On Monday, the Big Ten canceled this week’s Northwestern-Minnesota game. By not playing, Northwestern essentially clinches the Big Ten West. We could spend several sentences explaining, but we’ll settle for this: It’s 2020.
“Unprecedented circumstances” were the words Geoff Collins used Saturday night, his deep voice tracking a crescendo to describe Georgia Tech’s November, which included no games until the 28th. We could use the same description as a blanket over the entirety of college football in this pandemic year. Georgia saw one transfer quarterback opt out without playing a down; the Bulldogs’ first seven games saw three different starting QBs.
Florida State hasn’t played since Nov. 14. As we speak, it has no scheduled games remaining. (Some of its three consecutive postponements might be made up — or not.) The Pac-12, which chose to wait until November to start playing, now sees its teams scrambling to find replacement opponents, the result of which was a 9 a.m. Sunday kickoff for UCLA against Cal, which had expected to be playing Arizona State. Owing to two cancellations and Big Ten rules, Ohio State stands a better chance of playing for the national championship than for its conference title.
For the next three weeks, Stanford cannot practice or play in Santa Clara County, where it’s based. LSU saw receiver Ja’Marr Chase, its best returning player, opt out of the season before it began. Its best remaining player, receiver Terrace Marshall, opted out of the Tigers’ final two games via Instagram on Sunday. Nick Saban, the nation’s best coach, watched Alabama play its biggest rival via television. (He yelled at the screen, he conceded.) Trevor Lawrence, the nation’s best player, missed Clemson’s biggest game and, due to protocols and postponements but not injury, went 34 days without playing.
Florida coach Dan Mullen lobbied for his team’s stadium to allow a capacity crowd for its game against LSU on Oct. 17. Mullen tested positive that week; the LSU game, minus Terrace Marshall, was postponed until Dec. 12. Nebraska, which threw a fit over the Big Ten’s original decision not to play, has made the least of its second chance; it’s 1-4, having beaten only Penn State, which is 1-5. Penn State’s only victory came against Michigan, which is 2-4.
The SEC has responded to its rearranged season by doing as SEC schools do in normal times — by firing two head coaches. (It just means more, pandemic or no pandemic.) The cancellation of Wisconsin’s game with Minnesota meant two things: The Badgers, having suffered three cancellations, weren’t eligible to win the Big Ten West, and that rivalry, which had been staged every year since 1906 and after which the winner gets custody of Paul Bunyan’s Axe, wasn’t renewed in 2020.
All the above is unprecedented. The folks in charge of college football — meaning the Power Five commissioners and presidents, not the NCAA — decided their moneymaker needed to be played in the worst possible way, and that’s exactly what has happened. As every week counts down, we scribes check our email to see which games have been quashed. The ACC surprised us on Saturday, announcing at 5:22 p.m. on Nov. 28 that the Wake Forest-Miami game scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 5, was off.
Two weeks running, opponents flew to Tallahassee expecting to play Florida State. Two weeks running, those opponents flew home having accomplished nothing but the joys inherent in air travel. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney was outraged at having been inconvenienced. Dabo is easily outraged.
In 20 days, the College Football Playoff committee will announce its field. If COVID cases get worse, and there’s no reason to think they won’t, there’s no telling how many December games will get played. Let’s say Ohio State finishes 5-0 — that’d mean one more cancellation — and is locked out of the Big Ten title game. Would the 5-0 Buckeyes be better, in the committee’s collective eye, than a 9-1 Texas A&M? Than a 10-0 Cincinnati? Than a 10-0 BYU?
The Pac-12 has no chance of putting a team in the playoff. (That’s what happens when you opt not to play, then decide to start in November.) The Big 12 has scant chance. (That’s what happens when Oklahoma loses to Iowa State, which lost to Louisiana.) This leaves the ACC, which now includes Notre Dame, the SEC and the Big Ten. If Clemson beats Notre Dame for the ACC championship and Florida upsets Alabama in the SEC title tilt, the four-team playoff might tell Ohio State, “Sorry, but your body of work is too skinny,” and make the four-team tournament a two-league event.
In a year where every script has been shredded, one possible constant remains. There’s every chance that January’s championship game will be the opposite of unprecedented. Alabama and Clemson met in the playoffs four years running. They played each other for the title three times in four years. Each has graced the championship game four times in five years. Each has won the CFP twice.
In this weirdest of seasons, A Clemson-Bama final would be the weirdest bit of all. Four months of stops and starts and diversions and digressions could end with the same two teams doing as they always do. The more things change, the more they … well, you know.
About the Author
