# Could the best college sports teams beat the worst pro teams? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 7, 2003, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653 "2003-03-07T04:18:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![NYR407](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@NYR407](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NYR407)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/41 "2003-03-08T16:43:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lurkernomore \* > \*\*P.S. NYR407 - Tikanov should never have lifted Tretiak. And the USSR would’ve won 8 of 10 easy. probably 9. > \*\* Commie!! 😃 P.S. - That wasn’t our decision and we scored on both goalies anyway. You can’t absoutely say that Tretiak would have made the saves but you can believe that he should have made the saves. ---
**Author:** ![Convict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Convict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Convict)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/42 "2003-03-08T17:03:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RickJay \* > **In the case of baseball, obviously not. College baseball teams are WAY below pro level.** Then they should have no problem beating the Cubs 😃 . ---
**Author:** ![lurkernomore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@lurkernomore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lurkernomore)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/43 "2003-03-08T19:51:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NYR407 \* > \*\*Commie!! > > 😃 > > P.S. - That wasn’t our decision and we scored on both goalies anyway. You can’t absoutely say that Tretiak would have made the saves but you can believe that he should have made the saves. \*\* Hey, Take that back! I know where you sit! Do I know he makes the save? No. Better chance than the other guy. Also heard Tikanov stoie the medal from a backup G in a later year - may have been Bukharin - coaches don’t get medals. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/44 "2003-03-08T20:57:37Z")
The Swedes left in their top goalie against Belarus and it didn’t help them. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/45 "2003-03-30T21:52:49Z")
I would say yesterday’s results confirm the opinions of those who say the college players can rarely, if ever, compete with the professionals. Kentucky lost by 14 after its top player sustained an injury against Wisconsin. Bear in mind, too, that Bogans was still able to score 15 points. Of course, I think the SEC may have been a trifle overrated, but that’s another thread… ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/46 "2003-03-30T22:22:00Z")
Well, to shift this football/baseball/hockey slant slightly, I’m fairly confident that there is one sport where collegiate athletes would dominate. Pit the heavyweight varsity wrestler from Penn State or any Iowa University, and he will probably cripple **anyone** in the WWF. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/47 "2003-03-30T22:22:57Z")
Well, to shift this football/baseball/hockey slant slightly, I’m fairly confident that there is one sport where collegiate athletes would dominate. Put the heavyweight varsity wrestler from Penn State or any Iowa University into the ring, and he will probably cripple **anyone** in the WWF. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/48 "2003-03-30T22:24:16Z")
Whoops, just realized that the topic was about sports _teams_. But I still think that pound for pound, the collegiate wrestlers would crush those overblown steroid cases. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/49 "2003-03-30T23:23:53Z")
Pro “wrestlers” are not actually wrestlers, so it’s sort of an unfair comparison; it’s like pitting collegiate track and field athletes against the actors from “Chariots of Fire.” ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2003, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/50 "2003-03-30T23:56:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RickJay \* > \*\*Pro “wrestlers” are not actually wrestlers, so it’s sort of an unfair comparison; it’s like pitting collegiate track and field athletes against the actors from “Chariots of Fire.” \*\* Largely agreed, but there’s one important difference, namely that the actors from “Chariots of Fire” don’t claim to be track and field athletes off-camera. If this is an unfair comparison, then it is one the pro wrestlers made themselves. I’d still love to see it! ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/51 "2003-03-31T03:03:41Z")
IMHO, the difference between pro and college is even greater for soccer than the major sports. US college soccer players play far fewer games and train far less intensely than club players of the same age in Europe and Latin America. The best soccer players in these places usually sign on as full-fledged pros when they leave school at sixteen. They’re getting competition and coaching from the experienced pro players and coaches at a time when most American kids are still playing high school ball. Even with improvements in training and coaching at every level of the American game, the best American HS players are still advised to skip college altogether and go straight to the pros, preferably training in Europe or Latin America. The weakest MLS teams, which always have a fair number of foreign stars developed in the club system, would just slaughter the best college teams. ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/52 "2003-03-31T04:53:20Z")
I wanted to point out that if I were the college football team trying to beat an NFL team I’d never schedule the Bengals. Corey Dillon would win the game himself. I’d go for the Cards all day. They’re piss-poor up front on both sides of the ball and have no dominant skill players. And in that vein I think the D-Rays would have a serious chance of losing a game or two to an outstanding college team. They’ve got a college player (Rocco Baldelli, actually I think he came to the pros straight from HS? Any RI Dopers set me straight here?) batting second, and Carl Crawford isn’t much more seasoned (incidentally, speaking of Crawford, if you were offered a scholarship to QB for Nebraska would you pass it up to sign with the D-Rays?). Altogether there are only 2 or 3 batters on their team that you’d have to get out. Their pitching’s slightly more professional but none of their starters after Joe Kennedy would be on the big-league squad with any other clubs in the majors, seriously. So the gap to a really good college team wouldn’t be too far I think, although I don’t follow the collegiate game. ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/53 "2003-03-31T05:26:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Linty Fresh \* > \*\*Well, to shift this football/baseball/hockey slant slightly, I’m fairly confident that there is one sport where collegiate athletes would dominate. > > Put the heavyweight varsity wrestler from Penn State or any Iowa University into the ring, and he will probably cripple **anyone** in the WWF. \*\* Depends on who they’re facing. You put them in with a legit Olympic gold medalist like Kurt Angle, or a former NCAA champ in Brock Lesnar, and I’m probably taking the WWF superstar. Now, against someone like Crash Holly or Al Snow, my money’s probably on the collegiate wrestler, although I imagine Snow could probably put up a good fight. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/54 "2003-03-31T17:29:22Z")
All you folks making the baseball comparisons seem to be forgetting just how much variance there is in that sport. I mean, if a pro team wins two thirds of their games, they’re absolutely amazing. Even granting for the sake of argument that the worst pro team is as far above the best college team as the best pro is above the worst, that still leaves a pretty good chance for the college team. As for football, there was a period of several years when my **high school** team was the best football team, at any level, in the city. But that was a special case, of course. Still, in the last few years before Art Modell turned traitor, the BHS Bengals probably _could_ have beaten the Browns… ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2003, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/55 "2003-03-31T20:32:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chronos \* > \*\*All you folks making the baseball comparisons seem to be forgetting just how much variance there is in that sport. I mean, if a pro team wins two thirds of their games, they’re absolutely amazing. Even granting for the sake of argument that the worst pro team is as far above the best college team as the best pro is above the worst, that still leaves a pretty good chance for the college team. \*\* The gap between the worst pro team and the best college team is a lot bigger than the gap between the best pro team and the worst pro team. ---
**Author:** ![habs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecae2f/32.png) [@habs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/habs)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2007, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/56 "2007-03-20T22:53:48Z")
Apologies for resurrecting this thread… 😃 But I found this [highly-relevant article](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/lang_whitaker/03/19/the.links/index.html) about whether or not the Florida Gators could beat the NBA’s worst team. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8797f3/32.png) [@The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Universe_Lashes_Out)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/57 "2007-03-21T01:07:15Z")
[QUOTE=habs] Apologies for resurrecting this thread… 😃 But I found this [highly-relevant article](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/lang_whitaker/03/19/the.links/index.html) about whether or not the Florida Gators could beat the NBA’s worst team. [/QUOTE] Hmm, now that my team is the best in college basketball, I completely reverse my answer from 2003. The Gators would throttle several NBA teams and probably compete for a playoff spot in a full league schedule. Alright, perhaps not. But I think this particular Gator team would have a really good chance at making things more competitive than you’d think, due to their exceptional team chemistry. They are better than the talent of the individual players would lead you to believe. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/58 "2007-03-21T04:56:07Z")
Well, we’ll start by assuming you could actually put together a game between pros and collegians that the pros actually cared enough to show up for, and actually cared about winning. Remember, until the mid Seventies, there used to be an annual exhibition game between the defending Super Bowl champs and a college all-star team. The pros kicked butt without even trying most years. But the game was eventually scrapped because the pros just couldn’t be bothered with it any more (ironically, back in the Twenties, these games were established to prove that the pro teams were as good as the college teams). If such games were re-instituted, most pro players would try to get out of it, just as most prefer not to play in the Pro Bowl. - But again, let’s say we could set up some games between top notch college teams and lousy pro teams, and let’s assume the pro teams have all their starters playing, and let’s assume the pros are REALLY trying to win. Let’s say the pros and the collegians played 50 games. FOOTBALL: Florida Gators vs. Cleveland Browns Result: The Browns would slaughter the Gators 50 times. I’d be shocked if the Gators made a game of it even once. BASKETBALL: Kansas Jayhawks vs. Memphis Grizzlies Result: The Grizzlies would win 50 times, but the Jayhawks might give the Grizzlies a scare three or four times. BASEBALL: Cal State-Fullerton vs. Tampa Bay Devil Rays Result: The Devil Rays win 45 games, and Fullerton wins 5. The Rays are much better, but hey, this is baseball. Talent is key, but it’s not everything. Every so often, the Rays’ bats are cold, or their starting pitcher doesn’t have his best stuff, or a Fullerton pitcher is in rare form, and the college kids steal a game. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/59 "2007-03-21T05:10:41Z")
[QUOTE=Hobie the One] What a great bunch of US Citizens most of us seem to be. What about the other football? How much difference is there between your average college and average world cup team? Any soccer fans? [/QUOTE] College soccer in the US is very very very poor outside a couple elite programs. Even at Indiana, UCLA, or Virginia the top players generally turn out to be mediocre in a mediocre league. In college the players generally get by by being good athletes but poor soccer players. Playing against any pros they’re going to be worse athletes on average and also a lot worse soccer players. That being said, soccer often is a 1-0 game. If the college team put 11 people behind the ball and played defense the whole game they might be able to sneak a goal in on a counter and hold the opposition to 0. I’d give this about a 1% chance. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2007, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653/60 "2007-03-21T13:00:41Z")
There is, however, an under-20 international tournament set up similarly to the World Cup, so we could shift the question to under-20’s vs. adults. If we’re talking about all national teams, then yes, I think Brazil’s under-20’s could beat Nauru’s regulars in a best-of-7 series. They could probably do it using only their second-stringers. However, if we look only at countries that have qualified for their respective World Cups, could the best under-20 beat the worst regular national team? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-the-best-college-sports-teams-beat-the-worst-pro-teams/159653.md?page=4)