For many of us it’s a day we didn’t think we’d see in 2020. Notre Dame along with the majority of FBS football will kickoff their season tomorrow in a year that promises to be like none before and hopefully none again.
Attendance will be extremely limited, not just at Notre Dame but at every college football venue nationwide.
The roar of the crowd won’t be the same, the echo of the marching bands won’t be heard and the team walk through campus to the stadium won’t be taking place.
However, a football game will.
I was skeptical of how long our quarantines would last back in March and how long so many parents would not only work from home but also play teacher for their children who couldn’t go to their classrooms.
And despite there not being a cure, despite there not really being a real “return to normalcy” in sight, here we finally are getting ready to take in what for my money is the greatest game in the world: college football.
There is nothing like being on a college campus on a fall Saturday afternoon but unless you’re part of a very select few that won’t be happening for most of us this fall.
The games however will.
They may not have 75,000 fans in the stands but the players will still be there and we’ll still be watching on TV.
Offensive tackle Robert Hainsey put it perfectly earlier this week when he said “I don’t care if there’s no one in the stands. It’s so exciting we get to play this year. That’s all that matters.”
Hainsey, the Irish and 75 other FBS teams have that fortune while the 64 other FBS squads do not.
Nor do countless football players at other levels. Division 3 players who saw their seasons cancelled don’t get a football season and seniors nationwide don’t get a final year of football.
The same goes for the Big Ten, Pac-12, MAC and Mountain West who all canceled their seasons. I can’t help but feel for those fans, but especially the student-athletes.
Are they wrong to have done so? Maybe, maybe not.
What I do know is that the Big Ten appeared in a rush to do so and didn’t think others would find a passable way to attempt to start their own years.
I don’t know what the future brings. I wish I could sit and guarantee that come mid-December that we’ll be sitting here looking forward to Notre Dame playing in the ACC Championship Game.
I certainly hope college football pulls this season off, but stories like the one out of Memphis today keep me worried about the outlook.
Whatever the case may be, we’re a few of the lucky ones.
We get to at least see the start of a college football season, something that many thought had no chance of happening as little as a month ago.
I had doubts we’d get to this day but boy am I happy to have been wrong.
Whatever your rooting interest, enjoy the first real weekend of college football and here’s to hoping we’re still talking about games and not about “what could have been” in December.