College Basketball Across America

#1
Johnnyreb#VFL

Johnnyreb#VFL

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#1
In college basketball, teams from all parts of the country are good. North, Northeast, South, West, Midwest, East, etc most all conferences are represented and play well in the field of 68. The competition is terrific for the most part.

College Football, on the other hand, is mostly relevant and dominated by the South, with the exception of Ohio state (sometimes Oklahoma).

My question is why? Why the major discrepancy in regional success between the two major college sports?
 
#5
#5
Good question. Several thoughts come to mind. First, basketball is a lot easier and more fun to get good at. Heck, just have your dad put a goal up in the driveway and you can practice all day every day. Or go live at the playground shooting hoops and dribbling and such. So there end up being are a lot of good players all over the country. And a team only needs five of them. Football takes a lot more resources and money and players. Some states just don’t want to spend it on that and/or just don’t have enough kids for them all to be good on a 22 player roster. For some reason the southern states traditionally have focused on this. Alabama, for example, from the governor on down has prioritized Alabama football as the most important product they produce.
 
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#8
#8
5 vs 22, much easier to put together 5 competent BB players to compete than it is 22 competent FB players where a mistake by just 1 blows up a play or gives up a score.
 
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#10
#10
Also the setup of the sports are different. With college football you have rougly 120 programs at the very top level, basketball has roughly 350. Most of those 350 either have lower division football teams or no football teams at all. And at least in theory all 350 of those teams have a shot a the D1 National Championship because of automatic bids, even though in reality it's probably not true. But that's why in the past 10 years we've seen George Mason, VCU, and Butler all make the Final Four with Butler almost winning the whole thing. FBS, a team outside the P5 conferences is likely never to win the NC and probably not even get a shot. The best a team like Coastal Carolina can only hope for in football is to go undefeated and be ranked high enough to make a NY6 bowl.
 
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#11
#11
Harping on some other points, I think football gets a greater emphasis placed on it in the Southeast. So these kids are being coached proper foundations from a younger age than in other parts of the country. I think the coaching pool in the southeast part of the country is much greater as well, so these middle and high school kids are getting better coaching, too.
 
#12
#12
Alabama. Now that they've found their basketball version on Saban in the person of nate oates, watch for them to become the center of college basketball, too. They'll reimage college basketball to mirror football.
 
#15
#15
CAVPUT said:
Or just better at identifying and hiring coach talent? Or maybe it's just something ordained. Alabama=success. UT=doomed for all eternity in everything.
Click to expand...

I don’t think anybody knew Oats from Buffalo, would have Bama as a serious Final Four contender.

Saban fell into their laps after Rich Rod backed out at the last minute.

Seems like dumb luck to me.
 
#20
#20
VolFreakJosh said:
I don’t think anybody knew Oats from Buffalo, would have Bama as a serious Final Four contender.

Saban fell into their laps after Rich Rod backed out at the last minute.

Seems like dumb luck to me.
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I'm not surprised at all. Just didn't think it would be this fast.

I mean he had Buffalo winning over 30 games and earning a 6 seed.
 
#21
#21
It's because more teams have more to play for!

The tournament!

Outside of the playoffs in college football nothing really matters much.

But 68 teams can go to the big dance and for everyone it's a huge deal.

Also with basketball its harder to overpower teams with athleticism and more programs can afford basketball. More opportunity for good teams.
 
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#22
#22
PlanetVolunteer said:
It's because more teams have more to play for!

The tournament!

Outside of the playoffs in college football nothing really matters much.

But 68 teams can go to the big dance and for everyone it's a huge deal.

Also with basketball its harder to overpower teams with athleticism and more programs can afford basketball. More opportunity for good teams.
Click to expand...

I think it's because the times have changed and the mentality of the fanbase as a whole has changed. "Back in the day", having rankings and bowls and maybe getting #1 to play #2 every now and then was just accepted because....well that's how it was. Things were more regional so winning say the SEC was considered the crown jewel of your season. I mean originally bowls were literally just exhibition games that didn't even really count other than bragging rights.

Now the generations of fans growing up see the NCAAT and want that on the football side in some form and it's in a transition period. And it won't get there anytime soon as long as it's basically Alabama/Ohio St./Clemson every year.
 
#23
#23
Johnnyreb#VFL said:
In college basketball, teams from all parts of the country are good. North, Northeast, South, West, Midwest, East, etc most all conferences are represented and play well in the field of 68. The competition is terrific for the most part.

College Football, on the other hand, is mostly relevant and dominated by the South, with the exception of Ohio state (sometimes Oklahoma).

My question is why? Why the major discrepancy in regional success between the two major college sports?
Click to expand...
First of all sheer numbers of people. 15 man roster versus a 75 man roster. The numbers dictate that there are more people to go around. Then you talk regions like others have mentioned. It’s easier to find a basketball court to practice on in the north in the dead of winter than it is to find a football field. Therefore there are more players and a far more level playing field in basketball vs football. Sprinkle in the fact that some parents don’t want their kids playing football because of contact. Since there are more and better players all over, there simply has to be a more level playing field and less regional dominance.
 
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#24
#24
VolsSportsFan said:
I think it's because the times have changed and the mentality of the fanbase as a whole has changed. "Back in the day", having rankings and bowls and maybe getting #1 to play #2 every now and then was just accepted because....well that's how it was. Things were more regional so winning say the SEC was considered the crown jewel of your season. I mean originally bowls were literally just exhibition games that didn't even really count other than bragging rights.

Now the generations of fans growing up see the NCAAT and want that on the football side in some form and it's in a transition period. And it won't get there anytime soon as long as it's basically Alabama/Ohio St./Clemson every year.
Click to expand...
Yeah those schools having a monopoly on things lately has really dampened some of the interest in college football. Being predictable isn't that fun.

But oddly enough college basketballs interest has been trending down as well.

Seems like the younger generations get wrapped up in the star power of the NBA and NFL. They don't care about rooting for teams as much as older generations I think.

College Basketball lacks the identifiable stars and they have so many teams that it intimidates people from looking into it.

The NFL has star power and parity so they will always be okay.
 
#25
#25
Okay...fess up...which one of you is also a Ohio State fan and sent those messages after they lost? We have several posters on here who seem to qualify.
 
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