I’m watching Sunday night football, and when they presented the lineups it’s the classical “name - college” phrase.
For a non-American it’s ridiculous to hear a 15-season player saying “Oldie McVeteran, Buttfuck State”.
Why? How relevant can it be after the first couple of seasons?
Heck, you even hear it for retired players.
The NFL doesn’t have to finance a significant minor league system. The NCAA does it for them on their dime. Its a way of giving recognition to the institutions that developed their players for them.
The NCAA doesn’t do it out of the goodness of their hearts. It’s a shit-ton of money and also, sports are good for students.
I could understand the NFL doin it, but why would ESPN/NBC do it? Why is Victor Cruz’s college mentioned outside hs biography?
I think at this point, it’s just always been that way. But the network’s have every reason to keep doing it since they show college football too. Cross-promotion.
You see it in basketball too. As rosters have become more international in the last couple decades, that’s led to some strange sounding introductions. The Timberwolves introduce Kevin Love as “from UCLA” and Ricky Rubio as “from Spain.”
It’s lesser in hockey, but it’s still easy enough to find the college or junior team of the player.
Some WAGs
[ul]
[li]Some people are as big or bigger a fan of college football[/li][li]Some players (like lineman) might sound familiar but the audience might not remember how they remember them. Hearing the college might remind them that they attended a rival university in the same conference as “their” team.[/li][li]Adding an additional piece of info might make a player’s name more memorable than “Oldie McVeteran” that has bounced around 5 teams in the past 3 years[/li][li]The average playing career is only 3.5 years so connecting back with a university and not a random city might be desirable for future employment/endorsements after the career[/li][/ul]
It’s a shit-ton of money for the NCAA and for a few programs. The vast majority of the athletic departments with major football programs are losing money. Read this very recent article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/01/business/the-big-tens-bigger-footprint.html?_r=0
The athletic dept. is the marketing arm for a college. Just like advertising, it looks like an expense but when all the nuances are figured in, it is usually a revenue generator.
College football has a loyal legion of fans. Those fans follow the athletes that came from their school after they leave. Even if they hate the NFL team they are watching they want the guy that came from their school to do well. That kind of loyalty doesn’t get shaken.
It is smart of the NFL to promote the connection to colleges. If NCAA football suddenly disappeared how could they possible get players?
Because it’s a question that routinely comes up during the game for the audience, plain and simple.
I think it’s most accurately described as partly marketing, partly a gamble on actually generating revenue (hey, a championship-winning season probably comes out ahead, financially.), and partly a major benefit for the University Board and President. Not that a university will ever put “Providing game-day experience and ego-stroking bragging rights for University Board – $3.6 million” on it’s employee expenses statement, of course.
Most fans are interested in the information. It’s as simple as that.
Also, the loyalty of pro football players to their NFL team pales in comparison to their alma mater in most cases.
Not everyone agrees with that.
Personally, in the rare times that I watch an NFL game, I like knowing where the players went to school. It’s interesting that there seems to be less correlation among starters and “big name schools” than one would expect.
This is difficult to explain to non-Americans, but college football and basketball are so popular, in the United States, that college attended becomes a permanent part of a football or basketball player’s identity.
Most fans first become aware of the players while they are in college. Hearing the college helps fans keep track of and identify the players–“Joe Shlabotnik, oh yeah, he was the guy we saw playing in that bowl game for Valley Tech.”
After they retire, even players with successful pro careers are remembered as much for their college exploits. Here in Chicago, it’s not unusual to see references to “Dick Butkus, former star linebacker for the University of Illinois and the Chicago Bears.”
Also note, that while players are in college, their high school attended forms part of their identity. Players are introduced as “from [name of high school]”, because lots of fans watch high school football and basketball and follow the recruiting and it helps to identify the players. So be grateful at least that high school identification usually disappears by the time a player reaches the pros.
I know, but why do so many people care? Why would they care? Unless he went to your college how useful can it be?
I can’t give a rat’s buttcrack about Bret Favre’s college. I don’t care if the best football (soccer) player in the world went to my college, it’d be like knowing his favourite food.
I think that the fact that sports has become a marketing ploy to get money for a university, is ridiculous-sounding for non-Americans.
If NCAA stopped existing them NFL would get its players the same way we do it all around the world: junior divisions.
It is perverse that college attendance became almost a requisite to play NFL when you really only want to be a profesional player. It might be good to have a carreer to fall back on when (90% cases) you don’t make it big, but I’d be surprised that short-career retired NFL/NBA players go back to work on their major as a job.
The drive/obsession with sport even in high-school is astounding.
I teach at a school with several students that play not only in the school-level championships, but also indiseño club tournaments and even national teams, but school sport are a couple of hours a week after clases, no more.
I agree that it’s a very US thing.
I know it but I don’t get it.
The root of “trivia” sure as hell isn’t “useful”. Either way, the answer to your question is “because when watching an NFL game, people either run out of things to talk about, or also start talking about college football, and it comes up. Often.”
If a player went to my college that means we are forever intimately connected
I get to feel like I almost know a famous person
and I get to brag to my friends and say “represent!”
Keep in mind the origin of this custom–in America, the scholastic game preceded the professional game. American football was invented as a way for college kids to knock heads against each other. Basketball was invented by a YMCA instructor, but became popular as a high school and college game. The pro leagues followed decades later.
The NFL, in its early days (1920’s), was a travelling exhibition of former college stars. Of course they would promote “Red Grange of the University of Illinois”–that’s how everybody knew Grange! His pro affiliation was an afterthought.
Granted, today, the pro game stands on its own. But why change this custom? Pro and college sports have a symbiotic relationship. The TV networks like cross-promotion. Fans like college identification because it helps to identify and remember players. And the players themselves like it–many are genuinely proud of their college affiliation, even if they didn’t graduate and never intended to graduate. So, no reason to change.
There are many, many things that are useless but still enjoyable. You, yourself, may enjoy a useless thing or two. Different strokes and all that.
I like the college stuff. I always listen for one of them to say ‘Ohio State’. I cannot for the life of me tell you why. I did not go there.
Most NFL football fans didn’t go to a major collegiate football powerhouse but many are fans of one or more schools. The fanbase for Notre Dame is way out of proportion to the number of alumni. People in Alabama are either for Bama or Auburn; no one is neutral on the issue. College rivalries are intense and long lasting, more so than nearly all professional rivalries. Large percentages of the country will watch the Army-Navy game even though no one in their immediate families have served. There’s even big identification to football conferences; SEC vs Big Ten, etc. and if your team loses you’ll root loudly for the team that beat you in the conference championship game when they play for the national title.
Those players only pass through the schools for 4 (or fewer) years but the allegiances last a long time. Most folks are fans of multiple schools and follow those players throughout their careers.
I think part of it is also the NFL draft. Pretty much the only path to the NFL is to play for a college, usually a major one, for 3 or 4 years, then be drafted by an NFL team. So, NFL fans have their eye on a player from college ABC who they think will help their team. They player is then linked with their former college for his career.
Admittedly, it doesn’t matter much for veterans. But the players are part of a team and so the long term veterans give their college along with rookies during the prime time games.
There was an annoying trend when players would give their high school, junior high, or even their elementary school during those introductions. I’m not sure if the NFL or the network finally put a stop to it. I thought the joke wore quite thin after the first couple of times.
It does happen. I know several former NFL players who attended FSU and the split seems to be:
These are anecdotal and may not be representative, but that’s my experience knowing about 25 or 30 former pros.