NFL Lockout: Would a Full-Blown Lockout Help or Hurt College Football?

The continuing NFL lockout situation has still yet to be resolved, even though the 2011 NFL Draft is set to begin tomorrow night.

News reports are scattered about the outlook for the upcoming season and how much time will actually be missed. But even if the whole thing gets resolved tomorrow, you would have to imagine that the league will feel some sort of backlash from their fans because of this petty mess.

How much ice they’ll need for that black eye depends on how quickly this fight gets settled.

You’ve got middle class, season-ticket holding NFL fans clearing out their savings account to cover the cost of PSLs and I doubt that many will be all that sympathetic to either side of the millionaires vs. billionaires bickering.

The NFL is the must-see show of sports right now, so the league can afford to piss off a few fans. It won’t stop them from raking in money.

It’s interesting though, to think about what a full-season NFL lockout would mean for the league’s little brother, college football.

If there was no NFL this year, would pro fans flock to the college game to fill their weekend football craving?

College Football, like the NFL, has gained an enormous following over the last few decades with the growth and impact of televised sports. Even though it’s a multi-billion dollar industry, the college game is still nowhere near as profitable or as popular as the NFL.

While there are a good amount of crossover football fans who enjoy both the college and the pro game, generally, there are two groups of people.

You’re either a Saturday tailgater or a Sunday tailgater.

Having gone to enough NFL and college games over the last few years, I can tell you that the personalities and makeups of both fan bases are drastically different.

The average NFL consumer and the average college football consumer are two opposite breeds.

One has to wonder if college football could attract the type of NFL fans who look down on the college game as just a minor league.

The rising interest in the NFL draft has helped linked the college game to the NFL. However, the fan bases still remain vastly different.

In big cities and big markets, the NFL is king.

When compared to the NFL, college football seems almost like a rural pastime.
 
If the college game wants to capture the attention of hardcore NFL fans, who happen to be displeased with the lockout, they need to continue selling their stars and their name brand schools.

There are plenty of marketable players in the college game each and every year, they just need to be sold to America properly.

College football lost plenty of star power to this year’s draft, but returning players such as Stanford QB Andrew Luck, Oklahoma State WR Justin Blackmon and Oregon RB LaMichael James are all worth tuning in for, as are hundreds of other players.

If college football can somehow shake the “minor league” image, the game has a chance to really expand in popularity among the NFL fan base this season .

Since the NFL is such a juggernaut, Saturdays will never become Sundays and college football will never reach the status of the NFL. But there is room for the sport to carve out a slightly bigger chunk of the pie.