College Football

From Los Angeles, California, to Portland, Maine, the excited cheers and frustrated jeers of college football fans can be heard during the NCAA football season. Every Saturday, millions of people listen, watch, or attend college football games in the hopes that their team will win and that their favorite player will distinguish himself as a potential NFL player. College football is an incredibly popular sport in America, ranging from college students who attend their school’s weekly games to alumni who continue to support their old school. No matter who the fan is, there are few that are as fanatic as college football fans.

There are big name schools that are at the top of the college football rankings every year. The last five years have seen the dominance of the University of Southern California Trojans on the college football scene, including Heisman Trophy winners Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart. The Ohio State University Buckeyes and the Michigan Wolverines represent one of the finest rivalries in the sport, igniting the passions of fans throughout the American Midwest. The Florida State University Seminoles have been an annual favorite for the last two decades under prolific college football coach Bobby Bowden. These teams represent the elite of the college football world.

However, the great thing about college football from a variety of perspectives is the constant chance for upsets on any given Saturday. Teams from smaller conferences like the Mid-American Conference (MAC) and the Big West can come into Ohio State or Florida State and give them a run for their money. Almost every Saturday, there is a major upset in the Top 25 polls and there are even more near-upsets that shake the confidence of elite teams. For those who put money on college football, college students, and fans of the game, there is nothing better than college football Saturday.

College football is divided into a series of conferences and divisions to ensure the best possible competition among schools. The top division in NCAA Football is Division I, which features some of the best teams in the nation and some of the biggest universities and colleges around. Division I has several subdivisions, including Division I-A, I-AA, I-AAA, which is meant to put smaller schools with limited football budgets at a great competitive advantage. With the lesser Division I schools, the conferences are often schools within a small region or instate to save on transportation costs. Even further down the list are Division 2 and Division 3 schools, which are typically the smallest colleges and universities in the country.

At the Division I-A level, there are a number of major conferences that feature the elite schools mentioned before. The Big Ten Conference encompasses eleven schools in the Upper Midwest, including the Universities of Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, and Indiana. The Big Ten is considered one of the more competitive conferences in Division I-A football. The southeastern part of the United States is organized into the Southeastern Conference, which is divided into an Eastern and Western Division. Schools like Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee compete in one of the most storied conferences in college football.

There are a number of other major conferences, including the Big East, the Pacific Athletic Conference (PAC), the Big Twelve, and the ACC. However, minor conferences like the Mountain West and Conference USA have begun to challenge the major conferences for college football supremacy. While many people think of the SEC or Big Ten when they think of competitive football, schools from these minor conferences are often in bowl games and are competitive with even the best major conference schools week in and week out.

While college and pro football may share a number of similarities, there are some significant rule differences between the two. One major difference is in the length of season for both college and pro football. While pro football features a four game preseason, 16 game regular season, and four playoff rounds, the college football season only consists of about twelve games with a bowl game for those teams that qualify. This difference is often cited by NFL rookies who hit a proverbial wall near the middle of their first pro season.

As well, during college football games, there is a different way in which tie games are dealt with than in the NFL. In the NFL, a tied game in regulation time goes into 15-minute overtime. The first person to score in this overtime scenario is the winner. However, once this 15-minute overtime is complete and no one has scored, the game is called a tie. In college football, they have developed a unique way of dealing with overtime. A tied regulation game goes into an overtime period, which consists of both teams receiving the ball at the opposing 25-yard line. There is no clock, so time is not a consideration, but getting a touchdown is important, because after a possession, the opposing team gets the ball. If they score more points than their opponent in the second possession, they win the game. If neither team scores or if they match points, it goes into a second period. By the third overtime period, teams have to go for two point conversions, instead of extra points, in order to prevent the game from going on for an indefinite amount of time. However, every college football game is decided without the option for a tie.

A third way in which the college football rules are different from the NFL is the two-minute warning. At the end of each half in the NFL, the clock automatically stops at the two-minute mark as a free timeout for both sides. However, the college football rules do not include a two-minute warning and are geared towards keeping the game moving except for injuries, time outs, and other extenuating circumstances. New rules in the 2006 college football season have made good clock management even more important, with the clock starting at the beginning of each possession and stricter rules on when the clock stops on plays that go out of bounds.

On top of the rules differences between the pro and college football game, there are a variety of game management differences that make both distinct. College football has always been a great area for experimentation for offensive, defensive, and special teams tactics. Three particular strategies remain popular in the college football game and have not translated successfully to the NFL, for various reasons.

One such tactic, and one used by a majority of college football teams in some form, is the option run. The option run has been a staple of college football for its entire history, allowing quarterbacks and running backs to improvise a play based on the actions of defensive players. The option run, in essence, allows the quarterback to fake to the fullback on a run up the middle, a pitch to the halfback to the outside, or a quarterback keeper around end. This triple option has slowly died out as it has given way to the double option and the flexbone offense of schools like Air Force. The double option is a simple sweep to the outside, where a quarterback can decide to keep it for himself or pitch to the halfback. The flexbone offense requires a variety of movements and fake pitches to create confusion amongst defensive players. The reason why this scheme doesn’t work in the professional game is that coaches don’t want to put higher priced quarterbacks in the position to get hit on every play.

Another scheme that is often used in the modern college football game is the spread offense. While the spread offense is a more general term for an offense that passes often, it can encompass a variety of formations. A quarterback is typically set back in the shotgun in the spread, with at least four receivers out in patterns to give him more options in the passing game. As well, the spread offense features some elements of option runs, with fake reverses and hand offs not out of the question. While a couple of different NFL teams have used elements of the spread offense, including the Houston Oilers and Detroit Lions of the early 1990’s, the skill and speed of NFL defensive players typically dictates that offense be more balanced and traditional. The spread offense leaves the quarterback open to a defensive blitz, and more mistakes can be made in the passing game with more passing attempts.

A final trend in game management that has been successfully used in college football is more aggressive special teams plays. Whether it is a clever fake field goal or punt or an aggressive punt block play, college football features more interesting special teams scenarios in one weekend than a whole season of professional football. The reason why college teams do these plays is that the average college roster features more than one hundred players while the NFL roster limit is 53 players. With so many more players at their disposal, college coaches can find niche players that are good at breaking through blocks to get to a punter or a kicker who can pass the ball on fake field goals. As well, the types of players that play on special teams in college football are not as well rounded as those in the NFL. Special teams players in college typically are low on the depth chart at other positions, meaning that they haven’t had the practice or game experience necessary to give a consistent performance. In the NFL, special teams players often play at other positions, with some even starting on the offensive or defensive lines. In this way, the performance in blocking and protecting kickers and punters is much higher in the NFL than in college.

The college football regular season is divided into two portions. The first portion, typically the first two to three weeks of the season, is called the non-conference season. In these games, teams play other teams from outside their conference in order to test their abilities against different competition. For example, the first week of the season may feature a game between the Syracuse Orangemen of the Big East and the Washington Huskies of the PAC. These games also allow highly ranked teams to play each other outside the bowl season. For example, a team that is in the middle of the Top 25 rankings may try to schedule a top-flight team in order to increase their difficulty of schedule.

The more substantial part of the season is the conference schedule, with a team playing all or most of the teams in their home conference. Typically, teams alternate home and away games with each other on a seasonal basis. Conference games allow teams to compete for bowl games that are tied to a certain position in the conference. For example, the top team in the ACC may be able to go to a higher profile game on New Year’s Day, while the third team in the ACC plays in a lesser bowl on New Year’s Eve. As well, several conferences including the SEC, ACC, and Big Twelve feature conference championships between the top teams in the two divisions of these conferences.

One of the best parts of the college football season is the bowl season, which begins about mid-December through the first week of January with the college football championship game. Bowl games act as the college football’s post season, with many teams aiming to get to higher profile bowls, year in and year out. With a variety of venues like Memphis, Tennessee, Seattle, Washington, and Honolulu, Hawaii, the college football bowl season provides college football players an opportunity to show off their abilities to different crowds.

The bowl season is beneficial to a number of interests in the college football game. College students and other fans often travel to their team’s bowl game and get an opportunity to see non-conference teams they may not otherwise get to see in person. Colleges receive a certain payment from sponsors for attending the bowl, with the sponsors playing commercials and using the field as a miniature billboard to sell their products. As well, college football players get one more game on a bigger scale to show their abilities and their pro potential.

While the college football bowl season may be a nice ending to the season for most teams, the truly elite teams are always aiming to get into the Bowl Championship Series. The Bowl Championship Series is a series of bowls that are meant to highlight the best teams in a particular season, with a rotating venue for the national championship game among several bowl games. These bowl games include the Rose Bowl, Fiesta, and Sugar Bowls and when they aren’t hosting the national championship game, they host other Bowl Championship Series participants.

Entrants into the series are determined by a complex series of data that are put into a special BCS computer. Some of the factors that go into deciding whether a team advances to the Bowl Championship Series include difficulty of schedule, win-loss record, total points, margin of victory, and conference record. As well, the two major Top 25 polls, the Coaches and Associated Press poll, are included in this formula to add a more subjective measure of a team’s success. Beginning in the middle of October, the BCS numbers are published to show where a team is located in the top 10 of BCS teams. Six conferences are guaranteed BCS bowl berths and those two teams at the top of the BCS numbers after the regular season advance to the BCS Championship game at the beginning of January.

For college football players, there is no greater honor than receiving the Heisman Trophy. Given to honor the most valuable player in college football over the last six decades, the Heisman Trophy has come to demonstrate the popularity and success of certain players. However, the Heisman Trophy has not always meant success at the next level with Heisman winners like Houston quarterback Andre Ware, realizing that they weren’t able to make it in the NFL.

The Heisman Trophy has become an iconic symbol of American sports, with its distinctive bronze statue and classy presentation ceremony. Held at the Downtown Athletic Club in early December, the presentation ceremony is broadcast on cable sports networks that cover each nominee in depth. Votes are given to college football writers, analysts, and coaches around the country and each voter puts the Heisman finalists in order from most to least deserving.

For many college football players, the ultimate dream is to move onto the professional game. There are many ways in which college players distinguish themselves after their last college game. Several college all-star games are held, where NFL coaches can scout and watch players up close. The NFL Combine and other camps allow scouts to see which college players have the physical and mental attributes to succeed at the next level. Finally, on their biggest day, college football players can see their dreams realized by being selected in the NFL Draft. However, those who don’t get drafted can be signed on later as free agents, sign with an NFL Europe team, or go into Arena Football.