No College Football? Maybe No Reelection for the President!

What does normal look like in America? Fall college football being played in front of adoring fans in the stadiums and being watched by millions across the country. And football that matters is what is played at Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma, and the like.

An unsettled country in the middle of a pandemic is looking to grab onto something that feels normal. And that is what college football can deliver. When Americans are watching college football, the mix of players they see on the screen gives a sense of racial harmony, however fleeting it may be and however removed it may be from reality. That is a reprieve from the George Floyd ugliness the country has witnessed. When Americans are talking about football, the joys and sorrows of their teams’ wins and losses suddenly become the topic of their conversations instead of their own troubles with unemployment and the insatiable virus. Football statistics become more important than virus statistics.

If college football is back, campus culture is back. Campus dining and parties are back. Travel is back. Regular business is back. Fun is back. Normal is back. Without a sense of normalcy, the reelection chances of the President will be diminished. That is why there is pressure on academic, financial, and political institutions to do everything they can to make fall football happen.

College students learning in person or online has nothing to do with college football. But if students are not on campus at the stadiums yelling and screaming — even if only a couple of thousand — college football just will not feel real. So that is the deal colleges — the colleges in Power Five conferences that matter in football — are trying to seal. It will not be easy. If it is challenging for the NBA to finish out its season managing about a thousand players collocated within a bubble, the task of keeping the virus at bay with thousands of young adult players and fans of football teams crisscrossing the country is mountainous. Invariably, there will be much sickness and death. Could those numbers be kept down to a level where Americans are focused on football scores and not virus scores?

A bit about me.

I am an avid sports fan. I am a biased fan of many teams and games.