Greg Schiano loves the competition and level playing field of the NFL

Greg Schiano appeared on Pro Football Talk live yesterday and talked about a lot of different things. One of the things that stood out to me was his thoughts on the level playing field in the NFL. One of the reasons college teams can succeed year after year after year is by having superior talent. Good teams can out-recruit other teams consistently, giving them a leg up in any race. Despite that advantage, and Rutgers had certainly built up that advantage in the final years of Schiano's tenure, he never won the Big East.

But to Schiano, the added competition of having to build a roster in a level playing field in the NFL is something he loves about the league. Other college coaches may have failed in the past because of this, such as Nick Saban, Bobby Petrino and Steve Spurrier. But Schiano doesn't think it will limit him. Here's what he told Mike Florio:

I think it makes it harder for everybody. The thing that I believe and the thing that I live about the NFL is that it is designed to bring everybody back to the middle. You know, with inverse scheduling, with inverse draft order, with like you said the salary cap being consistent. Although there's ways to monkey around with that, but still it keeps everybody in the same ballpark. Unlike college where if you do your job and you're one of the 'haves', there's really no reason for you to ever come back to the pack. The only thing that gets you is human nature. I love the fact about pro football that you have a chance to compete on what is as level a playing field as you're going to find in sports. To me that's exciting, I think to some that might be a little bit intimidating. If you're in a place in a college where you have all these advantages, why would you give that up? I kind of love the competition of a level playing field.

Now, nobody tell the Cleveland Browns about this level playing field.