On Tuesday, Notre Dame Athletic Director Jack Swarbrick spoke on The Paul Finebaum Show about the effects of COVID-19 on the 2020 college football season.
Swarbrick said:
“I don’t think you can conduct a season that way, I think spectators are too central to the experience.”
Football without Fans?? What’s your take? pic.twitter.com/ZglYm3uCgD
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) April 7, 2020
Now, although Swarbrick may have concerns more on the financial side of things, he is still right.
As we college football fans well know, there is nothing quite like a Saturday home game.
The atmosphere is the most electric you will feel across the sports world.
Think of some of the most exciting games in sports that you look forward to each year. To name a few, the CFP, the World Series, the NBA Finals, the Masters, etc…
Compare how it feels watching those events on TV to being in the Classic City for a top-10 matchup on a fall Saturday.
Picture that moment as Dawg Nation points to the upper-deck southwest corner of Stanford Stadium.
Goosebumps, right?
Can you imagine a year of college football without those incredible feelings of excitement and loyalty?
Like when the lone trumpeter plays the Battle Hymn of the Republic as 93 thousand people stand silent in respect, while the late Larry Munson narrates the history of UGA football.
Or when the third quarter buzzer sounds and Sanford is lit up with lights during the Red Coat’s performance of Krypton.
The single greatest sports experience of my life was last fall, when I watched a sell-out crowd raise their hands in unison for the fourth quarter of Georgia vs. Notre Dame.
Would a season with no fans level the playing field? Sure it would. But that’s not the point. The fact is, years and years of tradition and success have earned these bigger programs like Georgia the right to play in front of their hostile fans that make life tough on the opposition.
I’ve been to some crazy road games. The most electric atmosphere I’ve ever witnessed in person was actually in Williams-Brice Stadium when Georgia got blown out by South Carolina in Columbia. The fans 100% won the Gamecocks that game, and though I left feeling angry and fearful that Georgia’s season was over, I would not have traded that experience for anything.
That is what college football is about, unity. Thousands of people coming together, regardless of background, to support their team to victory.
Something that we will miss if football is played without fans in attendance…
I would rather have the season postponed, than have to watch a game without those traditions that I have grown to love.
Could you accept a football season without fans?