebraska is another state where college football literally takes over in the fall. I cannot think of any pro teams in Nebraska, nor any nearby that would begin to rival the popularity of Huskers' football.
As for the purity of college sports, I think that has been called into question at various points historically. As we discussed in today's class, there were even "tramp athletes" in college football who were paid to play in the early 1900s. A lot of people think payment to college athletes (even under-the-table) did not begin to happen until much more recently, and yet it began not long after intercollegiate sports competition began. Then there are cases such as Dani and Cody spoke of today--where residual benefits are provided for family members (i.e., "package deals"). All that is to say that perhaps college competition was never as "pure" as we like to think it was. On the other hand, I do see a huge difference between watching a college basketball game (e.g., 6 OT game between Syracuse and UConn), and tuning in to the NBA. Aside from watching the Cavs, I will take the college game any day!
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