No Idea of What’s Going On with College Football

I have no idea what’s going on with college football.

Will they play?

Who will play?

When will they play?

If they do play, how many games?

Will anyone be there to see them play?

Why would they play?

Why wouldn’t they play?

I can’t answer any of it.

I don’t think anyone else can either.

Pro sports are great for the cities in the various leagues.

But every town, big and small, comes alive during the college football season.

It’s more than just game day. It’s about the days leading up to the games.

The pep rallies and the alums arriving in town and all the excitement that goes with it.

The pre-game parties and the post-game parties.

It’s about athlete-students trying to get ready for pro careers.

It’s about the student-athletes earning a letter and someday telling their kids and grand kids that they played football in college.

It’s about coaches who have prepared for their role as teachers.

It’s about coaches who want to win for their resume.

It’s about those coaches who look to advance to a higher level.

Maybe the NFL.

It’s about the shops, the restaurants and bars who depend on a season.

So, like most enterprises, it’s about money.

Lots of money for the schools. The huge amounts of TV money. Money that will keep an entire college alive and kicking.

It’s the spirit of autumn.

The big schools who dream of a national championship.

And the smaller schools who simply dream of the college way of life.

Some have said no.

The Big Ten and the Pac-12. Throw in the Ivy League and the Big East.

Some have said yes. So far.

Kevin Warren Big Ten Commissioner

 

 

The SEC, the Big-12, and the ACC.

Non-conference play is out.

So are full 12-game schedules.

No one seems to be on the same page.

Will they play in the Spring? The Big Ten thinks it can. Then play next season in the Fall.

People who would know how feasible that is, say there’s no way. Urban Meyer, the former Ohio State head coach, and now Fox expert is one. 

Urban Meyer

 

 

 

The players, for the most part, want to play. They say they’re safer than not playing.

The coaches want to play. The Athletic Directors who reduced their school’s schedules say let the games begin.

But the presidents of two of the power conferences voted against it.  In the Big Ten the vote was 12-2.

Students are headed back to campuses. They are at Notre Dame.

It seems to be about being careful on one side, and opening the doors to life as we know it, and taking a chance in doing so, on the other side.

What’s the right answer?  Who knows?

Notre Dame campus

 

 

I find that generally if experts are more cautious in their approach, it’s the safer way to go.

No one will ever criticize an expert who takes the harder stand, even if it ultimately proves to have been unnecessary.

But if a more tolerant stance is taken, and things turn out to be worse than expected, watch out!

It’s easy for anyone to voice an opinion, especially when they are not the experts who study data and facts and all the things that make them the experts they are.

But there is such a thing as emotion and spirit and the will to want to experience life. 

We saw it during the lockdown and this appears to be a junior version of it.

There is more testing of athletes, and while there have been breakouts of the virus affecting the various sports, the protocols seem to be working.

Nothing will be 100%. There is no question about that.

But there is an unmistakable groundswell for there to be a college football season of some form this Fall.

I guess we’ll know soon.

We’re past the halfway mark in August.

September is comin’ in but fast.

LSU practice