Where is college football at, almost, the halfway point of the season?
Obviously, we’ve never seen a college football season, or an NFL season, quite like this one. The conferences that chose to play amidst the national pandemic can be placed into three categories: the ACC, the SEC and the Big Eight.
The ACC has to be considered the safest, despite some games that have been canceled, a few rescheduled and only two teams (Pitt and Duke) that have played every weekend of the season so far.
The revised schedule, which was 10 ACC games plus one outside opponent, has held together pretty well. Pitt has played every game as it was laid out in the revision, beating Syracuse and Louisville and then losing three in a row to drop out of contention for the top two spots in the final ACC standings, which will determine the combatants in the ACC championship game in Charlotte, either December 12 or 19.
The SEC, as many expected, talked a good game with their protocols, but is approaching almost $1 million in fines imposed by Commissioner Greg Sankey for various health violations. Were you surprised that Nick Saban was back on the ‘Bama sideline only four days after positive COVID test? Sounds like Trump and his miraculous recovery.
The Big Eight has also played with some juggling of the schedule, but most of their schools were in lightly hit areas of the country north of Texas, and that league could be affected by the second wave that is coming. The biggest surprise there is how mediocre Oklahoma and Texas have been so far. Both are 1-2 in Big 12 play, 2-2 overall.
But now comes the Big Ten and the Pac 12, which both postponed their seasons in August and set their sights on the spring, which we all knew wouldn’t happen. Protests, coaches speaking out and even the president phoning in didn’t do as much as the Big Ten learning from leagues that have played and deciding to test every day.
Right now, we have five Big Ten teams ranked that start to play this weekend. Two from the Pac 12 are also in the polls, and they don’t open up until November 7. It’s been a checkered start, and how they finish is, literally, up in the air with COVID-19 particles.
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