Why I like the proposed delay of NCAA football

I love football. NCAA, NFL, high school, virtually any level or rendition is sure to get me interested – which is why it might shock anyone who knows me, or anyone reading this, to discover that I am a fan of the idea of delaying the start of the 2020 college football season to the spring of 2021.

Sports of all varieties hold a special place in my heart. Much to my wife's dismay, I will watch just about any sport. Initially, when I first saw the announcements start trickling in from various NCAA conferences that they will be delaying fall sports, I was upset. I quickly realized that this could be a very good thing for my football viewing pleasure.

First, if collegiate games were held this fall, odds are that fan attendance would either be severely limited or banned altogether. By delaying the season, I like the chances of at least some fan attendance.

Currently, Major League Baseball is about two weeks into its 60-game season (down from the standard 162 games). As you can imagine, I watch that sport, too. In fact, this year MLB will be ramping up for its postseason just as the NFL begins its season. Currently, the NFL is planning to have its standard 16-game season, the only change being the cancellation of all four pre-season games that each team would normally have. In any other, non-pandemic year, the NFL and NCAA football seasons run concurrently. This year, if things go as planned, I can enjoy an almost seamless transition from one football season to the next with little waiting. The NFL season runs from September to January with playoffs and the Super Bowl ending the season in early February. NCAA football usually ends in late October/early November with bowl games sprinkled throughout December and the big bowl games taking place and the national champions being crowned shortly after the new year. It looks as if this year I could watch the Super Bowl in February and then still have plenty of college football to watch before the NCAA begins its bowl season in the spring. This would mean that dead space that normally occurs each year from Super Bowl Sunday to NFL draft day in late April will be filled with high quality, good old American Football. And by then, MLB should be back up and running.

In any other run of the mill year, my spring sports life is filled with lazy, almost meaningless NBA games; a small, exciting couple weeks of March Madness (NCAA basketball); and a lot of waiting for the good stuff.

I know people are used to their fall tailgates and cheering on their favorite teams. But we can be glass half empty people and be sad about it, or we can be glass half full people who see the potential advantage this whole odd year we call 2020 will provide for us regarding our sports viewing.