It is a major debate in the football community whether the best college football team could beat or compete with the worst NFL team.
The Michigan Wolverines finished with a 13-0 record and have outscored opponents by a total of 354 points with their best wins against seventh-ranked Ohio State and 10th-ranked Penn State on their way to winning the Big 10 championship game 26-0 vs 20th-ranked Iowa.
Meanwhile, the Carolina Panthers have started the season 1-11 and have lost by a total of 119 points this season and recently fired their third coach in four years. Despite this, the NFL team would still most likely win.
According to CBS Sports Michigan has 13 players who are expected to get drafted in the 2024 NFL draft and more who will get signed as a free agent. They are led by their star quarterback JJ Mcarthy and running back Blake Corum. Meanwhile, the Carolina Panthers are led by their rookie quarterback. Bryce Young is currently last in the league in passing yards and passing touchdowns. The Panther’s offense ranks 31st in the NFL for total touchdowns.
While Michigan has 13 players who are expected to get drafted in the 2024 NFL draft the Carolina Panthers have 51 players on their roster who were drafted. The Panthers have almost four times the number of drafted players on their team. According to PFF Michigan’s quarterback, JJ Mcarthy is the eighth-best quarterback in this draft. Meanwhile, Young was the number one player in his draft class and is considered one of the best college quarterbacks of all time. According to the NCAA, “Young dominated the competition, setting records and winning the Heisman Trophy in 2021.”
While the Panthers’ offensive stats seem much inferior to Michigan the Wolverines have the 47th-ranked strength of schedule in college football while the Panthers have the 27th in the NFL. The Panthers team also has a lot more veterans and experience on their roster. The average age on the Panthers team is 26.5 years old. Michigan’s offensive lineman Andrew Vastardis is the oldest player on the team at 23 and a half years old, three years younger than the average player on the Carolina Panthers.
Veterans can benefit a football team highly because the experience and knowledge of the game that veterans have can separate 2 teams from each other. The transition from college to the NFL is not easy. The best players in college often do not pan out in the NFL. For example, Reggie Bush was a star running back at USC, won a Heisman, and is considered one of the best college running backs of all time. However, in the NFL he struggled to even get close to replicating his college greatness.
Now do you think a roster full of some of the best athletes in the world who center their entire lives around football would lose to a roster of college kids where only maybe 20 of them will make the NFL?
