When the North Texas Mean Green defeated the Charlotte 49ers in an unassuming Friday night game in the American Athletic Conference (AAC), it seemed like just another forgettable game. Especially to NFL fans, this game was anything but important: lackluster football and an uninteresting matchup.
However, Mean Green quarterback Drew Mestemaker set the conference record for passing yards in a single game with 608. So why did his remarkable achievement fly under the radar?
The NFL objectively has the highest quality football in the world. But that isn’t what America loves. Talent alone doesn’t capture the attention of millions of Americans. The history-making stories and narratives in the college landscape, like Mestermaker’s, are what make the sport infinitely more captivating.
College football has something for everyone to enjoy: powerhouse programs for casual fans and diehards alike. And the spirit of college football is unmatched.
NFL games can’t hold a candle to the influx of fans, tailgates and excitement on Saturdays across the country. Schools like Penn State, Georgia and Tennessee host blackout and whiteout themed games, promoting fan involvement, creating wild environments for opposing teams and giving inspiration to high school fans across the country.
Close NFL games are exciting, don’t get me wrong. But the reality is, in college football, matchups and rivalries are different. When college football teams square off against their biggest rivals for their last game of every season during Rivalry Week, it’s bigger than football.
Georgia vs. Georgia Tech, for example, is an exciting rivalry dubbed by fans as “Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate.”
NFL rivalries are incomparable to rivalries as heated as this. The connections between the team and fans are far deeper than multimillionaire NFL players just trying to secure their next contract. When the Army takes on the Navy in a representation of American troops, the game has far more significance than a divisional game in the NFL.
College football rivalries also have wild upsets, with smaller teams being paid to play blue blood programs and sometimes pulling off shockers. For example, the Northern Illinois Huskies were paid $1.4 million to come to South Bend, Indiana and take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. When the Huskies won, it rocked the college football world. You can’t find that anywhere in the NFL. Fans rush the field, underdogs pull off ridiculous upsets and the fiery fan bases take rivalries a step further in college football.
Sure, the NFL offers teams filled with global superstars, games that are fun to watch and a singular league that is easy to follow. However, the storylines, energy, variety and thrilling matchups in college football make one thing obvious: Saturdays reign supreme. Just like the Southeastern Conference (SEC) slogan says, “It Just Means More.”
