7 Reasons Why College Football is More Interesting to Watch Than the NFL

Are you finding it hard to get excited about NFL football games? If so, it may be time to turn your attention back to the college game, where football is played for pride rather than insane amounts of money.

Here are 7 reasons why college football is far more interesting to watch than the National Football League:

1. College football fans are more passionate

College fans – especially in smaller towns – tend to share a greater sense of community than big city NFL fans. There’s more of an emotional connection, because there’s more pride and intensity involved.

2. College football has marching bands and stirring fight songs

One of the finest traditions in college football is the marching band. There’s nothing better for getting the crowd into the right spirit than blaring horns and pounding drums. If the marching band and fight songs don’t put you in the mood to cheer for your team, nothing will.

3. College football kicks into gear a whole week earlier than the NFL

The college football season gets underway on Labor Day weekend each year, a week before the first game of the regular NFL season. Yes, the NFL does have preseason games, but who cares? The players don’t seem to take things seriously at all in the preseason.

4. College stadiums offer a more pleasant environment than city-based NFL stadiums

Most college stadiums are on campus, and have a lot more character than NFL stadiums squeezed into the middle of an urban or industrial area. Once you leave a college game, the world outside the stadium is a great place to chill out with your friends and enjoy the ambience. By contrast, you probably won’t want to hang around a city NFL stadium longer than you have to.

5. College tailgate parties are the best

There’s music, enough cholesterol-saturated food to seriously threaten your heart health and an energetic kind of comradeship that bonds the participants.

Tailgate parties are a great American tradition: football fans congregate in the stadium parking lot and create a huge, communal picnic.

If you couldn’t get a ticket to the game, you just listen to it on the car radio and enjoy the party. NFL tailgate parties pale by comparison.

6. Saturday is a better day to watch football than Sunday

It is not unheard of for football enthusiasts to consume alcoholic beverages. College ball normally happens on Saturdays, while the NFL prefers Sundays. If you become a college football fan, it means you still have a full day to recover from excessive imbibing before you have to return to work on Monday morning.

7. The rivalries are more serious

Rivalries in college football often go back many decades, and both sides don’t hold back in fighting for college pride. NFL rivalries seem a little more contrived.