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Although the NFL has just finished its 100th season, the country’s universities have already fought their duels 150 years ago with the “Eierlaberl”. The importance remains enormous, the arenas are among the largest in the world, sometimes even more than 100,000 spectators attend live games. Among them are the well-known music bands, which always attract people who are not sports lovers.
Soccer is part of the weekend in the fall months: the high school games on Friday, Sunday is reserved for the NFL, and Saturday is reserved for varsity teams. There are also family reasons, because graduates are connected to their faculty for life and indulge in the hustle and bustle of a “College Game Day.” As NFL teams move, a university remains in place. From this a business model has also been developed, and the southern teams seem to particularly benefit from it.
Not just positive development
Soccer developed out of soccer and rugby long before the turn of the century around 1900. The first college soccer game was the 1869 duel between Rutgers and Princeton, which had little to do with soccer today. In this sense, Walter Camp finally assumed a special position, since he was also considered the inventor of American football. He introduced new rules at Yale University, in part because, according to legend, he didn’t like rugby. Camp not only made sure that the foundation for the game known today was created, but also pitched the All-American team, the All-Star team in college football. He is still a guest of the President of the United States each year.
Yale remains part of the “Ivy League”, which includes the most famous universities on the east coast, such as Harvard and Princeton. Today they play no role in terms of sporting importance, in the early years they were a popular venue with 30,000 spectators. However, development did not always take its positive course. So even the President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, intervened once after there were serious injuries and deaths. The rule changes made things better, but health is still a big problem not just at universities.
Divisions, Conferences, Bowls, Championships
While the NFL’s structure is fairly easy to understand: 32 teams will play in two conferences and eight divisions for 14 play-off spots in the future, that in college football is historically complex. The large number of universities in the US USA Ensures a total of four levels of performance. In Division I-A, the upper house, there are more than 120 teams, which are divided into eleven conferences. At the end of the season there are numerous “bowl games”, to which guests are also invited.
The national champions determined by the play-offs have only been available in college football since the 2014/15 season, before which the best teams were identified by surveys. Of course, this always caused criticism, especially since the teams had played against teams of different strengths and this resulted in their balance sheets. This season, however, could not have been a clearer winner, as quarterback Joe Burrow’s LSU Tigers, who is the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft, triumphed in all 15 games they played.
Between phenomenon and religion
The Louisiana Tigers have one of the largest sands in the world. The top ten stadiums have no less than eight US college teams. USA, in particular the Michigan Wolverines Stadium, where the record for college football attendance was set in 2013. The 41:30 home win against Notre Dame was attended by no less than 115,109 spectators. But not only that contributes to the phenomenon of university football, but also to all the rivalries and, of course, the rivalries that have matured historically.
Especially in the south there are enough duels that are not only very emotional for the players. Alabama vs. Auburn, Mississippi vs. Ole Miss, or Texas vs. Oklahoma. Overall, college football in the South has a very special meaning. “Soccer is a religion in the south, and Saturday is a holy day,” said the legend of coach Marino Casem. The South also houses many of the largest university programs, including Alabama. It was veteran and legendary head coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, who in the 1970s was one of the first coaches in the southern states to trust African-American players and was therefore a pioneer.
Millions are being made
Last but not least, college football has also become big business. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which acts as an organizer, is itself a non-profit organization, but teams generate millions of dollars in revenue a year. While his stars, as students or fans, cannot receive salaries, his universities raise large sums of money, mainly thanks to valuable television contracts and ticket receipts, or because financially strong graduates also make generous donations to his school.
The 25 most valuable college programs totaled $ 2.7 billion in 2019, according to Forbes. The SEC is again at the forefront here. Texas A&M (1st), Alabama (4th), Georgia (7th), Florida (9th) and Auburn (10th) are in the top ten. With an average profit of $ 94 million, the “Longhorns” are ahead. Which in turn also shows that there is still time until the start of the season in August, but when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, there is much at stake not only for the NFL, but also for college football.
