text: I would have to say, that despite the more advanced level of play, or perhaps because of it, college sports are better than professional sports. Three main reasons:\n\n1. Those athletes out there are playing for the love of the game, not for money, not for agents, not for Hummers and publicity, they're playing because that is what they love to do. And at most schools, they're doing it while juggling classwork as well. Throw money in and things get all hairy. As the Bible says, "love of money is the root of all evil".\n\n2. The sheer pageantry of collegiate athletics, most especially football. The century-old rivalries, the mascots, the fight songs, the student sections, the bands, all of these are missing in pro sports. As a sort of cheap replacement are these fake cheerleaders who are in no way considered a part of the game. Don't get me wrong, there are some solid pro rivalries, Vikings-Packers, Chiefs-Raiders, but they just lack that extra atmosphere that collegiate rivalries pack. \n\n3. Upsets. Upsets happen in professional sports, but think about it, if the 0-10 Raiders beat the 8-2 Patriots, it's not that big of a deal. The Patriots will still make the playoffs, nobody really worries that much. But if Texas loses to Baylor, stop the presses. That is essentially a season-ending loss, the kind that destroys any chance UT might have had for winning a national championship. Pro football and the other sports are great, but who can argue that there was a regular season NFL game as exciting as USC-Notre Dame? OSU-Texas? Fun to watch, but due to the (admitedly, rather imperfect) system, they don't carry nearly as much weight as these college games.\n\nI know I used football for my examples a lot, but that's largely because I think the NFL is the best professional league, both in terms of how much I enjoy watching it, and how the league is organized and run. And it's the best sport overall.