Many college football fans can remember back to the insane season that was 2007. Known as the ‘Year of the Upset,’ the number two team in the country seemed to be getting knocked off every week. The number one team was upset three times, with two of those times being eventual national champion LSU. Even Kansas was a national championship contender. The craziness of the 2007 season was considered abnormal. While 2017 was also crazy, it wasn’t 2007 levels of crazy. But if there were any year that would be crazy, this year’s college football season reflects the craziness of 2020 to perfection.
To begin, one power five conference began its football season this past weekend. The Pac 12 began play the first week of November, with two games already getting canceled due to covid. In those slate of games, the best game was Arizona State-USC, with the Trojans scoring two touchdowns in the final two minutes and beating the Sun Devils 28-27. The importance of the Pac 12 is understated, considering the number 4 spot in the college football playoffs might be up for grabs. Right now, the teams will probably be Alabama, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Clemson. However, there will most likely be a rematch of this week’s Notre Dame-Clemson in the ACC Championship game in December. With Notre Dame’s win against a Trevor Lawrence-less Clemson, they have vaulted themselves into the playoff discussion, yet can easily be taken out of the discussion with a loss in the Championship game. Both Alabama and Ohio State look unstoppable right now, led by Heisman level play by their quarterbacks Mac Jones and Justin Fields. With all of this being said, given the way this college football season has gone, those four teams that currently make up a potential college football playoff could easily get upset. Clemson went down to the wire the week before against Boston College. Notre Dame has not looked good in many games this season, and that could come back to bite them.
There were plenty of other teams that looked as if they could make a run at the College Football Playoff, but their hopes got dashed early most notably Oklahoma. The idea of the Sooners starting 1-2 sounds like mythology, yet that is exactly what happened. Michigan was looking to rebound after a disappointing end to 2019, yet currently sit at 1-2, with Jim Harbaugh’s seat currently in flames. Florida is currently primed to have a date with Alabama in the SEC championship game after defeating Georgia, yet they lost to Texas A&M. Oklahoma State was fun for a while before they returned to reality, as was Mississippi State. Yet the two most disappointing teams this college football season have got to be Penn State and LSU. The Nittany Lions sit at 0-3, and while two of those losses came against top 10 teams, they laid a complete goose egg this week against Maryland, and the talk of the safety of James Franklin’s job has begun. LSU lost a ton of great talent this offseason, and a result of that is how bad their defense is, but it is not an incorrect assumption that the defending champions would at least be over .500 at the midpoint of their season.
Other storylines from this odd college football season include Indiana becoming a top 10 team. Even when they lose to Ohio State, they’ll still be a fun team to discuss. Texas A&M being in the conversation for a New Year’s bowl game is a pleasant surprise, as there were questions about Jimbo Fisher’s job security before the season. The other major storyline is the potential for BYU or Cincinnati to be put in the Playoff, though the result of the ND-Clemson game complicates that. Regardless, Cincinnati’s defense has been lights out, and BYU’s Zach Wilson has become a legit Heisman candidate and potential first round pick. Other fun “non-Power Five” teams are Coastal Carolina, Liberty, and Marshall, all currently undefeated.
This college football season is absolutely nuts, and it will likely only get weirder, but it would be wrong to not mention the reason for why this season is the way it is: Covid. Many great talents opted out of the season due to the threat of the pandemic, and it has negatively affected many teams. Scheduling has also been a problem as well, with many games getting moved or outright canceled. The season will be finished (I think), and there will be a champion crowned, but the financial and moral impacts of this season will for years. There will especially be questions that flow into the NIL argument, as these players are not getting compensated for risking their health during a once in a generation pandemic. While it is important to contemplate many questions about this season, and about the pandemic itself, in the meantime, the return of college football is also a symbol of hope for many Americans. The most passionate fans in America are on the college level rather than the professional level, and if for one three hour period a week, they can watch their favorite team play and forget about the issues, then it can offer hope that this shall pass and that normalcy can return. And if normalcy looks like Texas blowing a game by fumbling on the goal line in the last minute, then life is almost back to normal.
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