After what felt like an endless sports drought, football is finally back. Although basketball has been back for quite some time, football, the king of sports, has just begun its season. We are able to finally see our home teams and college favorites take the field on Fridays and Saturdays, sort of. 

I am grateful that college football is back, but it is definitely strange. For starters, the first week was a bunch of pointless teams from small conferences that we forgot had a program, but I do love watching a good game. The second week was headlined with Clemson destroying Wake Forest, with Wake Forest’s best highlights coming from the punt game, and long snapper Jacob Zuhr getting a lot of action. Georgia Tech against UCF was also interesting…until the third quarter when UCF pulled away, but I will never turn down a good college football game.

As for Hagerty, football games will be very different on Friday nights. I feel like students will have to take attendance in the student section with a classroom seating chart. But at least some of us get to watch them play this season, especially when you think about all the south Florida schools that have cancelled their seasons, but it simply will not be the same. The student section might be there, but it will not be much of one. If there is a student section, maybe the masks will help you breathe through all the baby powder in the air. 

After the games on Friday, when Saturday rolls around, the college football scene is going to be very different as well. The two powerhouse conferences, South Eastern Conference (SEC) and Big 10, are coming in late to the super-selective college football party. The SEC and Big 10 are implementing an inter conference game schedule, while the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is allowing one regular season game outside of their conference. The only team that benefits from this is Clemson, because their practice squad could beat the majority of the conference. 

With these conference only games, it gives the SEC much more competition within itself since the conference has multiple good quality teams and plenty of room for upsets by the underdog, compared to the ACC and Big 10 where Clemson and Ohio State will run the table.

And as a fan of the Georgia Bulldogs, it seems slightly unfair for the postseason, since most every team in the SEC will have a tougher schedule than the majority of the country, but it should be fun to watch. 

Another frustrating thing about this season is that regardless of who takes home the national championship, the FHSAA State Championships, or any achievement accomplished this year, there will be an asterisk next to all of them. Whether a conference does not play, if they only play a partial schedule, or if players opt out of the season due to COVID-19 concerns. Fans will debate any 2020 trophies, but the show must go on. 

Like I said, I am really looking forward to watching football this season on a somewhat regular basis, but at least the season will happen and UCF will be kept from their second national championship.