Theme week: Theme week: “Against this, the NFL seems almost like a one-size-fits-all”.

What is the appeal of college football? What are the special sports features, and how do you get into college sports from Germany in the first place? At the end of the big SPOX College Football Theme Week, Stolle from Footballerei, mySPOX user JaydoggBO, Christian Schimmel from derdraft.de and Jan Weckwerth from “Triple Option” will discuss the fascination of college games – and look forward to the coming season.

Stolle (football): “That started with me on the side”. Like most football fans, my enthusiasm for the sport began with the NFL. That was in the early 90s. But soon I started to get interested in my favourite players and their universities. Back then, however, it was almost impossible to get information on college football: The Internet was in its infancy and the few magazines at the kiosk were exclusively concerned with the NFL. So it took a lot of passion to get information about it. Over the years, visits to the USA were added, but also more information about the web and the annual college bibles of Athlon, Lindy’s or other providers. Thanks to my time at the NFL Europe I was able to make many contacts later on, which still help me today when it comes to college football.

Jan Weckwerth (Triple Option): That was similar a long time ago for me, and not at all unlike. As a fresh NFL fan I read in the German football magazine “Huddle” a report about the spectacular Orange Bowl 1994 between Florida State and Nebraska. At the time, I used my pocket money – as often as I could afford it – to order NFL games on videotape because there were few other ways to get to full-length games. Out of curiosity I was sent the said Orange Bowl, the National Championship Game that year, and was immediately hooked and became a Nebraska fan despite their dramatic defeat. At first, however, the NFL remained the clear number one. In the course of the 2000s, the relationship was completely reversed: Today, I am first and foremost a college football fan and tend to let the NFL “run alongside”.

Christian Schimmel (derdraft.de): The TV station ESPN America, which unfortunately no longer exists today, showed an enormous amount of college sports in the 2000s, as in 2009, when I became more interested in US sports. Specifically, I can even state my interest in a game, Rutgers vs. USF, on 12.11.09, which I saw a day later as a recording. Feeling a game like any other, but it aroused my fascination for college football and the only thing I remembered was a fairly dominant Mo Sanu who was later to make his way in the NFL. Afterwards I watched a lot of college football and tried to read myself into the system with all its sometimes incomprehensible excesses (conference changes, bowl games, the BCS including the different polls, and so on). It didn’t let me go and I soon started writing about college football.

mySPOX-User JaydoggBO: This came to me through the Spox Community. As part of the NFL Roundup, which was often released on Saturday before the games on Sunday, the college elite gathered here. Best regards to Duncan, Txomin, Petzie and the circle of suspects. Although I don’t have a college team yet, you could get a good insight here. The following year I bought the ESPN player together with Petzie and College Football was integrated into my everyday football life. In 2016 the first Community Draft Party took place at my home and this has become a tradition in this small circle.

Page 1: How did you come to college football?

Page 2: What makes it so attractive – especially in comparison to the NFL?

Page 3: What are the special sports features of college football?

Page 4: Who will be Rookie of the Year in the coming NFL season?

Page 5: Outlook: Which 5 college players should you have on your screen in 2018?