The College Football Playoffs

The college football playoffs is something that has changed the view and standing of college football and how it is viewed. It changed how the season is looked at when it gets into crunch time. The college football playoffs was started two years ago and has been a success. It also has plans of expanding from four teams to even more if it becomes more of a success.

In college football before this playoff system was put into effect it was only the top two teams in the nation that played against each other. The playoff system opens it up to teams who even though they didn’t go undefeated they still have a chance by being ranked in the top 4 in the nation.

The way it works is simple, in college football the teams are ranked based off their records and strength of schedule. Which means the tougher teams that you play can help you in the long run when it comes to rankings. For example if Boston College was to go 12-0 in there season they would seem to have a number 1 or 2 rankings based of schedule. But if Clemson University went 11-1 but there schedule consist of more ranked teams and wins over those teams then Boston College they could end up with a better standing then them.

The playoff starts by the committee who started the playoffs itself. They then choose four teams with the best records to play in a longer season. The four teams then play in a bowl game on New Year’s holiday, the bowl games consist of the Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl, and the Sugar Bowl.

After those games the teams who win in the semifinals then get the chance to play in the National Championship, to prove who really is the best in college football?

The past champions since the system has been put into effect have been Alabama University with the record of 14-1 and Thee Ohio State Buckeyes with a record of 14-1.

There are many differences between the two systems college football has chosen in the past to go with and what they go with now in the present.

Like anything else in the world there a Pros and Cons. Some of the Pros to the college football playoffs would be

•    Gets away from human and computers deciding who plays in the championship based  of who wins or loses
•    With a fan vote of 85% wanting the playoff system
•   Gives more chances to teams with a loss on their record
•   Makes it equal to everyone
•   Revenue increases because there are more games that are played which brings up tickets, merchandise, food, etc.

But with all Pros comes Cons. Some of the Cons of the new playoff system are

• With the season having to be extended with more games it could affect an athletes studies
•  Takes away from the fact that every game counts because you can still make it with a loss
•   Less fans attend games because they want to go to the national championship instead of the bowl game before that.
• Travel plans are made harder because the results of the games are unpredictable

So in the end the college football is both good and bad it ultimately depends on how you view the things that come into effect. I personal love the idea and can’t wait till they extend it to even more teams. 

Link to Pros and Cons of the playoff System 

Link to Past Winners of the National Championship

Link to overview of College Football Playoffs 

The College Atmosphere

Walking into a stadium were all year here is cheering from thousands of people. Seeing people with face paint and letters on their chest. The environment of something special going on. The excitement from the people standing in their seats. Is how to describe the Atmosphere of seeing some of the most explosive and most exciting athletes away from the professional level? College Football has shown to be one of the most exciting things to experience as a fan. As well as being not as expensive as professional games but just as exciting it is one of the best things to watch.

A big thing with college football is how much their fans play a part in their team’s field atmosphere. The fans are the reason teams stadium are so loud. The loyalty of their fans when there team is winning is the best part of college football. They STUDENT fans is one of the huge differences between the pros and the collegiate level.

College football atmosphere is different depending on where you’re watching the game. Some of the loudest stadiums in the United States come from college football games.

Coming from schools like

Husky Stadium (Washington Huskies)

Memorial Stadium (Clemson Tigers)

Tiger Stadium (LSU Tigers)

According to Stacks.com they did some research regarding how they came about on how these stadiums are the loudest in college football. The research brought them to the conclusion that the Washington Huskies record the Highest Recorded Decibel Level at 133.6, with Clemson falling behind barley with 132.8 decibels and LSU Tigers with 130 decibels.  

So a chart looking up the equivalence to the Washington Huskies stadium which was recorded at 133.6, the chart says it’s about the sound of a close range gunshot. So imagine a gunshot going off in close range for about three and a half hours.

Why is this stadium so loud? There are a couple reasons the atmosphere and loudness of this stadium is the way it is, is because of the location of seats and the overhanging roof.

The reason the roof goes into effect of the stadium is because of the fact that without it the crowd noise would just leave the stadium. But since there is something somewhat blocking the noise from leaving the stadium it makes it much louder. 

The second reason why the stadium is as loud as it is, is because of the location of the seats. The seats are located between the two end zones. Which means a majority of the fans are right behind the players on the sidelines. It also keeps them under the overhanging roof.

The atmosphere for these stadiums only grows on their fan base. Just like if a team is winning their fans are going to keep coming to games and there only going to get louder and louder. This is a key reason that isn’t spoken about. The more you win the more they come.

Link to stacks.com

Link to decibel comparison

Link to Reasons about Washington Huskies Stadium

Journey To The NFL Draft

The NFL draft a College football athletes dream, something they work for their whole life if they see making it to the NFL as their dream. There whole college career has to define weather they will be able to go to the draft in the first place. A lot of people didn’t know that to actually go to the NFL draft you have to be invited. The people inviting you are based off an amount of votes you get when reviewing your college career and if they think there is something you bring to the table basically that someone else doesn’t. It’s a crazy game being drafted.

A lot of things go into getting ready for the draft normally an athlete of a certain caliber were officially say they are going to the NFL after the season. After this is done they have found an agent or start looking for one. The agent pretty much does all the work for the athlete as far as getting in touch with other coaches.

All the player does is begin a crazy lifting and diet schedule to make sure they are ready to preform when the date comes for them to showcase their skills in front of coaches and scouts that work for the only sport that owns one day of the week.

The daily life of an athlete getting ready for the draft start as followed

-          8:00 am – Wake up

-          8:30 am – Breakfast

-          9:00 am – Team meeting on objectives

-          9:30 am – Work out 1 (including – combine drills, such as Vertical , broad jump , 40 yard dash, l cone , agility , position drills)

-          11:30 am – Lunch

-          2:00   pm – Work out 2 ( weight lifting such as Olympic lifts , lower body , upper body , strength movements . core training)

-          4:00  Pm – Recovery

-          5:30  pm – Dinner

-          7:00 pm – Team meeting , focused interviewing skills and film review

Their life defiantly isn’t something that isn’t taking seriously during this time period if anything it’s one of the hardest things they have to go through at this point of their career. But they see it as it all being worth it at the end.

But preparing for the draft isn’t the only thing these players get to do to showcase their skills. They also get a pro-day in college. It’s basically a day where scouts interested in a player can come and look at them perform certain things without the pressure of the draft. At this pro-day players from the college all work out together in front of the scouts which can always boost someone else’s stock that a scout wasn’t there to see.

There are numerous candidates that enter the draft every year and every year there is a list that ranks the players from 1-100. There are also many mock drafts done by very experienced and smart analysis that make their livings off just the NFL draft. A mock draft is very simple it’s basically a draft similar to the actual draft but it isn’t official, which is why it’s called a mock. It’s like a test run and as certain things progress for players and they are seen more and more by scouts there draft stock can go up or down.

The dream of being drafted into the NFL is one you have to be ready for. It isn’t for everyone. Are you ready for it?

Link to typical combine routine for a college athlete getting ready for the draft 

Link to how players are selected for the NFL draft 

Leaving for the NFL early ?

One of the biggest problems in College football is athletes leaving for the Professional level early. This may sound like it’s not a bad thing but in the long run it really is. Leaving for the Professional level early results in a lot of things such as

·          

 Not finishing your degree

·              Not being ready mentally and physically

But during this time of athletes that leave early those things aren’t going through their head what’s so ever. The average length of a NFL player’s career is 3.3 years based on NFL Player Association. The career expands to 6 years if you make the roster your rookie season.

Just like anything there are a lot of pros and cons to why athlete leave school early. There is no really emulation on why you make this decision according to sources they say you just have to be in the situation to think about it fully and decide

Pros to staying in school are you are able to have a future after your athletic career because of the fact you have a degree to fall back on. Which makes everything a lot easier in your life if your career doesn’t work out the way you want it too. Epically with the average career length not being longer than 6 years for some people.

There is a lot cases that you could get injured playing your sport, which is huge you end up having a career ending injury or you just choose to have left your sport.  You still have a degree that you can work after that’s over.

Staying in college also teaches maturity , you’re in college four more years which gives you more time to live and learn from your mistakes that you have to go through before moving on to the real world . It makes you smarter you obviously learn more while being on college against leaving college to go play your sport.

But there are also good things to leaving college early if you are that gifted. Such as being able to provide for the family with the contract that will be getting from the team they are signed by. A lot of athletes make the decision to leave early based of their families and their living ways.

Another huge aspect is the fact that staying in college longer can cause a lot more time to have an injury. Staying in college a lot longer can give you a higher chance of injury and of course as a college athlete too don’t get paid so leaving early can be a good thing.

Another thing athletes say is that even though they leave early they can still go back to school after or during their career. During the season the athlete may be busy but a season only last so long, during the off time they could go back to school and get there degree even though they aren’t in school so anymore.  

The number of big name college athletes that left college early but when they got to the NFL didn’t have a great career is very large. With only 32 teams and about 50-60 players on a team in the NFL and about 15,588 SENIORS in college, only 256 of them will actually be drafted into the NFL. It makes the percentage 1.6%.

link to players career length in the NFL after leaving college 

link to pros and cons to college athleses leaving early

Should We Pay College Football Athletes

One of the biggest topics around College sports is paying division 1 college athletes, and if the college they go to should  pay them or not. The decision is pretty split if you look at different articles from certain journalist.

For example March Madness is one of the most watched and televised things during the period of time from the middle of March to the beginning of April. During this time period there 64 teams that participate in a series of rounds that are watched all over the United States. But the player participating in this event see no money. Same with the Frozen Four a tournament  in Hockey to determine a champion and the National Playoffs in College Football also to determine a champion. 

Where does the money go? And why don’t the athletes see any of it?

Arguments come from different point of views about paying athletes such as they already get scholarships for being student-athletes they don’t need to be paid as well, or such arguments that players leave college so fast because the need to support their families so they go for the money. Instead of finishing there degree. Which in the long run can hurt them if there career isn’t successful.

There are many Pros to paying such athletes such as it’s a stable income for them which keeps them having to get jobs. A college football athlete spends forty hours a week on a football field this is the same amount of time spent with a full time job. With all the money that gets brought in from the games, as well as merchandise, and overall fan support. A little chunk can go to players to make everything a lot easier for them.

Another reason paying college athletes is a good idea is to stop them from getting into trouble from other people. College athletes with big names usually gain a lot of attention from agents and other merchandise selling people. Athletes see it as getting a quick buck but it can get them into a lot of trouble and can ultimately get the scholarships revoked. But all this could be avoided if they were paid in the first place.

Lastly a good reason to pay college athletes is to teach them to be responsible with the money. For example Johnny Manziel an NFL athlete, left college after his sophomore year in college still very young and went to the NFL. Manziel made many mistakes in his first couple’s years in the NFL as far as decisions in public places and spending money in ridiculous amounts. But that could have been prevented if he were paid in College.

But there are also a lot of cons to paying athletes in college, such as causing them to end up focusing on the money and which could cause there sport to become more important than there studies. Which goes against the fact that they are Student-athletes and the student always comes first.

Paying college athletes can take away from the game itself. For example the game of college football as at its purest without paying the athletes. Starting to pay them makes college football more like the NFL. Which isn’t one

College athletes regarding paying them can be flipped numerous times. Good thing were not the one who had to make the decision.

Link to a article on Pros and Cons of paying college athletes 

Link to article on Pros and Cons of paying college athletes