Not close...college
Better atmosphere, more stylistic variety on offense and defense, fewer restrictions on defense. I love the fact that dominant recruiting teams can still field a defense that all but smothers the opposition. Alabama in 2011 gave up 8.2 points per game.
It feels like an event that defines your city and your region, since so many of the players are local. Nothing similar in the NFL, where players are drafted almost at random from across the country. Instead of our kids proved superior to your kids it's more like our personnel guy is superior to your personnel guy. Yawn.
I also think the longer halftime is a huge advantage that is seldom mentioned. The 20 minute gap as opposed to 12 not only allows for more adjustments by the team, but it enables fans to take a bathroom/concession break, or check other games, or simply stretch their legs. The game feels truly divided into halves. At 15 minutes the NFL wasn't too bad but now with 12 it is ridiculously cramped, not even enough time for full halftime highlight packages. The early to mid third quarter is half empty because fans simply don't have enough time to return to their seats.
***
More bad beats in college also. Check out this one I had in 1985. I hadn't seen this tape in 33 years until someone from Las Vegas told me recently that the full game was available online. I had Hawaii +16.5 points hosting BYU in the season finale. They trailed 20-6 with the clock running and BYU had no intention of running another play. Then a reserve Hawaii linebacker rushed in and inexplicably called time out with 7 seconds remaining. We found out later that he did so because he knew it was an unwritten rule that everybody on the team was supposed to play in the season finale, and a couple of his buddies were linebackers who had not entered the game. He told the defensive coordinator. They came in. BYU on the bonus play ran a sweep right and plowed into the end zone to cover.
I was at Caesar's Palace when this happened. Guys were going nuts in both directions, some in exuberant disbelief and some in shock, like myself. I remember people picking up recently discarded tickets off the floor.
In listening to the tape I am very confident that color commentator Paul Maguire had action on Hawaii himself. At about 2 minutes remaining he started imploring BYU to run the clock out so nobody would get hurt. Then when the time out is called he says disgustedly in the background, "You've gotta be..."
Maguire is clearly thinking about himself and his wager, but when analyst Jim Simpson starts to chuckle then Maguire regroups and begins to chuckle himself. But he didn't mean it. He was shocked.
Once BYU scores he says, "That's called...if you call a time out we'll stick it right in your face."
Clearly a changed tone, exactly like someone who just lost a bet but is trying to calm himself.
In watching this tape I thought I would be reliving my misfortune from so long ago. But the added bonus of Paul Maguire suffering the same wagering fate turned out to be the highlight. Good stuff starts at about 2:24.00 on the tape when Robbie Bosco throws into the end zone and then Maguire starts imploring them to run the ball and run the clock out since everybody on the team is tired:
https://www.byutv.org/player/c6d3567a-aa94-484e-92aa-8cd264d32317/byu-football-byu-hawaii-1271985
