I’ve always wondered about this. Is it feasible/possible that the best college teams could beat the worst pro teams, say in a seven game series? For example:
Could the University of Arizona men’s basketball team beat the Cleveland Cavaliers?
Could the Ohio State Buckeyes football team defeat the Cincinnati Bengals?
Could the Colorado College Tigers men’s ice hockey team defeat the Carolina Hurricanes?
Could the Texas Longhorns baseball team defeat the Detroit Tigers?
In the case of baseball, obviously not. College baseball teams are WAY below pro level. The very best college team would be annihilated by a bad AAA team, and would almost always lose to a bad AA team. In baseball, college is usually about 3-4 steps below the big leagues, which is why you almost never hear about players going straight from college to the majors. (John Olerud did this… I can’t think of any other current examples.)
Same for hockey. College hockey teams would be totally outclassed in the AHL, much less the NHL. Once again, college hockey is more than a step away from the big leagues.
Football, the pros would destroy the college team because of their size. I think the defensive line might actually hurt several of the college players.
The finesse positions, QB, RB, K, WR, CB, might actually be able to hang, but I think the brute size of the pros wouldn’t allow the skilled positions to really do anything.
Happy
The best college team wouldn’t have a flying chance. The only sports I know much about are football, baseball, and basketball, I should add.
Example: The Memphis Grizzlies aren’t the worst team in the NBA right now, but they’re doing pretty bad, with a record of 19-41. Nonetheless, they’ve got Pau Gasol (2002 Rookie of the Year), Mike Miller (2001 ROTY), and Shane Battier (won the Final Four with Duke), to name a few. There’s not a college team that could come within 20 or 30 points of them, I’d say.
Most college players will not go on to play professional sports. The worst pro team is still the bottom of the absolute best talent available.
I don’t think so, especially in a “best of several games” format. A very strong college team might be able to surprise a weak pro team once in a great while, but not consistently. Remember, even the worst pro team is a college All-Star team.
Specifically (IMHO, of course):
Hockey and baseball: no way, for the reasons RickJay mentioned.
Football: no way. College athletes are not physically mature, despite what they look like. They would get manhandled by 25-30 pros in their physical prime. Also, the speed and complexity of the pro game is well beyond even the best colleges.
Basketball: Probably the closest college-pro matchup of the “big 4” pro sports. There are numerous college-age athletes playing and playing well in the NBA. I think a truly great college team could give a run to a weak pro team consistently, primarily because the physical differences and skill levels would be less dramatic than in the others.
Of course, in all cases, you have to also remember that pro teams typically have played together longer and have a lot more practice time together as well. On the other hand, a lousy pro team is likely to have greater player and coach turnover, so that cohesiveness may not be there.
my 2¢
I think I agree, but only to a point. Some guys in the college ranks are HUGE themselves. It’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility that the “heaviest”, on average, college football team could outweigh the “lightest” NFL team, and thus dominate, or at the very least, be able to keep up…
Having been present for a good number of the University of Kentucky’s wins this year, I honestly think that we could match up against a team like the Denver Nuggets and be competitive.
I cite this as a specific example because: one, I am very familiar with UK’s strengths and weaknesses, two, Denver is regarded by most people as being the worst team in the NBA, and three, I would really like to see something like this happen.
Which is exactly why I had mentioned the college team versus the pro team in a seven game series. If it’s a one-game series, then I’d agree that the pro team would probably utterly dominate the college. But stretch it out over the course of a seven-game series, and I think the best college teams could give the worst pro teams a run for their money. The overconfidence of the pro teams, for example, could be enough to let the upstart college teams pull off a stunning victory.
Yep. Look at the World Basketball Championships of 2002. One could hardly argue that Team Argentina, Team Yugoslavia, and Team Spain, on paper alone, are better than the NBA-laden Team USA they beat. But they DID beat them. Put up the Kentucky Wildcats or Arizona Wildcats against the Nuggets or Cavaliers, and I’d wager to say the NCAA teams would win in a seven-game series…
Yeah, but I think a “light” pro defensive line would still pound the snot out of a “heavy” college offense. Pound for pound, pros have more muscle.
Pounds are still pounds, though. There’s no reason to think that hefty NCAA players couldn’t keep up with their pro counterparts, at least in terms of strength and weight. NCAA football players (in the top D-1A teams) hit the weights nearly as much as the NFL players.
I found that some college offensive lines actually weigh more than some NFL teams’ offensive lines! According to this article and this one, Nebraska’s offensive line in 2000 averaged 322.8 pounds, while the Arizona Cardinals had the heaviest offensive line in the NFL, at 328.8 pounds. But if you compare Nebraska to the Denver Broncos, the Cornhuskers outweigh them by 42 pounds. That is not an insignificant number by any stretch of the mind…
I remember the Orioles getting rocked by the Miami Hurricanes in a preseason exhibition game in which Jim Palmer started in the early 80’s.
This may not be particularly helpful, but teams of College All-Stars would play an NFL team (in the later years, the NFL Champion) in a yearly exhibition game in Chicago. This series of games ran from 1934 to 1976 with the College team occasionally winning.
http://cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/bowls/bowl_results.php?bowl=Chicago%20All-Star%20Football%20Game
Since the OP specifically mentioned a 7 game series, I’ll answer from that perspective. Since I am also a huge basketball/baseball fan I’ll stick to those two sports.
As an overall answer, a college team could not beat a pro team in a 7 game series. But, there are a lot of factors.
What rules are used? In college basketball, a team can play a pure zone defense. In the pros, they have zones, but highly modified and vastly different allowable zones from the college level. College baseball uses aluminum bats. The pros use wooden bats. College basketball plays 2 20 minute halves. The pros have 4 12 minute quarters. Which 3 point line do you use?
Which refs/umps? In the NBA, the refs call a much different game than the college players have experienced. Do you use college or pro umps? Can college umps accurately call balls and strikes with the pros throwing faster fast balls and more wicked curves? Does Barry Bonds get away with crowding the plate as much as he currently does?
As **jk1245[\b] said above, each pro team is essentially a college all-star team. According to this site, “Less than 3 percent of college seniors will play one year in professional basketball.” Granted, that probably includes D1, D2, D3 and doesn’t take into account studly underclassment. But, that is a ridiculously low number.
Earlier, brianjedi said
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In light of the 3% number, I highly doubt that the Wildcats, a team with no players likely to make much of an impact at the next level, would match up well with the pathetic Nuggets, a team with 12 players who have all made the NBA.
I guess to sum up -
Basketball - with pro officials and rules, the NBA team dominates. Forget a 7 game series. Out of 100 games, I strongly feel that they win at least 95.
With college rules and officials - At first I thought I would give the college team more hope here. But, a closer 3 point line really helps the pros. The pro team would also pick apart a more static zone. I say the pros win 90.
Baseball - with pro rules and umps, the MLB team wins 98 out of 100. I figure a couple games go to the college team when a pitcher is absolutely on top of his game. Otherwise, can you picture what a Barry Bonds type player would do to a pitcher that wouldn’t have the ability to make it out of the minors?
With college rules and umps - The pros still win 98 out of 100. Sure, the college players have thier aluminum bats, thus more power. But, the pros also have them and hit 900 foot homers.
Well, we aren’t talking All-Stars here. A college All-Star team may be able to beat the worst pro team every once in a while. But we are talking an individual NCAA team.
RickJay is right on with hockey and baseball. Especially in a 7-game series, the NCAA teams have no chance.
Football goes to the NFL team almost every time. They have more quality depth than the college team. And while certain individuals, especially in the QB, WR, RB and CB slots may be able to play at a pro-level no NCAA team has an entire team capable of playing at a pro-level - especially at the line. And that’s where the main difficulties would be. The NFL OL would be big and fast enough to give their QB and WRs enough time to pick the NCAA defense to pieces and to open up hold for the RB or FB to run wherever they wanted. On the flip side, the NFL DL would bring ridiculous pressure on the NCAA QB every single down and close every single hole the OL could open. Moreover, the NFL defense probably wouldn’t even have to blitz or use their LB’s very often to pressure the QB so they could just play back and guard against quick slants or end arounds and the safeties would add another layer of coverage to the NCAA WRs. Plus, any injuries that occured during the game would be far less problematic for an NFL team than an NCAA team in terms of getting a quality replacement.
Now then, for basketball, over a 7 game series, the pros win every time. Their playcalling is much more varied and their defensive sets are better. The NCAA team may be able to pull out a victory or two, though. Here’s why. Compare UK or Arizona to Denver. Juwan Howard would utterly dominate any college PF they chose to put on the court, and frankly, it wouldn’t even be close. Camby would be better than any college center I can think of - especially Arizona’s Frye or Fox or whichever forward UK chose to throw at him. Arizona’s or UK’s back court may be able to not be completely outclassed but they certainly wouldn’t be able to compensate for Denver’s domination of the front court.
Pro teams win a series every time.
Never say never in sports. Anything is possible but some things are less likely. Yes, even in hockey.
Does anyone remember the 1980 Olympics - Miracle on Ice? Those college kids beat the professional USSR hockey team and went on to defeat Finland to win the Gold medal. USA wasn’t even expected to earn a medal (they were the 7th seed) let alone defeat what may have been the best team in the world at that time. Don’t forget the lost to Soviets 10-3 just 13 days earlier too.
Oh yeah, they didn’t loose a game in the Olympics either (5-0-1 record I believe).
An additional factor in the hockey matchup would be the fact that the college game is played differently, and often on a larger ice sheet. CC specifically (and as an alum and fan, I’m just excited they were mentioned, although I assumed you just picked them cuz they’re #1 in the polls at the moment) plays on Olympic size ice, and tends to do worse on smaller NHL ice because they play a more wide-open style of hockey. Some rules such as icing, 2-line passes, etc are different. And there is so little fighting in college hockey, there would be no goons to match up to the NHL team, and even if there were, size would obviously be a huge factor.
All this in addition to what was mentioned earlier about college hockey in general not being the major talent pool for the NHL, much less one team in particular, and I doubt it would happen unless it was a miracle.
Good point, NYR, but the OP mentioned a series. Do you think the 1980 US hockey team could beat the Russians in a seven game series?
I could say Yes Neutotik but I’d be lying. The reason used them as an example is that they played in a tournament against the best the other countries were allowed to offer. The players on the Soviet team were grown men and many played together for years not a bunch of college kids put together a few months before hand.
To be honest I don’t remember the rosters of the other teams they played against. They might have been college aged kids too. If not, then I think my example holds more water (or is itr ice?).
I’ll see if I can did up the age an experience of the players on the other teams involved
I agree with Mullinator but let’s hope if a college baseball team plays a MLB team it’s with wooden bats. If I’m a pitcher and I’m facing Barry Bonds with an aluminum bat, I’m also wearing Depends.
Just a quick note about a college football - NFL matchup. I fully agree with Neurotik’s post above, especially about the domination of the offensive and defensive lines.
Lineman (on both sides) are a combination of three things: size, strength, and speed. College linemen will possess one of these characteristics and maybe two. If you have all three, then you’re going pro.
On a pro line will have all of them in the same guy. Every guy on the line is huge, strong as hell, and runs a 40 faster than I do and I’m in pretty good shape.
My thought is that the college guys can probably match up as far as weight and strength go, but they can’t hold a candle when it comes to the speed of the pros. The game is won in the trenches and a dominant line gives the pro QB all the time he needs to make throws and makes the college QB dump the ball off to the outlet every play.