Here's why, even with all its problems, college football is still better than the NFL

It's been a tough offseason for college football, with discussions on expanding the College Football Playoff, Lane Kiffin's NFL-to-LSU pipeline, and the ever-expanding crisis of tampering and abuses in the transfer portal or in NIL.

While week zero has already come and gone, college football is officially and fully back for week one, starting Thursday evening and continuing without the long Labor Day weekend. And it's a reminder of the many reasons why there's so much more to like and enjoy in the collegiate ranks compared to its big NFL brother.

Here's just a few of them.

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It's the first full week of the season, but with the number of teams in major conferences and the limited spots in the College Football Playoff, each game means something for many programs. A whopping 14 teams reach the postseason in the NFL, out of 32, meaning an incredible 44% of the league makes the playoff.

In the NCAA, there are 68 teams between the Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Big 12 and Notre Dame. Just 12 teams reach the College Football Playoff, and one of those spots automatically goes to a Group of 6 team. Not every program in those conferences has realistic hopes of reaching the playoff, but with just 11 spots to go around, just 16.1% of those top teams can play meaningful postseason football.

In the 2025 NFL season, for example, the 9-7-1 Green Bay Packers and 8-9 Carolina Panthers made the postseason. Depending on the division or strength of your conference, teams that finish around .500 have a realistic possibility of making the playoffs. Yes, the games "matter," but a loss in week one of the NFL season carries little weight or meaning.

In college? It matters. The expanded playoff gives teams room for one or two losses, potentially three this year, depending on schedule, but one slip up in week one can remove any margin for error. Notre Dame in 2025, for example, lost their first game of the season to an eventual playoff team in Miami, lost in week two to another playoff team, Texas A&M, and were left out of the 12-team field.

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LSU and Clemson both have realistic hopes of reaching the playoffs. And while the loser of Saturday's game isn't eliminated, the path gets harder. Clemson, given their fairly weak schedule, has to beat Miami when the two play next month. LSU plays Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee. An early season slip up makes finishing their season with two losses nearly impossible.

That's another element to it, upsets matter. Because of the importance of subjective rankings, not objective standings. The Los Angeles Rams are widely expected to be the best team in the NFL this year. If they lose to the New York Giants at home in week two, it doesn't matter more than any other loss in the regular season. Division tiebreakers notwithstanding.

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