re: Vegas oddsmakers say UA would be 24pt underdog to KC Chiefs, per Dan Patrick.

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Two things:

1)A future NFL star as a freshman or sophomore in college isn't near as good as he is when he hits his potential. Was Tom Brady as good in 1998 as he was in 2008? Just because they go on to be great doesn't mean they're always good all the time.

2)Bama (using this example from the OP) this year has plenty of NFL talent. But not every player on the team will play in the NFL. Not all will get drafted, and not all that drafted will make an impact. Some might not get higher than 2nd string, some might not make a practice squad. Then you're gonna put that up against a team full of 22 NFL starters, who were good enough to beat out other NFL caliber athletes to start for their team.

In one or two particular instances like maaaayybeeee one of bama's OL 1v1 against a KC DL, the bama player could get the better of him and win the day. But across the board, 22 on 22, it's just simply absurd to think a college team could stay close with a bunch of grown arse NFL pros.

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I'm not familiar enough with Bama's D to go through each spot and tell you who would be playing on Sundays right now if they were allowed to be. But I've done that exercise before with some past great college teams, and there have been several college defenses where it was safe to say that it was an NFL unit. Or not appreciably worse. Like you have four maybe five guys on the college team who are DEFINITELY better while they are in college than the equivalent pro guy on the worst team. And then you've got three or four who are worse, but who would probably still get drafted. And then another few where it's basically a wash.

I don't even think you would disagree with the above. Or maybe you do because you think the difference between a 21 year old man and a 23 year old man is much greater than I believe it to be.

And I certainly don't disagree with you on the issue of depth. But we're not askign the college team to play a full season. We're just finding 11-15 NFL caliber players on one unit of the college team. And if we can do that, is it really corret to say that they couldn't stay with them in a single game?