College football is currently in a state of disarray unseen in most of our lifetimes, with the novel coronavirus pandemic throwing a monkey wrench into the monolithic machine that is collegiate sports. This chaos is made evident in a visual representation of where Football Bowl Series schools will be playing their games put together recently by Brett McMurphy of Stadium.
On Thursday, the college football insider released his map that illustrates where FBS football will be played and where it will not, as well as the middle grounds of the division. The results are rather striking and in many ways completely unsurprising.
.@Stadium breaks down which states will & won’t have FBS programs playing football in fall (thru Aug. 13) pic.twitter.com/wF0eBse3wG
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) August 13, 2020
Note that the red states will not be having any FBS programs play in the fall, states in yellow have a mix of some playing, some not and the green states have all FBS programs playing in the fall.
At first glance, there is one particular characteristic of the displayed data that jumps off the map: the cohesion of the southern states in their commitment to playing college football this fall. With every state represented in the Southeastern Conference shaded in green, it is pretty clear why the league seems insistent upon playing out its schedule through the autumn months.
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