College football queries

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Somerset

Puritan Board Junior
Rather than going off topic on the pick em thread, I thought I would ask my questions here.

This college football is very strange to me. All our universities have sports teams but the crowd would usually be numbered in tens - at best. By the time one gets to university one's choice of sport team is fixed - some people will support their local team, but most will support one of the half dozen big teams. By this time those who are good at sport will have been signed up by a professional team. We don't have sport scholarships at all.

So a few questions.
Do all the players for a college team have to be studying at that college?
How long can one remain a student (not a problem for the navy of course)
Assuming only students can play, and one is only a student for three years, does this mean that the relatively fast turnover of players mean that teams can go from good to bad quite quickly - or are some teams usually best? If the latter, is this because they give better scholarships?
Is it normal to support a college team - or do most people support an NFL team (or both?)

Is the EPNS link, kindly supplied by Edward, the briefest way of keeping up to date with the scores and league tables?

Once again - many thanks to all of you who try to help me understand the differences between our two nations.
 
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So a few questions.

Do all the players for a college team have to be studying at that college?

Yes, all the players must be enrolled at the college for which they play.

How long can one remain a student (not a problem for the navy of course)
Typically a player will have four years of eligibility

Assuming only students can play, and one is only a student for three years, does this mean that the relatively fast turnover of players mean that teams can go from good to bad quite quickly - or are some teams
usually best? If the latter, is this because they give better scholarships?


It is possible for a team to go from bad to good, but most schools are either traditionally bad or traditionally good and there is little they can do to change that because much of it depends on how much the particular university spends on its program and coaches. As far as scholarships, that is mainly governed by the NCAA.

Is it normal to support a college team - or do most people support an NFL team (or both?)

Yes, it is normal to support both, but most people are much more passionate about college football, especially since following pro football generally involves breaking the fourth commandment.
 
Yes, at the collegiate level you have to be an eligible student at the school to play for them.
One could theoretically take classes from a school as long as they'd like, but generally, an athlete only gets 4 years of eligibility for their sport. Sometimes they are granted extra years if they don't play a certain amount of games or they are injured.
Yes, teams can fluctuate based on their talent level, but generally really good programs, continue to be good because they in turn recruit more talented players who want to go to a school that is a winner.
Many people like college sports better than professional for various reasons. Many people enjoy both. Many reformed people tend to follow college football over the NFL because the NFL plays most of their games on the Lord's Day, which obviously violated the 4th commandment. College football primarily holds their games on Saturdays.

Yes, ESPN is a good website for following college football, although their are numerous other sites one could use also.
 
Most of your questions have been answered above. However, I will offer a couple of additional comments.

College football players must be enrolled at the school for which they play. However, there are some cases where a student-athlete has finished his degree a semester early and still is qualified to play (if he still has a remaining year of eligibility). There may be some particular qualifications for doing this, however, of which I am not aware.

College football players typically have four years of eligibility. However, it is possible for a player to "redshirt" a season (meaning that he does not play that year and preserves his four years of eligibility). Most often this is done during his freshman season. Sometimes, though, if a player is hurt and misses the entire season, he can receive a "medical redshirt" and not lose the year of eligibility while he sits out.

College players can also leave early (after three years) and declare for the NFL draft, if they so desire. They automatically lose their amateur status once this happens, meaning they cannot play college football again.

A lot of the success of a program depends upon recruiting. Coaches work very hard to bring in the best players they can. As long as they keep recruiting well, they can keep bringing in good players to replace the ones who leave/graduate. Of course, even the best players will not make a successful team if they are not coached well.

As noted above, college football (and American football in general, at the high school and professional levels) tends to be a very passionate sport. Several of the college stadiums are, in fact, larger than pro stadiums. Some college stadiums can hold more than 80,000 or 90,000 spectators, and there are a few than can sit more than 100,000. I think for most pro stadiums seating is in the 60-70,000 range. Of course, there are some schools who share stadium space with pro teams, and there are plenty of college teams in much smaller stadiums.
 
Do all the players for a college team have to be studying at that college?

Yes, all the players must be enrolled at the college for which they play.

I'll point out that the answer, while accurate, doesn't, strictly speaking, address the question. While many of the team members actually do pursue legitimate academic degrees, there are some garbage courses at the major universities that enable some excellent players to be technically enrolled without actually having to do much studying. And tutors for the borderline students sometimes step over the line.

How long can one remain a student (not a problem for the navy of course)

As noted above, four years of eligibility can be spread over 5 (and in certain special circumstances, 6) years. And a normal undergraduate college degree takes at least 4 years (unless you get advance placement credit by testing out) and frequently takes a bit longer. Department of Education statistics seem to show an average of 54 months from enrollment to degree for students as a whole.

Scholarships generally vary in value only based upon the relative costs of the schools. They generally cover tuition, fees, room & board, and books and supplies. There are cases of under the table payments from alumni. Those are usually now made to family members rather than directly to the player, to make it harder to trace.

Coaches use different approaches to recruit. Richt at Georgia appeals to the parents by encouraging religious participation. Other schools promote the thug lifestyle. Big stadiums with top ranked programs verses a lower ranked program where a middling player is more likely to get a starting position. California beaches vs. cool mountains. Close to home or away from parents.
 
I'm a huge American football fan. I love it more than rugby, our national sport here in NZ.

If you have a hard drive recorder (TiVo for example), you can record football matches whenever they're on (including Sunday) and watch them on another day of the week. Actually, recording them is preferable, no matter when they're on, since you can easily skip through the ads, which are abundant in football matches.
 
A search on Youtube will also turn up complete college football games. On ESPN's website, you can often watch replays of games after they have aired as well.
 
Many thanks to all of you. Sunday sport is becoming ever more widespread here - soccer and cricket, so it is good you have a sabbath free sport to folllow.
 
Many thanks to all of you. Sunday sport is becoming ever more widespread here - soccer and cricket, so it is good you have a sabbath free sport to folllow.

Unfortunately it's not so much because of the desire to keep the Lord's Day holy but to not compete with the NFL for air time. Nevertheless, it is good.
 
This college football is very strange to me. All our universities have sports teams but the crowd would usually be numbered in tens - at best. By the time one gets to university one's choice of sport team is fixed - some people will support their local team, but most will support one of the half dozen big teams. By this time those who are good at sport will have been signed up by a professional team.

As you stated, the best athletes are snatched up by professional clubs early on, so any collegiate team is going to be made up of players who are not that great. In the US, you pretty much HAVE to play at the collegiate level in order to make it to the professional leagues. The NFL requires that you are 3 years out of high school before you are eligible. The NBA and MLB have less restrictive rules.

I love college football. Always have. But I'll also be the first to admit that the European sport structure is much better. I prefer it for two main reasons:

1) A professional athlete is a legitimate profession, so go ahead and pursue it if you're good enough. I think it's silly that we "force" incredible athletes to enter into an academic setting as a means of pursuing their profession. The notion of a "student athlete" (especially in football) is ridiculous. Just about all of those with real NFL potential are doing the bare minimum academically in order to stay eligible. It's a broken system, and it's driven by money much more so than academics.

2) Because the professional network is much larger in Europe, it creates to ability to have multiple leagues and a system of promotion and relegation. Even though the odds of rising through multiple leagues and ending up in the top flight is very slim, the sheer possibility is intriguing. All of the leagues have their unique battles each season to see who stays up, who gets promoted, and who gets relegated.
 
Daniel, I love promotion and relegation. Wish it would happen here, but it's too foreign to our sporting culture.
 
Daniel, I love promotion and relegation. Wish it would happen here, but it's too foreign to our sporting culture.

I know the NFL doesn't have promotions, but assumed it would usually be the case (in keeping with your free market, striving, rewards based, economy).
 
My dear fellow, I'll make college football easy for you to understand. Dawgs (as in University of Georgia) are good. All other teams are evil, especially if they come from Alabama, Atlanta, or Florida. Since we are in polite company, I won't even mention South Carolina. If I can be of further assistance, please let me know. :cheers2:
 
My dear fellow, I'll make college football easy for you to understand. Dawgs (as in University of Georgia) are good. All other teams are evil, especially if they come from Alabama, Atlanta, or Florida. Since we are in polite company, I won't even mention South Carolina. If I can be of further assistance, please let me know. :cheers2:
:ditto:
 
My dear fellow, I'll make college football easy for you to understand. Dawgs (as in University of Georgia) are good. All other teams are evil, especially if they come from Alabama, Atlanta, or Florida. Since we are in polite company, I won't even mention South Carolina. If I can be of further assistance, please let me know. :cheers2:

It is great to be a Florida Gator....though one of my favorite coaches is Richt at Georgia and am happy Steve Spurrier and Meyer are gone even though we won some Natl. titles with them.
 
Is the EPNS link, kindly supplied by Edward, the briefest way of keeping up to date with the scores and league tables?

Missed this the first time through.

ESPN and USA Today are probably the best for national coverage. Others might provide deeper regional coverage.

And after you are up to speed on college football, we can start talking about Texas High School football. (The neighboring town has an 18,000 seat stadium that cost $60 million).
 
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