The MAC Makes it Official – the World is Nuts

On Friday, the Mid-American Conference did an about face on cancelling the 2020 Fall Football Season, joining the Big 10 and the Pac 12 in reneging on what was a smart decision.  On a day when the national case count was its highest in weeks, when games were being postponed because players were infected, when campuses across the country announced high-level case breakouts in fraternities and dormitories…

...someone thought it was a good idea to play football.

I love college football; it’s my favorite sport to indulge.  I have five “alma maters” I pull for weekly; schools I went to (Eastern Michigan), schools I taught at (EMU, Boise State, and Louisiana – Monroe, and schools I have no other association with other than I lived there (Michigan – I was born in Ann Arbor), and Oregon (lived in Eugene back in the 80s).  Every week my wife loses me to the Internet where I gorge on live radio broadcasts of everyone playing.  I’d indulge at the sportsbook too, if the Oregon Lottery’s Scoreboard too collegiate bets (they don’t, but that’s the least of their problems since they also have a habit of going off line on Sundays during the NFL season – don’t start me here). 

Anyway, suffice to say that when COVID became a threat to all sports, I realized that sacrifices would have to be made, and sports would go on the back burner.  Four of my five teams were in conferences that weren’t playing, and Louisiana – Monroe…isn’t going to show up on anyone’s Top 25.  I don’t get excited about the SEC, and I supposed I could find someone to root for in the Big 12 (which only has 10 members unlike the Big 10 which has…14).  And you wonder why kids today can’t do math.

Face it, especially with college sports, it’s not mandatory for the sake of the nation that young men and women go out and engage in physical feats of athletic prowess just so we fans can live through them vicariously, nor is it necessary to actually receive a college education by having sports teams.  You might have heard of Antioch College, no?  Pretty good academic institution.  No athletics.

What drives college sport is what drives pretty much everything – money.  Athletic departments and universities bemoaned the idea of going without all of that money from ticket sales, fan gear, and TV revenue.  So did ESPN, I’ll bet.  So however it happened, the decision to not play somehow was overruled by “It’ll be fine, probably” thinking and here we are.  The late-starting conferences won’t begin until the good weather has gone, and the seasons will last until it’s bowl time.  Roses in the Snow, Part Two?

It pains me to say that if the colleges won’t stick to their guns, I must stick to mine.  I supported the decision not to play.  I sighed heavily when the Big 10 went back on its word.  I kicked something, hard, when the PAC 12 and then the Mountain West and finally the MAC caved and said, “Let’s play.”

Sorry, guys – I am all out of fucks to give.  Sure, this might be the year Jim Harbaugh and his Wolverines finally beat OSU (even if I could bet on it, I wouldn’t).  Boise State was a favorite to win the Mountain West, and the Ducks of Oregon were favored in the PAC 12.  College football is athletics at its best; exciting, thrilling, fun to watch and listen to.

But not this year.  I just can’t.

Boy, I sure hope no one dies.  Oh, wait…