Sorry, NFL, but college football owns Sunday, too

College football, the greatest sport on earth, owes the NFL a massive apology.

Pro football is going to have one heckuva time trying to match the drama and entertainment that the college game provided the past four days.

Ask Texas A&M and UCLA fans.

With four minutes left in the third quarter at the Rose Bowl on Sunday night, Bruins fans were probably ready to fire coach Jim Mora, while the Aggies -- up 34 points -- might have been ready to hand coach Kevin Sumlin another contract extension.

Then the Bruins scored 35 consecutive points in a stunning 45-44 victory. It was the second-largest comeback in FBS history (Michigan State rallied from a 35-point deficit in a 41-38 win over Northwestern on Oct. 21, 2006).

"You don't explain it," Sumlin told reporters. "No excuses. We just didn't get it done as coaches."

UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen, who missed much of last season with a shoulder injury, finally showed us why NFL scouts love him in the second half. He threw for 491 yards and four touchdowns, including the game-winner.

"We were an inch away from losing like 10 times," Rosen said.

And the Aggies were an inch away from winning, which is what makes their epic collapse so much worse for their fans. Gag 'em.

Indeed, for all the highs we witnessed this past weekend, the lows in Week 1 were so much more impactful. For every comeback, there's a collapse, and those are the moments that are so difficult for us to forget. After anxiously waiting eight months for this weekend, the season of what could be is already over in many ways for so many coaches and teams.

Florida State's season is reeling after a 24-7 loss to No. 1 Alabama, in which the No. 3 Seminoles lost starting quarterback Deondre Francois to a season-ending knee injury. Georgia fans are holding their collective breath as they await the diagnosis on quarterback Jacob Eason's left knee, which he hurt in the first quarter of a 31-10 win over Appalachian State.

Imagine being a UNLV fan this week. The Rebels lost to FCS program Howard 43-40 at home on Saturday night. The Bison were 45-point underdogs, according to Las Vegas oddsmakers, making it the largest upset in college football history. Even worse: UNLV paid Howard $600,000 to play the game.

That's what makes college football so exciting, yet so cruel. If an NFL team loses in Week 1, it has 15 more games to try to finish 9-7 and make the playoffs. If a college football team loses its opener, it's a punch to the gut and fans don't want to pull their heads from under the covers for days.

That's the addiction -- that incomparable feeling of emotional pain that comes with each gut-wrenching loss. It's the physical pain that comes from losing a star player like Francois, and the agony, frustration and failure that comes from blowing a 34-point lead in the second half or losing to a 45-point underdog at home.

College football fans never know which direction the pain is coming from, but eventually it's going to hit every one of us between the eyes. (Unless, of course, you're cheering for Alabama. It's the closest to an NFL team we have.)

There are so many levels of despair in our sport. After waiting nine months to see new coach Tom Herman's debut, the Texas Longhorns were embarrassed in a 51-41 loss to Maryland. At least the Longhorns could sulk in their $10 million locker room afterward.

"I told our guys to never get used to this feeling, but that if we all thought that we were going to come in here, and in nine months sprinkle some fairy dust on this team and think that we've arrived, then we're wrong," Herman told reporters.

By the time Baylor fans stopped laughing, FCS program Liberty, a 33-point underdog, was spoiling Bears coach Matt Rhule's debut with a stunning 48-45 victory on Saturday night. It was only the second time Baylor had lost to a lower division team (Division I-AA Lamar upset the Bears 18-17 in the 1981 opener).

"This was not what we wanted tonight," Rhule told reporters. "It does not mean I'm not proud of them. I put this on me. I put this on the coaches. It's our job to get it fixed."

Sumlin might be out of chances to fix the Aggies. Talk about telling the Longhorns and Bears to hold your beer. Early Monday morning, after the Aggies' epic collapse, a Texas A&M board of regents member shared that he'd vote to fire the embattled coach -- in a post on Facebook.

Try to find that kind of passion in the NFL. It's no match. Enjoy your fantasy leagues the next 17 weeks.