Hope: What College Football Accomplished in an Otherwise Abysmal 2020

Throughout the 2020-2021 college football season, many moments that would usually be deemed normal had a different sort of feeling.

Like it or not, the season happened. In the midst of a pandemic that still to this day is far from behind us, games still happened, a College Football Playoff and bowl games occurred, and a national champion was crowned.

The Southeastern Conference hosted a 10-game, conference-only schedule. The ACC hosted an 11-game schedule. The Big 12, a nine-game conference-only schedule. The PAC-12 and Big Ten, albeit delayed, each hosted seven and eight games respectively.

While fielding football in 2020 was a success for all conferences, the SEC emerged above them all. With 71 games scheduled including the conference championship game, 70 of the games occurred — Georgia and Vanderbilt’s original matchup slated for Dec. 5 was never able to be made up.

Prior to the season’s start, the conference schedules’ announcements were met with resounding praise from fans while also garnering much criticism. Many experts claimed that the season was doomed from the start, with projected positive testing rates skyrocketing and seasons having to be cancelled.

The critics cried out that programs and fans alike should just move on from their beloved sport. Many called it a money-grabbing move. In a way, it was. However, too many people wanted to cling to something; something that would bring a sense of normalcy. College football was just that.

Before his team's first game was even played, Alabama football coach Nick Saban stated that he believed that the players were safer on campus than they were back at home.

"I want to play, but I want to play for the players' sake, the value they can create for themselves," Saban told ESPN back in August. "I know I'll be criticized no matter what I say, that I don't care about player safety. Look, players are a lot safer with us than they are running around at home. We have around a two-percent positive ratio on our team since the Fourth of July. It's a lot higher than that in society.

“We act like these guys can't get this unless they play football. They can get it anywhere, whether they're in a bar or just hanging out."

Saban was indeed heavily criticized for that statement. However, ultimately what he said played out.

Heading to Bryant-Denny Stadium on game day was the first of many surreal experiences in 2020. For the Crimson Tide's second game of the season following its season-opening road trip at Missouri, lines into the stadium were a thing of the past. A reduced capacity — with seating limits hovering around 20,000 compared to the usual 101,000 — kept fans from crowding in the usual spots. Concession stands, vendors and bathrooms were all socially distanced. Mask-wearing was mandatory for everyone in attendance.

For the media, it was much of the same. Mask-wearing and assigned, socially-distant seating were mandatory. Pre-game meals were served in prepackaged to-go boxes rather than in the usual self-serve manner. Stats were sent out via email rather than distributed in paper form — while that might not sound like a huge hindrance to the average fan, trust me when I say that those of us that like to write down notes had to experience quite an adjustment.

Even the pre-game Walk of Champions was different. On a typical Saturday, fans would crowd the edges of the walk at the north end zone of the stadium, craning their necks to catch a glimpse of Saban or their favorite players. This year, though, a barricade prevented fans from coming within 30 feet of their beloved team.

All of these were quite the adjustments from the typical season, yet all were willingly and understandably followed by the majority of fans. If college football was to happen, sacrifices were to be made.

Still, college football was played. Against all odds, the season was accomplished without a single player or coach in the FBS passing away from a COVID-related incident, as many critics feared would happen.

In fact, Saban’s statement proved to be more than true. In a study conducted in the Pac-12 — the conference that contains four of its universities in the state of California, arguably the hardest-hit state in the pandemic — athlete positivity rates were actually lower than those of their surrounding areas.

“The student-athlete positivity rate compared to campus at large was always lower, and campus positivity rates were lower than the surrounding communities,” senior associate athletic director for sports medicine at Oregon State Dr. Doug Aukerman told SI in January. “The student-athletes were allowed to engage in something they wanted to do, with protocols and testing in place, and it gave them another reason to practice all the safety measures that society at large has failed at miserably.”

Players still tested positive despite player health and safety remaining an utmost priority in college football this past season. However, positivity rate was significantly lower due to their involvement in college athletics.

To this writer, that alone makes the season worth it.

The 2020 football season did not completely escape the grasp of COVID-19, though. While the SEC managed to conduct 70 of its 71 scheduled games, other conferences experienced even more troubles.

In the Big Ten, so many games were postponed or cancelled altogether that the conference changed its rules to allow a 5-0 Ohio State team attend its conference championship game — amending the very guidelines that it had established just months prior. The strategy ultimately worked, as the Buckeyes were ultimately the runner-up in college football, but the example perfectly summarizes the absolute chaos that the 2020 season was capable of.

As the bowl slate was announced, 21 schools announced that it would opt out of making a bowl appearance to end their respective seasons. In total, 25 bowl games were played with 16 being cancelled — a 39-percent cancellation rate, nearly double that of a normal year’s 19.7-percent.

Perhaps the most jarring event of the 2020 season happened on New Year’s Day in Arlington, Texas. The Rose Bowl Game, which was originally scheduled to be played in its usual location of Pasadena, Calif., was moved to AT&T Stadium due to the strict COVID-19 laws currently in place in the bowl’s home state.

A Rose Bowl logo displayed on a field in Texas? A perfect way to summarize the 2020 football season: unconventional, yet getting the job done.

After the dust settled from the 2020 season, Alabama was crowned as its ultimate victor. To many, that was a return to normalcy: the Crimson Tide’s dynasty continued, with not even COVID-19 being able to stand in its path.

After the game, Saban reflected on his team’s accomplishments and the extra adversity added from the pandemic.

“I'm just so proud of our team for what they've accomplished all season long, the adversity they had to overcome, the togetherness that they have as a group, the way they've supported one another,” Saban told reporters. “To go undefeated, win 11 SEC games, win the national championship, beat two fine teams in Notre Dame and Ohio State, tell you how proud I am of that.

“Really just can't say enough, can't really put it into words in terms of how proud I am of this group, this team, because they are the ultimate team.”

With the 2020 season over, all that was left to be played was the annual Senior Bowl — an event hosting the best college football players in the country who have declared for the NFL draft and hope to increase their stock heading into the offseason. With the NFL Draft Combine cancelled, it was the last shot aside for players to practice live in front of scouts heading into the late-April draft.

Standing on the sidelines of the field, the experience was once again surreal. In most ways, the season ended just as it had begun for Crimson Tide fans back on that October day in Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Stands that would usually be packed with fans, scouts and media members stood almost vacant throughout the week. Only reporters and scouts were allowed and even then, each was assigned to a specific side of the stadium. No on-the-field access was permitted except for limited Senior Bowl personnel, players and coaches. In the stands, media members and scouts were made to wear masks — as they had all season — and were told to practice social distancing in the stands.

On game day, Hancock Whitney Stadium — the new home for the Senior Bowl on the campus of the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Ala. — crowds were extremely limited. Merchandise vendors and concession stands encouraged social distancing. Mask wearing was a requirement. All things that many people would have scoffed at just 12 months prior were all in full swing, and everyone was compliant.

To this writer, things will never be the same. Yes, mask-wearing and social distancing will ultimately be rescinded as the pandemic slowly de-escalates and the vaccine continues to be distributed to the masses, but the appreciation for college football will only increase.

After all of the limited stadium capacities, all of the masks, all of the social distancing and safe hygiene practices, all of the hurdles that went on behind the scenes that even we are still unaware of, college football happened in some capacity.

Was it the greatest season ever? No, it wasn’t. Saban was unable to stand on the sidelines during the Iron Bowl. The annual Ohio State vs Michigan game was outright cancelled. Asterisks were thrown up left and right during the year, yet ultimately, the season pressed onward.

At the end of the day, 2020 was a college football season that no one will soon forget. It came with its fair share of controversy, drama, highs and lows. Yet it did what it set out to do from the start: provide fans and players a sense of normalcy in a weary world riddled with doubt, anxiety and discouragement for the years to come.

In a sense, college football provided people with what they needed most: hope. And at the end of the day, hope alone is what made the 2020 season worth every second.