By Cassidy Pate

We all know that college football is back but, it isn’t the same anymore. College football took a turn when we found out that it would still be played this year. A lot of people wondered how they were going to do it, and a lot were wondering if they would even have fans. 

Practices have been very different for the players on the teams. They aren’t allowed to practice as much as they were practicing before Covid. This is hurting a lot of teams because practicing is obviously very important for any sports team. 

Teams get tested for Covid-19 at least once a week, and if they test positive they are quarantined until they test negative again. 

Fans are not allowed at certain games but are allowed at other games, depending on the state. Only allowing fans at certain schools isn’t very fair when you think about it. Which fans are allowed to go to games though? Students, sports players’ families, people who have bought tickets for the longest time? At the moment, no one knows who will get to go first. On the other hand, some schools are allowing families, which makes sense because most of the families that go are parents or siblings who want to see their child or sibling play. 

On the topic of fans, how are the players reacting to not having fans or having only a small amount of fans at the games? Is this affecting the players? The answer to that question is yes. Every year until now there have been thousands of fans cheering their teams to victory. The players are used to having fans there, and most of the time they play better with a full crowd. Obviously teams shouldn’t rely on fans to help them win because winning is based on how they play, but it actually affects them more than most people realize. 

Are colleges losing money without having fans at the football games? Yes, a lot of the money colleges make comes from sports in general, but especially football. Not having fans there to pay for tickets, food, merchandise, etc. is causing colleges to lose a lot of money. 

Another thing that is confusing about college football during Covid is that they are ranking teams already when a lot of college teams haven’t even played a game yet. For example, the Big Ten Conference includes teams like Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, Wisconsin, and many more who won’t even start  to have games until October. How are they supposed to rank teams properly when some haven’t played yet? 

Colleges were supposed to have a lot more games than they do by now, and most of them were supposed to be against different teams than the ones they’ve played against. Certain teams aren’t allowed to play other teams right now because they don’t usually play them, and they are trying to keep teams specifically playing other teams in the same conference as them. Of course there are exceptions to this, but there are not that many. It was very hard for certain teams to find other teams to play because of this. 

College sports are very special. No matter what sport it is, there is always something pure about watching an amature team play together. There are bonds that are formed between teammates that will never break, and seeing them use that as an advantage on the field is amazing. 

Missing college football is an understatement for most people. Waiting to be able to go to games in person is driving people crazy. In fact, the way a lot of college students make it through the fall semester is thinking about the fact that they get to watch their school’s football team play a bunch of different games throughout the season. 

College football will always have a special place in everyone’s hearts, and we will all be waiting for the day we can go back to seeing games in person.