15 Changes I'd Make If I Ran the NCAA (Part 1)

I have sad news for my handful of faithful readers: after next week, the Freshman Fifteen will take a summer hiatus, to return in August primed and ready for football season. I'm just running out of viable topics to write about, and rather than come up with drivel each week, I'll take a summer break just like all the kids in college do. If I have a fantastic column idea I'll throw it up here, but I won't be doing anything regular until August. I'll spend the time I'd usually write this examining season preview mags and preparing my comprehensive season preview. 

So what do I have to offer before the break? Only a manifesto of 15 changes I'd make if I were in charge of the NCAA. It'll be such an arduous task that I'll spread it over 2 weeks. Enjoy!

1. Alter the BCS

Any list of changes to the NCAA would have to start with the most controversial and talked-about system they've got: the BCS. Most people consider it the bane of humanity, or worse. A rare few think it works, or at least think it's the best option out there. But if you polled everyone outside of university and conference presidents, you'd get the same response: change it! Some would say change it in the form of blowing it up and starting a playoff from scratch, some would say alter it so that it becomes a playoff, and some would say tweak it (again) to work out the rest of the bugs. 

My vote would be the alteration to include a playoff. I spent LOTS of time talking about that in my December post titled "A Look at Playoff Possibilities". In fact, several of the changes I'll suggest are already found here. You might as well go ahead and open it up in a second window, it'll mean less cut-and-paste on my end. Scroll down to the section called "Possibility One".

To summarize what I wrote there: I'd enact the "plus-one" playoff, with the top 4 teams in the BCS making it in. Play 1 vs. 4 and 2 vs. 3, then let the winners go at it. Keep the rest of the BCS bowls as is, keep the rest of the bowl system as is, everyone wins.

2. Radically Change the Polling System in College Football

I spent a lot of time examining this in the aforementioned December column too. Look at the "Factor #4: Polls" section and read my solution that probably makes a little too much sense for it to actually happen.

The bottom line is that the whole system of coaches and sportswriters, who both have varying levels of regional bias, and the zany computer polls, which use cold data and can't see the nuances and weird bounces of every game, is decidedly NOT the most fair way of determining who's worthy of playing for a championship. And beyond the bias of human polls and the computers' inability to view actual football games played on a field is the problem of the preseason polls. Human polls always start with a preseason poll that ranks teams before they've ever played a game, and this start-of-the-year ranking goes a long way in establishing who's on top of the heap at the end. It's dumb and needs to be eliminated. If you're using polls as means to determine a champion, you have to let the teams play several games before being able to do any sort of logical, accurate ranking.

The polls are very aggravating to me and I could easily go on, but what I said in December is enough.

3. Division 1-A (currently known as "FBS") teams aren't allowed to play Division 1-AA (currently known as "FCS") teams

I mentioned this in my December post as well. Since the NCAA added a 12th game to the schedule, teams have used it to schedule an automatic win (as long as it isn't Appalachian State) with a 1-AA team. Some teams go so far as to schedule 2 lower division cupcakes. Not only is this boring, it also tends to overinflate how good that top-level team really is. Anyone can go out and beat The Citadel 63-7. We'd find out a lot more about a team and have much better information on which to rank them if they played another major conference team. We'd also get more tantalizing early season matchups between heavyweights, which would only be good for business. Part of the reason teams shy away from scheduling those sort of games, understandably, is because a loss could completely take them out of the national title hunt. Going to a 4 team playoff would diminish this threat to a degree, and eliminating the option of playing Wofford or Northern Iowa would force the hand of the BCS conference boys. Then we'd really find out who's deserving of playing for the national championship.

4. Eliminate Football Conference Championship Games

This is the last one that I mention in my "Playoff Possibilities" column. Conference championship games have yet to produce a matchup of teams who are both undefeated in their conference, and have rarely (three times, if you're generous) pit 2 teams who are both legitimately in the national title hunt against one another. Conference bigwigs would tell you that championship games exist largely for this purpose. So they're basically irrelevant.

What they do is give a few teams an extra game, one that appears to be very important, and the opportunity to leapfrog another team that doesn't have the benefit of playing in a conference championship. Or, if they lose to an inferior team they possibly have already beaten, a costly unnecessary defeat the week before the BCS pairings come out.

So if they're both irrelevant and unfair, and we've already established that we're going to have a playoff, let's just get rid of them and even the playing field for everyone.

5. The Highest Ranked Conference Champion from a non-BCS Conference Gets an Automatic Bid to the BCS

Since the BCS was established, non-BCS conferences have severely gotten the shaft. They've had to fight tooth and nail just to have a chance at a BCS bowl, and even now it's difficult at best, requiring an undefeated season or an incredible stroke of luck. And they've proven time and again they belong there once they get in.

Right now the rule is that a non-BCS team has to finish in the top 6 of the final BCS standings to qualify for an automatic berth. Let's go ahead and expand that. It's only right that the BCS would throw these supposedly inferior conferences a bone. If I were in charge, I'd ensure that the highest ranked non-BCS conference winner would automatically get a bid. So long as they meet the criteria that other conference winners have to meet - namely finishing in the actual top 25. Most of the time these teams would be ranked higher than the ACC and Big East winners anyway. And with the "plus-one" format in place, a non-BCS conference school would have an actual national title shot, something that's nonexistent right now.

6. Shift the timing of the college football season

Some teams finish their regular season in mid-November, then sit around until January to play their postseason game. This is ridiculous. Even those who finish the first weekend in December have a month to wait before their bowl game. By that time, it feels like a completely different season. It's such a long wait that the national championship game and the major bowls lose their luster. Everyone's forgotten about the scintillating regular season and the circuitous path each team took to reach their postseason destination, and sometimes you have a completely different team than the one that finished the regular season. If you have a 2 week, maybe 3 week at most, wait from the end of the regular season to the postseason, you end up with an acceptable level of hype and a tangible event to look forward to. When it's nearly a month and a half away, hype turns to blabbering and anticipation turns to boredom. The gap has to close to improve the overall product.

Also - the regular season starts the weekend before Labor Day in most years, before some schools have begun classes. Isn't it responsible to ensure that the most vital part of your fan base - the students who attend your university - are actually able to go to the game?

The solution is to push the start date back 2 weeks, to the middle of September, and make the second Saturday in December the last possible date to schedule games. Universities would complain that this would interfere with the end of semester academics, but that's bull. College basketball games are played throughout December, and lower division schools have playoffs the whole month. And most schools have their Finals week after that anyway.

Ending the season the second Saturday in December would provide about a one week break before bowls start, and the interest level that builds over the course of the season would persist, rather than break down in the monotonous gap of time that currently exists.

7. Eliminate the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament Opening Round Game (aka the "Play-in Game")

The fact that 65, not a nice round 64, teams make the NCAA men's basketball tournament is another testimony to the power of the major conferences. Once upon a time, Division 1 mens basketball had 30 conferences, meaning 30 automatic tournament bids were given out. The remaining 34 bids to fill out the symetrical, pleasing-to-the-eye, mathematically sound 64 team bracket, were "at-large" bids, made of the 34 most deserving non-automatic qualifiers. It went on this way for quite some time, until another conference formed, bringing the total to 31 and adding another automatic bid. Instead of just cutting the number of at-large bids to 33, the NCAA bowed to the pressure of the major conferences and kept it at 34, thus created the need for an opening round game, which always pits teams from the tiny conferences and prevents one of them from competing in the actual Big Dance, which they rightly qualified for. The major conferences knew that one of their own would be left in the cold by cutting that one extra at-large bid, and they refused to let it happen (with dollar signs in their eyes, no doubt).

If it were my choice, I'd cut the extra at-large bid anyway. No one takes the play-in game seriously and those teams both deserve their shot at making history. The major conferences have their way in football, basketball, and just about every other NCAA sport, and it's time they're shown that they aren't the only ones competing in college athletics. And rarely does the last at-large team in win more than one game. The tournament needs that picture-perfect 64 team bracket, spaced neatly in 4 regions of 16. Cut off that unsightly nub that attaches itself to one of those beautiful 16 team groupings!

Next week: the last 8 changes. I promise more basketball, some thoughts on administrative details, and more football too. Check back for the last fresh Freshman Fifteen for months!

15 Arenas I'd Like to Visit to See a Game

The NFL Draft is this Saturday, which might just be the most overhyped event in sports. People like Todd McShay and Mel Kiper Jr. make a living predicting who will be selected where, even to the point of doing ridiculous things like a mock 7th Round. Seventh Round! Can one possibly come close to predicting that?

Wait, isn't this a column on college basketball arenas? Patience, my friends, we'll get there. I have some commentary to make.

You have to hand it to the Kipers and McShays of the world though, they make some green on the national lust for anything football-related. We're the real suckers. We eat the stuff up. And we eat it up in spite of the fact that these experts are horribly wrong year after year. In the first round, let alone the seventh. Yet the day after the draft ends, these guys will release their mock first rounds for the 2010 draft, with one full season of both pro and college football still to be played. And droves will flock to their columns, soaking up useless knowledge. Maybe there's a better way for us to spend our time.

Like reading some nobody's list of awesome college basketball arenas. Um, yes. Call it hypocrisy, it probably is! But at least I'm not predicting next years draft, the rough equivalent of trying to predict the weather on December 17, 2011 in Kiev, Ukraine. 

Don't get me wrong though, the draft does matter, and lots of people are employed by the 32 NFL teams to do the same work that draftniks like Mel Kiper do. Only they're actually building a team. I just think Joe Football Fan gets too wrapped up in the stuff. We have no control over who the team actually picks, nor do we have any idea how those players will actually fare in the league. Let the guys in the front offices do their jobs and let the draft play out as it will. Those guys know what they're doing, or at least most of them do. One can wonder about the operations run in Oakland or Cleveland.

And one last draft note before the hypocritical silliness of my college basketball destination list. How strange is it that 2 of the first 3 guys selected this weekend will, according to the aforementioned draft gurus, be from Baylor and Wake Forest. Not exactly institutions known to be football factories. Weird.

And now, finally, mercifully, my list of 15 college basketball venues that, given the appropriate time and money, I would love to catch a game at.

1. Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham, NC (Duke)

Would any other arena possibly be first? Whether you spell it "Duke" or "Dook", you have to admit that Cameron Indoor is the gym all others are measured by. It has history, mystique, noise, legendary fans, and a 10 on the intimidation scale. I'd love to see a Duke-UNC tilt there some day, just to experience the full fervor of the Cameron Crazies. Only my rooting interest would definitely be on the Carolina side.

2. The Palestra, Philadelphia (Penn)

The Palestra used to host "Big Five" (Temple, Villanova, St. Joe's, Penn, and LaSalle) doubleheaders on winter Saturdays, probably the best deal in the universe at the time. Good basketball at a good price in a great locale. The Palestra is old, historic, and gorgeous, one of the all time classics, both in architecture and nostalgia. Penn claims the gym as it's full time home, but occasionally two of the other Big Five get the pleasure of playing there. This is basketball the way it used to be, a turning back of the clock.

3. Allen Fieldhouse, Lawrence, KS (Kansas)

I've actually been there once, on a cross country road trip. It was summertime, so well after basketball season had ended, but I decided to take a detour from the interstate to the University of Kansas and see if I could (ahem) sneak into Allen Fieldhouse. When I drove up, to my surprise, the doors were wide open and it appeared that no one was around. I could see straight in to the court from the parking lot. So I parked and strolled in. I didn't go on the court, I'm not that brazen, but I did peek in enough to get a sense of the place. And what a building it was. With high windows lining the upper echelon allowing beams of sunlight to cascade in, and a gleaming floor set beneath, I could almost hear chants of "Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk" echoing in my ears.

4. Madison Square Garden, New York City

The most famous arena in the world is probably more famous for Knicks basketball or Rangers hockey, or even 10-night Springsteen tour stops, than it is for college basketball. At least now. But back in the day, when the NIT was the thing, MSG was the desired destination for every college team every year. And it is the place every baller wants to play at least once in a lifetime.

5. Gallagher-Iba Arena, Stillwater, OK (Oklahoma State)

If the lettering on the facade next to the court reads "Welcome to Historic Gallagher-Iba Arena", you know you've got a good old gym. From watching games on TV, you can't get a sense of what the place really looks like. And I'm curious as to why it's so historic. So I want to go there.

6. Pauley Pavilion, Westwood, CA (UCLA)

Another old gym (why do pro teams insist on new places every 25 years?) packed with history and mystique. Memories of the glory days of Wooden and his unprecedented dominance fill the place, and UCLA is still royalty in the sport.

7. Dean Smith Center, Chapel Hill, NC (North Carolina)

Not because it's old or historic, but because it's Carolina. The court is one of the coolest looking around, and you know you'd get a great show on it too.

8. Assembly Hall, Bloomington, IN (Indiana)

While we're on a tour of the jewels in the college basketball crown, we might as well stop at Indiana. If only I could have been there to witness Bobby Knight's chair toss! On TV, this building looks a little funky, with walls that seem to be folding in on themselves. It's not the most attractive looking place, but it is noisy, historic, and a tough place to play.

9. The Pit, Albuquerque, NM (New Mexico)

I think Albuquerque might be the hardest word to spell ever. That took way too long to figure out. Anyway, the Pit has fallen off the radar of famous arenas, but it used to be known as the loudest, nastiest arena around. Underground, it holds in sound and increases the intensity level of the game. It was home of one of the most famous moments in college basketball history too - N.C. State's historic upset of Houston in the 1983 Final Four. It's hosted dozens of other big time games too, as it used to be one of the NCAA's go-to postseason arenas. It's a shame that it's not on that short list anymore.

10. Carrier Dome, Syracuse, NY (Syracuse)

Domes aren't usually good places to watch basketball - the sightlines are weird, the place feels way too open, and noise gets lost high up in the rafters. But Syracuse has been playing at the Carrier Dome for years and has a pretty good home court advantage there. I want to see how they pull it off. Random secondhand tidbit about the Carrier Dome (secondhand meaning I'm not 100% sure it's actually true): in spite of being named after the Carrier company, which is a prominent producer of air conditioners, the Carrier Dome doesn't have air conditioning.

11. Petersen Events Center, Pittsburgh, PA (Pitt)

I'm cheating a bit here - I went to an exhibition game last year here. But if that game doesn't count for them, it doesn't count for me either. The Pete, as it's known as locally, is a young arena but one that packs a mean punch for visitors. It's also small, holding only about 12,000 fans, but bottles in noise well and is an impressive looking building. Great place to catch a game.

12. Rec Hall, State College, PA (Penn State)

What? I'm not just finding a random way to include my alma mater in the column, I promise. The Bryce Jordan Center was built a few years before I enrolled at Penn State, so I missed the experience of a game at Rec Hall, what was known to some as the "Cameron Indoor of the North". Bobby Knight hated playing there and considered it an escape if his teams won. It was hot, sweaty, cramped, and louder than a jet engine. If ESPN Classic would ever find a reason to re-broadcast a pre-1994 Penn State basketball game (and frankly, why would they?), you'd see what I mean. It also had the uniqueness that the fans were literally less than a foot from the playing floor. Opposing teams routinely had to make inbounds passes while standing in the middle of the student section. Talk about home court advantage! While I was at PSU, I hoped that just once they'd have an 80's night or something and hold a game at Rec Hall. The building still stands, waiting for the magic to be revived.

13. Cole Field House, College Park, MD (Maryland)

While on the subject of closed arenas, we'll add Cole Field House to the list. It was bigger than the typical "fieldhouse" style of arena but still had the charm. And the noise. Like the Pit, it hosted its share of big time games too - including the Texas Western upset of Kentucky in the 1959 national championship, the first time 5 black players started in NCAA Division 1 basketball (thanks, Wikipedia!).

14. Rupp Arena, Lexington, KY (Kentucky)

I've driven by it, and it literally looks like a big box. It's quite rectangular. But it's huge and always packed, no matter who Kentucky plays (or how bad they are).

15. Freedom Hall, Louisville, KY (Louisville)

Staying in Kentucky, we'll close our tour in Louisville. Freedom Hall is another historic old arena, and one that's also large and loud and usually packed. 

Next week: I have no idea. I have to go back and figure out what won't be abjectly pointless to avoid being a real hypocrite!

15 Stadiums I'd Like to Visit To See a Game

I've not been out much, at least in the football sense. I've been to one and only one true college stadium (Dolphin Stadium for the Orange Bowl didn't count), and that's Beaver Stadium in State College, PA. I suppose that if I've seen a game there (and I've seen plenty), it's not really worth going to a game anywhere else. Nothing but disappointment awaits. Beaver Stadium hosts the "Greatest Show in College Football", a statement agreed to by many major publications and networks. In the nearly 20 years I've been going to games there I've seen not only opposing players, but opposing fans rattled by the volume and size of the place. I remember Ohio State players being interviewed after their loss to Penn State in 2005, basically admitting that the crowd disabled them and they were taken out of the game. And in my sophomore year, Penn State hosted bitter rival Pitt, bringing a hearty contingent of fans on the 150 mile trip to the center of the state. A few of them, Pitt students, sat in the row behind me in the student section, and marveled over and over at the sheer size of the place, in comparison with whatever paltry stadium they were playing in at the time; and through the game continued to marvel at the noise and level of craziness in the atmosphere. It was clearly a step up in class for them.

So Beaver Stadium will always be #1 for me, but there are a list of places I'd like to go that fall into that "second class". I'll likely never get to all, or even most, of these places, due to the fact that a) I'm not a man of great means, and b) have many other things that are higher on the "to-do" list. But if I were to have some significant coin fall into my lap accompanied by a whole autumn with nothing to do on Saturday afternoons, here's where I'd go (in this order).

1. Tiger Stadium, Baton Rouge, LA (LSU)

Legends of fan-created earthquakes and the mystique of LSU in their white jerseys for a night game surround Tiger Stadium, or "Death Valley". Clemson's stadium is called "Death Valley" too, but there's no disputing which place is more deserving of the title. They care a little too much about football in the South, and this is the rowdiest, most intimidating place in that college football-crazed land.

2. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field, Gainesville, FL (Florida)

It's a good thing this place has the short and catchy title of "The Swamp", because it has the most cumbersome actual name of any stadium in college football. The Swamp is a close second to Death Valley for rowdiness, noise, and intimidation factor, and another place where lubed-up Southerners take their football a wee bit too seriously.

3. Michie Stadium, West Point, NY (Army)

A curious choice at #3, and probably the best bargain on the list. The U.S. Military Academy sits at one of the most beautiful spots of land in the East, where the Hudson S-curves into a gorge on its way to New York City and the Atlantic Ocean. Atop a bluff overlooking the vast river sit the imposing grey buildings of the Academy, and amidst them a small, historic old stadium. But it's not the setting or the facility that would make seeing a game here worth it - it's the tradition and military pageantry of the place. The marching of cadets, the knowledge that football is a very fleeting and easy battle compared to what these men will one day face, and the military precision and discipline that hover over the place make it a perfect Saturday setting in the Fall.

4. Kyle Field, College Station, TX (Texas A&M)

Speaking of tradition, no school has as much of it as Texas A&M. From the 12th Man tradition of a walk-on donning the number 12 to represent the student body to the Yell Practice that occurs at midnight before each home game, Texas A&M drips with tradition. And the Yell Practice must work, because the fans make Kyle Field a rather imposing place. That, and there's a Texan/military insanity about them that is difficult to understand for those of us who aren't Aggies. Now, if they only had a team that could come even close to excellence, they'd really have a home field advantage.

5. Lane Stadium, Blacksburg, VA (Virginia Tech)

There's a little bit of military craziness here too. In spite of its smallish size, Lane Stadium is known to pack a noisy punch. And I've heard the tradition of the team entering during a particularly powerful part of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" gets fans pretty jacked up.

6. Memorial Stadium, Berkley, CA (California)

If you were to hear the names "Strawberry Canyon" and "Tightwad Hill", you'd assume someone referencing a kid's fantasy novel, yet these are the real places where the University of California plays their football games. Hardly intimidating, but very gorgeous. And free too, if you sit high enough on Tightwad Hill and peer down into the stadium, nestled in Strawberry Canyon below. Then take the long way to your car after the game through the Gumdrop Forest to get a sip of the Licorice River.

7. Ohio Stadium, Columbus, OH (Ohio State)

The Horseshoe is another tradition-filled place, and despite the Buckeyes status as rival to my Nittany Lions, it would be pretty cool to go to a game in a structure on the National Register of Historic Places, watching some tuba player or celebrity dot the i in Script Ohio. The Big Ten rivals the SEC in football zeal, and the state of Ohio is particularly crazy about their Buckeyes. But they lose points for scattering the students around the place rather than going for the concentrated noise of keeping them all together.

8. Neyland Stadium, Knoxville, TN (Tennessee)

The biggest of all the SEC stadiums, which is saying something in the South. Hearing "Rocky Top" over and over again would get annoying, as would that shade of orange in that volume, but it has to be cool to be able to come to the game in a boat on the Tennessee River.

9. Autzen Stadium, Eugene, OR (Oregon)

It's gained a reputation of being one of the nation's most intimidating venues, but I'd be more interested to play "see how many Nike swooshes you can count before halftime".

10. Notre Dame Stadium, South Bend, IN (Notre Dame)

The only reason this stadium sits so low on the list is because I really don't like Notre Dame. But a trip around the venues of college football would be incomplete without a visit to old Notre Dame stadium. No matter how you feel about the Irish, any fan of the game would appreciate the history and greatness of the players who played on that field. When you're the sports premier program for the better part of 50 years, you tend to accumulate some of that. 

11. Nippert Stadium, Cincinnati, OH (Cincinnati)

It's historic, old, and charming. And it gives the Big East a spot on the list.

12. Husky Stadium, Seattle, WA (Washington)

Another place where boating is viable means of transportation to the game, via Lake Washington. It's also the place where the Wave was invented, so you know the fans are creative. And copied thousands of times over.

13. Camp Randall Stadium, Madison, WI (Wisconsin)

Wisconsin has one of the most beautiful campuses in the country, and spending a Fall Saturday there isn't a bad use of your time. You also would be able to experience the tradition of House of Pain's one hit wonder "Jump Around" playing between the third and fourth quarters, during which everyone does just that. Seems like fun.

14. Bobby Dodd Stadium/Grant Field, Atlanta, GA (Georgia Tech)

I've mentioned before that I have a bit of a Georgia Tech fascination, the only reason this stadium makes the list. There are some cool sidetrails and things to see while you're there too - most notably the "Rambling Wreck" (just as it sounds - and old car) leading the team onto the field and a mandatory trip to the Varsity for a burger after the game.

15. Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, MI (Michigan)

Only to witness firsthand how, in spite of being 2 or 3 thousand seats larger than Beaver Stadium, it still manages to be so much quieter and more dull. It's basically a big underground bowl.

Next week: an imaginary trip around the 15 college basketball venues I'd like to see

15 Reasons Why College Sports Are Better Than The Pros

The Tar Heels were men among boys, plain and simple. All double digit wins in the tourney, never truly threatened in the Final Four, the most dominant players at 3 of the 5 positions on the floor (Hansbrough, Lawson, Ellington), stifling on defense, unstoppable on offense, they just couldn't be beaten. This weekend we saw the team everyone expected them to be all year. If it weren't for their 4 brain-lapse losses this season, they'd go down as the most dominant team in college basketball history, or at least in the modern tournament era. At their otherworldly level of play they could compete right now in the NBA.

And that segue's me quite nicely into this week's discussion: college vs. pro athletics. I want to submit to you 15 reasons why college sports are better, all the while avoiding the painful analysis of my 0-fer weekend picking the Final Four. You won't find an argument for talent level, there's no question the pro's have a sizable edge there, but nearly everything else leans the way of the kids.

A caveat before we begin: I'm strictly referring to football and basketball. I don't talk baseball or hockey here.

1. Tradition

The pro's have tradition, sure - franchises like the Steelers, Cowboys, and Celtics come to mind - but the richer tradition belongs to the college game. You'll find it every Fall Saturday - college football is built on tradition and campuses like Penn State, Alabama, and Notre Dame swim in it. Same goes for basketball schools like Kansas, North Carolina, and UCLA. You can't go to a game at any of those places, or dozens of others for that matter, without drinking in the tradition-laden atmosphere.

2. Pageantry

Much like tradition, the college game has loads of pageantry, defined by dictionary.com as "spectacular display; pomp". Dotting the i at Ohio State. Rock Chalk Jayhawk at Kansas. The Cameron Crazies. The Flaming Spear at the 50 at Florida State. The Rose Bowl Parade. What do the pro's have? The best they can muster is the canned, corporate, contrived pomp surrounding the Super Bowl.

3. Passionate Fans

Who sits closest to the field or court at a pro game? Big money bigwigs or celebrities, who are often there to be seen more than to see, let alone participate in the game. In college? The students, and alums who never quite let go of the attachment to their school through their team. With the level of attachment that comes with cheering for your alma mater coupled with the unbridled enthusiasm and energy of the student section, college crowds blow the pros out of the water.

4. Venues

Give me the old stadiums and arenas of the college game over the multi-million dollar, sterile venues the pros demand to be built every 25 years, often at taxpayer expense. Sure, they're usually much more cramped, uncomfortable, and it's impossible to go to the bathroom, but you're not there for comfort. You're there to make noise, and do it in close quarters with 100,000 friends. And size matters here too - only in college will you find stadiums in the six digit capacity. 

5. Effort

There's something about playing for money and being under a contract that seems to take some of the competitive edge off the pros. Especially in the NBA, where you find the "construction zone effect": 2 guys doing all the work with the other 8 just standing around watching. They're unionized, what do you expect? In college, most of these guys won't ever get paid for playing sports, they're doing it strictly for love of the game, school pride, and just to win. And they give their all for it.

6. Pregame Shows

Only college football has a pregame show that's become must-see TV. I'm talking, of course, of College Gameday, the show that all others hope to match.

7. Bands

The Washington Redskins have a band, which is cute. But college sports have BANDS - sometimes of the variety that are as famous as the teams they lead cheers for. And bands, of course, are much better than piped-in music or prerecorded stadium cheers.

8. Halftime Shows

The bands are also the primary halftime entertainment, which destroys the offerings of the pro teams, most of which consist of circus acts, goofy games, and high school bands.

9. Atmosphere

A college campus is a much better pregame locale than some parking lot in the middle of New Jersey or South Philadelphia. And in some places the RV's start rolling into the stadium lots by Thursday afternoon for Saturday kickoffs - they wouldn't do that if it were a sports complex in Any City, USA. And you won't find tent villages like Paternoville or Kryzyewskiville outside of professional stadiums.

10. A Meaningful Regular Season

In college, every game truly does matter, especially in football, where one loss could spell doom for any national title hopes. Only 2 of the 120 teams (1.6%) have a title shot at the end of the year, compared with 19.1% (65 of 340) in college basketball, 37.5% (12 of 32) in the NFL, and a disgusting 53.3% (16 of 30) in the NBA. Why do they even bother with a regular season?

11. The Single Best Sporting Event in the USA

That would be the NCAA men's basketball tournament. No other event can hold a candle to the excitement, unpredictability, and interest from casual fans or non-fans that the tourney has.

12. Legends

Quick, name seven NBA coaches in under 30 seconds. Can't do it, can you? How about 10 NFL coaches? Easier, but the names don't roll off the tongue like the legends that immediately come to mind among the college ranks: Paterno, Pitino, Izzo, Bowden. Not to mention the greats of old like Hayes, Rupp, and Wooden.

13. Rules

This may be the weakest of the 15 items on the list, but as a whole the college rules of each game are just better. Clock stops for each first down - awesome, we get a longer game. Longer shot clock - sweet, more time to develop a play and get more players involved in the offense. And so on.

14. Recruiting

The draft process is largely random, you get who's available when it's your pick. But in college, you can recruit anybody, and build exactly the team you want. All you have to do is convince them to come to your place.

15. Work Stoppages

You won't find a strike in college sports.