NCAA All the Way: Why College Football Is Becoming America's New Pastime

Is there anything like waking up at 10 in the morning on Saturdays, watching a trio of men argue about hot topics and in the end make their picks, one of them ending up in Lee Corso donning his pick's headgear?

It is very possible this could be someone's ideal start to the day, which then rolls over to a plethora of college football games.

These games, this sport, is taking the nation by storm.

But what about college football is so exhilarating that it's considered the most popular sport to watch?

There's America's "National Pastime" in baseball, football hosted the "Greatest Game Ever Played" and the Super Bowl, college basketball has March Madness, and other sports like professional basketball and hockey have their reasons.

It's always hard to say something tops Dick Vitale's throat-threatening rants, and while college football can share some of its glory with other sports, some things never change about this game.

The Quality of the Games

Scores in the 40s, 50s, 60s, and sometimes even 70s are appearing to be more and more regular each year. 

A fan adores the sport when his team racks up seven scores on a cupcake, yet also gets a College Football-orgasm when his/her team goes step-for-step with a team on the same, or a higher level than theirs.

I think it will take a huge epidemic of amnesia for people, especially sports and college football fans, to forget Michael Crabtree’s catch in the final seconds of his Texas Tech Red Raiders’ 39-33 win over rival Texas Longhorns.

May we never forget the performance put on by the Rodgers brothers, Jacquizz and James, against Juggernaut USC that plunged Oregon State to a 27-21 win in Corvallis. 

Buckeye fans will not-too-soon forget how in a matter of ten seconds how their hopes of winning the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl went from high and mighty to being low and unimaginable. 

Colt McCoy’s late touchdown pass to Quan Cosby lifted a Texas Longhorn team to a 24-21 win over the Ohio State Buckeyes, giving them an unarguable claim to fame, and more guilt on the Bowl Selection Committee for having Texas be a no-show in the

National Championship. Which brings me to my next reason:

The Corrupt, Yet Crazy and Cool Bowl System

Given descriptions such as the three above, the College Football Bowl System has been under fire ever since its birth, which was not too long ago. 

This so-called establishment has a new, frightening rival in a playoff system, which is used in professional football and other divisions of college football.

College Football is all about being unique, and with a Bowl System many teams can earn their way into a reasonable, or even a BCS bowl. Many coaches have vied their cases for BCS bowl games and who the real National Champion is.

“Your” Team(s) Are in the Top-Tier of the Sport

Because of constant recruiting classes, full of players eager to carry on traditions, College Football could be popular because of the reoccurring success of teams the Ohio State Buckeyes, the Michigan Wolverines, and the Florida Gators among others.

It’s very soothing for fans to know the term “There’s Always Next Year” really does apply to the physics of College Football. 

Players like Tim Tebow, Colt McCoy, and Sam Bradford are starting to make immediate impacts, as they are top recruits getting attracted to the schools with the most prestige, the best past, and the most talent to surround them.

These top-ranked teams are neck deep in talent, they have protégé after protégé waiting to get into the top few spots on the depth chart.

To put it simply, these teams are stacked like a batch of pancakes at an all-you-can-eat buffet in a five-star hotel.

Corso, Holtz, Herbstreit Head the List

You have to love the segments of Dr. Lou that run during halftime of numerous titanic struggles.

Your whole purpose for setting an emergency alarm clock at 11:55 on Saturday mornings is so you don’t miss Lee Corso’s tossing of one team’s headgear in the rubbish, just so he can rile the crowd up before he dons the opposite mascot’s apparel. 

Enough said.

Analysts complete the game, they give us the breaking news we can find out for ourselves because we are too busy or lazy.

They manipulate the voice of the nation by saying what improvements a team needs or which recruits are leaning towards giving their services to your team’s coach.

An analyst is the Nostradamus to College Football’s wide world of question marks and possibilities.

College Football is a long-standing tradition of players who state their cases for going on to the next level.

It’s an uber-amount of teams that love to “duke it out” with one another.

It’s a sport where any team can be King of the Hill one moment, and the next moment they find themselves free-falling.

No team is ever safe from defeat, as put on showcase many times over the years. It is not a common misconception that teams are blood-thirsty, constantly out for a revenge blow, and go for the jugular.

What can I say? It’s grown on me more than any other sport. The love of the game surmounts any desire to switch favorite teams and be a fair-weather fan. Die-hard fans complete this generation of the sport.

So the next time you hear someone say baseball is considered America’s National Pastime, sprinkle a little College Football information on them. 

Like former American General Patton used to say, “Americans love to fight.” They always have, and they always will. It may not always be on a battlefield, but where ever two opposing sides come together and clash, a brawl is brewing.

I now present to you, College Football: America’s favorite fight.