Can the most dominant college team ever beat the least dominant pro team?

[daBronzeBomma]

Any sport, in the same year/season.

I hear this at least once a year, esp in football (gridiron) and basketball, usually by overzealous college fans.

"The undefeated Alabama Crimson Tide are so good this year that they could beat the winless Cleveland Browns!"

This strikes me as bullshit.

But maybe I'm wrong.

Sports fans (of any sport that has organized college and pro leagues), are there any instances where you would actually take the best college squad over the worst pro team in the same sport in the same year?

[mathew101281]

No, because even the third string benchwarmer on a pro team were dominant college players. And pro coaching is better then college coaching, and pro players are more experienced. What advantage do college athletes have that makes you think they can win? Even the best college programs ideally only have 3 or 4 guys who are pro level, and probably only 1 or 2 that are difference makers.

[JBatmanFan05]

Probably huge unbreachable barriers to this, but it'd be fun if the NCAA and the NFL arranged for something like where they agree to have an exhibition or something where Bama or the ranked team plays a winless NFL team. Probably need to be serious harsh preconditions about the ranking and probably insistence that the NFL team is winless, these conditions would be perhaps demanded to protect the players from injury, give some perhaps marginal mitigation of that concern.

So like an arrangement struck to schedule a game that will or won't happen based on certain harsh preconditions (one being like there has to be a winless NFL team by Jan or something and/or the NCAA team has to meet certain metrics on top of their highest ranking).

[Hiromi]

Male athletes don't enter their physical primes until their mid 20s and last into their 30s, couple that to the draft ensuring only the top % of college athletes even sniff the pros means no college team will ever beat a pro team

[Kirby101]

No. I don't even think the women of the UConn basketball team could beat the worst WNBA team.

[KOSLOX]

Absolutely not. I think it's silly anytime someone says this.

[numberthirty]

While I like the "Any Given Day..." possibility, the would have to be a ways beyond one team's realistic "Best" and another team's realistic "Worst" to be even remotely possible.

[Kirby101]

Look at it this way. Even a team of all first round rookies probably wouldn't beat a pro team.

[Johnny Peril]

Probably huge unbreachable barriers to this, but it'd be fun if the NCAA and the NFL arranged for something like where they agree to have an exhibition or something where Bama or the ranked team plays a winless NFL team. Probably need to be serious harsh preconditions about the ranking and probably insistence that the NFL team is winless, these conditions would be perhaps demanded to protect the players from injury, give some perhaps marginal mitigation of that concern.

So like an arrangement struck to schedule a game that will or won't happen based on certain harsh preconditions (one being like there has to be a winless NFL team by Jan or something and/or the NCAA team has to meet certain metrics on top of their highest ranking).

From 1934 - 1976 the NFL would play a pre-season game matching the NFL champions against College All Stars. NFL always won but the games were usually close.

[Kusanagi]

Typically on a National championship roster if you had even 10 players that could immediately start on an NFL roster it would be insane. So no they would be destroyed easily.

Honestly if you're looking for an upset, I think it's more believable that a College Basketball team like Kentucky full of lottery picks might be able to beat the worst NBA team. Even that's not likely, but it's more believable imo.

[GOLGO 13]

If it's the NY Jets then yes of course they can win.

[Hiromi]

Typically on a National championship roster if you had even 10 players that could immediately start on an NFL roster it would be insane. So no they would be destroyed easily.

Honestly if you're looking for an upset, I think it's more believable that a College Basketball team like Kentucky full of lottery picks might be able to beat the worst NBA team. Even that's not likely, but it's more believable imo.

Eh probably not since any team full of lottery picks in College Basketball is going to equate a team full of freshmen, Kentucky often has those kinds of teams and they don't even win the tournament but roughly once a decade, and Hell most NBA bound players haven't even finished growing by their freshman year of college

Then you have stuff like having to to adjust from College rules to NBA rules(the court itself is bigger, 3 point shooters have to adjust to further out 3 point lines and such), there's a reason NBA players shoot absurdly high 3 point %s when they go to the Olympics(which has a 3 point line similar to college)

[daBronzeBomma]

Yeah, seems like the worst NFL team would murderstomp their best NCAAF opponent. Pretty much the same with the worst NBA team running their NCAAB opponent off the court.

What about Hockey and Baseball? Just as big a gap in talent between college and pro?

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

The worst NFL team in the league has

Myles Garrett, the best player in college last year. Kizer, one of the top 3 QB's. Jamie Collins, an all pro LB in the NFL and an All-Conference in college. Until last week, Joe Thomas, the best lineman of the last ten years. Kenny Britt, who was a dominant college player. Sammy Coates, one of the best receivers in the SEC when he played. Duke Johnson, one of the best RB's in the ACC when he played.

If these guys were in college they would be considered stupidly over powered. And this is the team that can't win a game.

[Hiromi]

Yeah, seems like the worst NFL team would murderstomp their best NCAAF opponent. Pretty much the same with the worst NBA team running their NCAAB opponent off the court.

What about Hockey and Baseball? Just as big a gap in talent between college and pro?

I don't know about the NHL but MLB is probably the worst gap of them all as in between College and the Pro level is the minor league system the other two don't have, so first you have a draft taking the top % of players, and then you have several years in the minors to further weed them out, and a lot of the best talent in MLB doesn't even come from US colleges but from abroad