I have only ever been a fan of one college football team, the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns. In recent years, I have been slowly warming up to other Sun Belt teams. This season, however, I am even more set in my ways because of the action of most of the other conferences (and Louisiana’s win over Iowa State).
Since COVID-19 came around, the whole world has lost its mind. Between some of the travel restrictions and societal restrictions, various members of the NCAA football world were able to make their place and find increasingly ridiculous ways to exhibit caution. First and foremost as the conferences who decided to postpone their seasons altogether. The Big Ten, Pac-12, Mid-American Conference, and the Mountain West Conference all jumped early to cancel some or all of their fall sports. They were joined by a handful of schools who separated from their conference to cancel their own seasons. Obviously, college football is back, and so the leadership for these conferences must surely feel like a fool now. I know I would.
While cancelling entire seasons seems wild enough, the SEC took the stupidity a step farther and opened up the season to 10 conference only games. This move looks like both a “holier-than-thou” attitude by the SEC, and the strangest coronavirus precaution ever. Most of the other remaining conferences are allowing room for at least one non-conference game, which is a step in the right direction. Allowing the schools freedom to play outside their conference is the best way to truly gauge the merit of all of the teams. Imagine how little sense college football rankings and playoffs can be this year.
Sun Belt, of course, picked the best situation: eight conference games with the freedom to play four non-conference games. While the SEC will be holed off to themselves, the Sun Belt Conference is being put on display as having talented teams (Louisiana becoming a ranked team, 21, after the win over then-23 Iowa State; Arkansas State win over Kansas State; Coastal Carolina win over Kansas).
Now that college football has come back to life for a week or two, the Big Ten suddenly decides that, hey, maybe we SHOULD play this year! These clowns, who jumped the gun in postponing the season, realizes the error of their ways and wants to come back. And who could blame them? I’m sure they got scared of losing that sweet, sweet football money—however little they are set on collecting.
But the impact of these messed up seasons should be thought out: If fall sports are postponed until spring, guess who is going to suffer? The football teams will, having very limited seasons without much diversity. The spring sports will suffer as well, knowing they will have to share time, fans, and school resources with the fall sports. The fall sport fans will be suffering from the same issues as the football teams and other fall sports. And the conferences will suffer the loss of respect by people like me, who think they made great mistakes and should pay dearly.
This may be a hot-take, but it deserves to be said anyway. The SEC should not be allowed to hold ranked positions or qualify for college playoffs. If they don’t want to play with teams outside their conference, they should be ignored just as much as their positions are considered.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/12/college-football-canceled-faq/
Bayou Observant 