Age-old debate: college or pro?

[Óglaigh_na_hÉireann]

I've always been a proponent of college sports over pro. The reason being that in pro leagues, you can never truly know whether a player wants to represent your city or state. For the most part that doesn't happen in college sports as players get to choose where they go.

At the same time, though, I feel like some alumni (or is it alumnae?) of schools are condescending to non-alumni, almost as though they are the only ones granted the exclusive right to be a fan. So I think there's a hierarchy and unfortunately, it may be felt most in the Notre Dame community; which isn't to say it's ubiquitous, it's not, in fact, of all the alumni on this site I don't think anyone uses that approach and I'm very thankful for it.

But the fact of the matter is, I'm not ever going to attend school at Notre Dame. I don't have the grades to be accepted. When my friends (who are all O$U fans) asked me why I was a Notre Dame fan when I was younger, the easiest response I could come up with was that I wanted to go there for school. Now I justify my being a fan entirely with my identity, as my future at ND will never be anything more than going there to watch football and basketball games.

So that's the one problem I have with college sports, that with some schools, fans feel obligated to justify their connection.

But overall, college blows pro out of the water IMHO.

What are your thoughts?

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

Honestly, I only watch college football. Pro-sports are too "crisp" and "accurate" for me.

One game day, any college team can beat another...it's the element of the unknown that thrills me most.

 

[LOVEMYIRISH]

By they way, a fan is a fan.

I am a grad...yet I don't care if fans are sub-alums or grads. We are all fans.

But to be honest, I kinda respect sub-alums more, since they don't feel an OBLIGATION to cheer for the Irish. It's pure love then...

 

[ShivaIrish]

I agree, in general, about college over pros. Most prominently for basketball and football, where I don't even watch the NBA much at all. Baseball, though, is a different story.

As far as team loyalty goes, I think college has big advantage over pros, for there's more reasons for an individual to like teams. Alums have obvious reasons. Personally, I'm not an alum of ND, but I do support a lot of what ND stands for, including their athletes. To me, one of the great things about ND is the message it seems to disperse, which entails, I think, for the alums to respect those who support ND but never actually received a formal education there.

 

[mirertobrooks]

College football is the best sport in the world. Every game means something. Pro football you can go 9-7 and make the playoffs, college basketball you just have to win your conference tourney, or go 20-10, to make a 64 team tourney, don't get me started on the NBA, NHL, and MLB, regular season means nothing, that's why I hope there is never a playoff in college football. Good posts Lovemyirish

 

[punishment]

If there is any college university in this world that can not snub, or show demean their fans who did not attend the university, it is Notre Dame. Notre Dame was built on its subway alum fan base. Not off its actual university alums. ND's alumni base did not become very strong until the 60s, maybe even the 70s. It was the lack of alums, and support of alums, that nearly caused the school to shut down several times in the first half of the century.

By the time the ND alumni association become strong, the subway alums were much stronger.

So an ND fan, whether an alum or not, should not feel like "less of a fan" because some jerk says so. If it had not been for the subway alums who love ND, sometimes even moreso than some of its students, then ND would not be where it is today.

 

[leppycole]

College Football is more exciting to me. I watch the NFL, but never to I feel Hyped up like the morning of Notre Dame Football Saturday.

 

[Óglaigh_na_hÉireann]

For me, it doesn't help that the Cleveland Browns are an absolutely miserable team to sit and watch. Sure, they have a few exciting young talent on the offense (Kellen Winslow, Breylon Edwards), but they don't have a QB to give them the ball.

I'm not going to lie to you, I'm a horrible Browns fan. In fact, I'll probably just switch allegiances to whatever team drafts Brady Quinn. I reserve that right.

 

[ACamp1900]

I'll take CFB over NFL anyday... games mean more, crowd much more into it and the tradition goes much deeper... the only sport where pro beats college is baseball

 

[ACamp1900]

agreed, I'm a HUGE browns fan as well the whole flight to Baltimore followed shortly by our team winning our spuer bowl in another city for another set of fans still sits wrong with me...