It’s mid-August of 2020, the year of the Coronavirus pandemic, and college football continues to figure out if some games will be played, and still has yet to announce who, if anyone, will be allowed to actually attend any games. Beyond that, will tailgating be allowed? How far apart will everyone sit? Can fans buy walk-up tickets? All kinds of questions remain. Frivolous to some people at this time, but eventually we have to get back to enjoying life despite the setbacks.

Conference decisions

The media focuses on the pursuit of the SEC, ACC, and Big XII to get teams ready to play this September while the B1G and PAC-12 plan to wait for spring. However, along with the three “Power” conferences heading into the fray in a few weeks, The American Athletic, ConferenceUSA, The Mountain West, and The Sun Belt prep their players for battle as well. Independents such as Army, BYU, and Liberty try to maintain a semblance of a “full” Fall Schedule. The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame ditched independence this season to play as a full fledged member of the ACC – good move on the parts of both. The only qualm we have is that the ACC forced the Irish to discontinue the longest intersectional rivalry by disallowing the Irish to open in Annapolis to play Navy for their traditional, long-time annual rivalry even though primarily one-sided.

Reservations about this and reservations about that

We still wonder if the games will be played at this point. Any major outbreaks of Covid-19 among teams or even within a major football school (University of North Carolina?) early could put the entire season on hold and the sport in jeopardy. If one player or coach or student manager possibly dies from this pandemic, the entire sport takes a beating that will last longer than one season. As much as we now think of procuring tickets in advance for games that still remain scheduled, we only take a less costly monetary risk. However, the feeling prevails that if football competition pervades on the college gridirons this fall, after 610 games over 40 years, who other then Collegefootballfan.com needs to be part of it with mask, social-distancing, and by whatever other means are necessary.

The new what?

Since March, like many, I’ve been lucky enough to work from home. My employer manufactures ingredients going into disinfectants, soaps, detergents, and the like. As a Purchasing professional, my job is to keep raw materials coming in so our plants can keep up with the markets strong demands. However, boredom has already set in. Besides work, the only other consistent forms of “entertainment and exercise” (still no gyms open by me) are walking twice a day (total of five miles daily) , swimming laps in our pool, and going to eat with Saint Laurie at local restaurants that can now offer only outside seating (let’s see what happens when October rolls in). Yard work and home improvements on weekends fall in line with work – enough already. Only micro-brewery runs break the monotony.

People tend to call this the “new normal”. Pardon me, I call it the “abnormal.” I enjoy living life and experiencing different things. This is getting dull, and I’ll be first in line when a new vaccine is approved! I don’t know how many years lie ahead, but I’ve got to enjoy life and do it with family and friends. A big part of this for me involves college football!

Got the Fever

Salvitation has started like it does every summer though pessimism holds the reins back on me. It’s August. I’ve snapped! Fall with no college football? Usually my schedule is intact with various options by June for every weekend from late August through January. And of course there’s the sanity my St. Laurie needs to maintain. She always asks, “OK, what three games do you want me to go to with you this year? Three at the most.” My football weekends mean freedom for her as well. This season, her interest will coincide with visits to see our son and daughter. One of these visits may actually be a bye week.

Tentative “Wishlist”

To squash this fever with a glimmer of hope that there will be college football being played this fall, I’ve perused the ever-changing slates of schools that plan to play. With limited choices due to minimal games and travel capabilities, this year’s collegefootballfan.com’s tentative slate turns out better than expected. “Tentative” this year is more key than ever, of course.

1.) Will they really play? 2.) Can fans attend? 3.) Will we be able to get tickets due to “pecking orders”? So at this point, we can’t refer to this as our schedule, but only as our “Wishlist”. The good thing for CFF.com? Two FBS teams we enjoy seeing play, Navy and Temple, plan to play and they’ll make up the brunt of our Wishlist with key American Athletic Conference games to be played at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial and Lincoln Financial. Navy games are an overnight trip and Temples games are two-hour drives. Check out our Wishlist below, and wish us luck!

Sept. 7 BYU at Navy, 8 pm Monday

Sept. 12 Bye

Sept. 19 Syracuse at Pitt, or BC at Duke*, Durham, NC

Sept. 26 Temple at Navy

Oct. 3 Western Kentucky at Middle Tennessee* and/or LSU at Vanderbilt (Nashville visit)

Oct. 10 UL-Monroe at Liberty*, Lynchburg, VA

Oct. 17 Virginia at Wake Forest, Winston-Salem, NC (with Jim “Bug” Harton)

Oct. 24 Houston at Navy

Oct. 31 Louisiana at Texas State*, San Marcos, TX (family visit)

Nov. 5 SMU at Temple 7 pm Thursday

Nov. 6 Miami at NC State, Raleigh,NC 7 pm Friday

Nov. 7 Tulsa at Navy

Nov. 14 Memphis at Navy

Nov. 21 ECU at Temple

Nov. 28 Cincinnati at Temple

Dec. 5 Bye

Dec. 12 Army-Navy, Philadelphia

* indicates a new venue for us