In 25 years I've seen college football naturally turn itself into America's most popular sport [Editor's Note: It's not.  In a recent survey CFB ranked 3rd in our nation's consciousness.  Still, it feels that way]. Here are four reasons:

1) The product meshes perfectly with our society's evolution. Football is fast and violent, but can be defined by the deftest of athletic touch. These qualities fit perfectly into our "highlight a minute meets short attention span" culture. To further this point, the college football game has improved. NFL coaches with experience and a need for a more relaxed atmosphere will recycle themselves back into CFB, while brilliant young coaches will devise new schemes and alter the landscape of the football game.  Imagine running from the shotgun, blasphemy...

2) College football fans get enveloped into the game like no one other fans.  They really care about the sport. It ruins days, weeks, and months if their team doesn't succeed. For all the horrid stuff we endure at college, it's easy to enjoy a buzzed Saturday morning watching football with 30,000 of your closest friends. And it's even easier to get nostalgic about that lifestyle and the team you watched. You become part of that school, the tradition -- and if you like sports -- probably the team. So when thoughts turn to college football, memories don't usually stop at the stadium's gates - They extend to the walk to the stadium, the beautiful side of campus, friendships made at that school, parties attended, and life changing events.

Hard not to get nostalgic about that...

3) CFB has managed to keep its purity. Even though it, by all accounts, hasn't. As professional players became boring and prone to asinine money moves ("Player X turned down a 7 year, 139 million dollar contract because he believes he can get 160 million and a reality show"), college players have essentially done the same, adding decommitments and dangerous criminal convictions to that personality mix (Jimmy Johns doing his best Scarface impression, anyone?). But because they go to State U, we impart purity and other positive traits onto them, thanking them for serving even one illustrious year in our yearbook and cheering them when they move onto professional sports, knowing we witnessed greatness before professional football turned them into bland pros who do PSA's while reading cue cards.

4) CFB is has so many moving parts, perfect for sustaining football lust in the offseason. Your starting middle linebacker isn't just a static player - He has academics to watch, weight lifting (is he a workout warrior?), Spring Practice progress, statistics, game tape from YouTube, and reports of his on campus activity....