Back to Football: 5 Reasons the NFL Is Better Than College

The 2011 NFL season is literally days away, and excitement is reaching fever pitch. 

While college football owned the airwaves this past weekend, there can be no doubt that all eyes will be on the NFL in the coming days.  

It's time to break out the barbeques and paint your man boobs, because big time football is back.

So forget marching bands and Andrew Luck, here's five reasons the NFL is better than college.

[P.S. I love college football, but nothing is without its flaws!] 

It Ain't over Til It's Over!

As we saw over the weekend, the likes of TCU, Georgia and Notre Dame saw their season flushed down the toilet after one game.

The great thing about the NFL is that a team can bounce back from any number of problems encountered during the season, and make it to the playoffs.

It not only provides us with reason to cheer in the face of adversity, but provides us with story-lines so perfect that even Hollywood would struggle to produce better.

Despite the ridiculousness that saw the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks make the playoffs last year, nobody can deny that their toppling of the Saints was one of the highlights of 2010; and the fact they were written off due to their record going into the game, made it that bit more entertaining.

They had no business beating the reigning champs, but they did, and it made for great watching. Marshawn Lynch running to daylight will be one of the enduring images of the 2010 season, and rightly so.

What about the 9-7 Arizona Cardinals making it all the way to the Super Bowl? There's countless teams in history that have pin-balled their way to the big dance, and it really does bring the drama—just look at the 10-6 Green Bay Packers of 2011...

Any Given Sunday

In the NFL, there's no such thing as a gimme. As the saying goes, "On any given Sunday, any given team can come out on top."

There is no such thing as parity in the college game, as was evident this weekend when Virginia Tech put up 66 points on Appalachian State. Games like this prove to be completely redundant and, more often than not, feel like a forgone conclusion.

They function as a glorified pat on the back for established schools and do little in terms of testing their players' skills. It's frustrating to watch as a fan, as you may well see your alma mater only play two legitimately tough games a year.

In the NFL, the talent gap isn't as wide, and for every blowout we see, there's an upset to counter it. It's the perfect balance. 

The Playoffs

The thing about college football that really gets my head spinning, is that there is no playoff system, and therefore there is really no team that can legitimately refer to themselves as champions.

While the bowl season does provide a lot of entertainment to fans and makes heaps of cash, it can't come close to the magnitude of the NFL playoffs and Super Bowl.

The NFL is about as fair as you can get in deciding a champion, and the road through the playoffs to the Super Bowl makes the moniker of "champions" that much more special—and that much more deserved.

It seems bizarre to me that judges decide who goes to the national championship. This isn't American Idol, this is sports.

The Best in the Biz

The NFL is made up of football's finest. 

Now I know that's an obvious point to make, but it's true.

While the stars of tomorrow are made in college, more often than not, watching the future first-rounders college exploits is like watching an adult playing with kids.

It can't be helped, and that's just the nature of the college game. It simply can't hold a candle to the higher level of play that the NFL enjoys across the board, due to the monumental amount of college football programs across the country.

College may be where stars are born, but the NFL is where they live. 

The Draft

It's through the intense college recruiting system that the underbelly of college football has been created. The free-for-all that awaits high school seniors is a breeding ground for NCAA rules violations and under the table deal-making. 

It most certainly hurts the game's image as we have all quite clearly seen this past year, whilst widening disparity between teams nationwide. The bigger and better teams get, the more money they get thrown at them.   

There is no obvious solution to the problem, as a systematic draft would not work due to the scale of college ball, but it does serve to show us fans just how special the NFL draft is.

It's a testament to the integrity of the NFL—that at the end of the season, the worst teams in the league are given access to the best available players in the hope that they can get better and maintain the level of play that the league enjoys, whilst striving to get better.

The best comparison would be the English Premier League, in which Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and (now) Manchester City duke it out each year for the title, because the rest of the 15 teams don't have the money to compete. It's depressing to watch, trust me.

Appreciate the draft, it's one of the NFL's most impressive and respectable traditions.