Hey everyone, so I’ve been getting into football lately, both NFL and college. And I got to wondering, is there a difference in the size of the footballs they use? I mean, they look pretty much the same on TV, right?
So, I decided to do a little digging. First, I hopped online, you know, hit up the usual spots, read through some articles, and tried to see what I could find out. Turns out, there actually IS a difference, though it’s not huge.
I found that a lot of folks were saying the NFL ball is a bit bigger than the college one. It’s a little longer and maybe a touch wider around the middle. From what I gathered, the NFL ball is about 11 to 11.25 inches long, while the college ball is around 10.5 to 11.125 inches long.
But get this, some other articles stated the opposite that college footballs are typically larger than NFL footballs. It’s really confusing.
To get to the bottom of it, I decided to take a more hands-on approach. I went to a local sporting goods store and asked if I could check out an official NFL ball and a college ball. The guy there was cool about it and brought them out for me.
I held them both, felt the weight, and really tried to compare the size. Honestly, it was tough to tell just by holding them. They felt pretty similar. So, I grabbed a measuring tape. I measured the length and the circumference of both balls a few times, just to be sure.
Here’s what I found:
- The NFL ball measured a hair over 11 inches long and about 22 inches around the middle.
- The college ball came in just under 11 inches long and about 21 inches in circumference.
So, technically, the NFL ball is slightly bigger. But it’s such a small difference, that it makes me wonder if it even matters that much. I guess when you’re throwing or catching at those speeds, even a tiny difference might be noticeable. I also found that these balls have undergone several size reductions over the years. The NCAA football had a size reduction in 1982, while the NFL has used the same size ball since 1935.
And what really surprised me was, 93 of the 100 highest-rated television programs in 2023 were NFL games, only 3 college football games ranked in the top 100. The top event (Ohio State-Michigan) ranking 61st last year with 19.07 million viewers.
My conclusion?
The NFL ball is ever so slightly larger than the college ball. But it’s not a huge difference, at least not to a regular guy like me. Maybe for the pros, it makes a difference, but for us weekend warriors, it’s probably not something to lose sleep over. It’s way more interesting to see how many people prefer to watch NFL games.
Anyway, that’s my little experiment. What do you guys think? Have you ever noticed a difference between NFL and college footballs?
