Could a Top College Football Team Keep Up With a Bad NFL Team?

Photo: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

- Adam Parker

I know we don't normally cover much college football here at Beard and Stache, but after seeing the Alabama Crimson Tide absolutely roll the Michigan Wolverines by a score of 41-14 in prime time on Saturday night.
Talk about a shellacking.
Normally in the opening week of the college football season, these scores are to be expected, but only because the matchups are usually between a perennial powerhouse and a cupcake team who made the trip to take the walloping for a little national exposure and a fat pay check.
In this instance, however, a cupcake wasn't beaten down. No, in this case, one perennial powerhouse (Alabama) slayed another (Michigan) and in doing so, Alabama made a statement as the best team in the land (no offense, USC).
But this win has risen so many other questions already in the young college football season. For one, if the eighth-ranked team in the nation can't even hang with second-ranked Alabama on a neutral stage, what does that saw about the rest of the teams across the college football landscape? Do they even stand a chance?
That's something we'll have to wait to have answered later down the road. But one question that can be answered, at least with our opinion, is would a perennial college football powerhouse team like Alabama be able to compete with the worst of the NFL teams like say, the Browns, Rams, etc.?
I'm here to tell you that they could not — and here's why.
First, the NFL is full of professionals.
When I say that, I basically mean this — every player in the NFL is paid to do a job and that job is football. No college classes or homework to try and balance along with your football activities. Once you're in the NFL, even if you're a bottom tier player, you're part of an elite group of athletes that are the best at what they do. NFL players eat, breathe, sleep and live football 24/7. It's not just a job, it's the players' livelihood, which is all the more reason that they put every ounce of effort into improving their craft every single day.
For some college players, this is obviously not the case, seeing as how only a handful of guys, even from teams like Alabama, LSU, USC, etc. will even make it in the NFL.
Case in point, college football teams may have a few standout players throughout the roster who are big enough, fast enough, or strong enough to make it on Sundays, but everyone on an NFL roster has already proven they are big enough, fast enough and strong enough. Big difference.
Hell, even if Alabama played the Rams. Browns, etc. in Tuscaloosa, the professional team would still win comfortably.
Why?
It's simple. Alabama may be a big fish and at the top of the college football world, but that's just it — only in the pond of college football. The pros is another level entirely.
To put it simply, the pros are pros and are paid as pros for a reason. They're the best and were good enough to make it at the highest level of football competition. Thus, even the best collegiate team wouldn't stand a chance even the worst professional team on the gridiron.
Debate over.
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