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Ole Miss Football: Tis’ The Season for College Football! Or is it?

By Jim Shute

OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI - OCTOBER 05: A Nike football is seen before a game between the Mississippi Rebels and the Vanderbilt Commodores at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on October 05, 2019 in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI - OCTOBER 05: A Nike football is seen before a game between the Mississippi Rebels and the Vanderbilt Commodores at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on October 05, 2019 in Oxford, Mississippi. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /
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So the SEC finally made a decision on the 2020 college football season. Or at least it’s a starting point to an Ole Miss football season.

With a start date of September 26th and a ten-game conference only schedule, at least we have a beginning for Ole Miss football. We just don’t know where or which two teams that each school will add to complete the ten-game slate. Many were surprised that they didn’t go with the ten plus one scenarios to protect in-state rivalries Florida/Florida State, Georgia/Georgia Tech, and South Carolina/Clemson.

It’s probably because the other eleven schools would have to scramble to find an opponent.  Add to that, with a conference only schedule, each school answers to only one conference and one commissioner. That makes it easy to adjust schedules and enforce new guidelines. What we do know for sure is that Ole Miss’s schedule just became brutal with three easy wins taken off the board.

Can This Scenario Work?

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So will this work? If major league baseball is any indication, then the answer is no.  Football is the most physical non-social distancing sport there is.  Players are breathing hard, sweating, and spitting.  Then there are the fans.

Even if you cap the capacity at 25%, how are you going to social distance fans in the restroom or at the concession stands? And how in the world do you enforce social distancing with hormone raging eighteen to twenty-one-year-old college students?  Good luck with that!

I applaud Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey, the university presidents and athletics directors for trying to salvage a season. There is too much riding on not having college football. If we don’t, it will force colleges and universities to drop several sports and remember you have to have equality between men’s and women’s sports.

Some very difficult and heartbreaking decisions will have to be made. Some have suggested the move to spring football. That won’t work well at all. First, the top players will opt out of playing because the NFL will not move the April draft to a later date. Star players will not want to risk losing millions with a severe injury. Add to that trying to coordinate football, basketball, baseball, softball, track, etc. all at the same time. That is a logistical nightmare.

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I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but more so taking a realistic approach to all of this. So, if we don’t have football, it’s not the end of the world. The vaccines will come out and the virus will fade and football will be back in 2021. The year 2020 has been horrific, but we’ve been here before.

The Spanish flu of 1918 killed up to one-hundred million people during World War One. That was followed up with the Great Depression in 1929, World War II, etc. You get the drift. We came back from all of those and we will again.  We have been blessed with technology to still work and visit with friends and family.  Imagine this pandemic if it was 1918.  Total isolation!

There have been other blessings as well.  Many of us have had more time to spend with our families.  For me, my first granddaughter was born December 19th, 2019 and we’ve been able to see her both in person and via Face Time calls.  My daughter and granddaughter were in a serious car accident in February in Austin, Texas.  Thank the Lord that they came to Dallas for their recovery and weren’t isolated in Austin because of COVID-19.

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I know there have been deaths and many families have been devastated by this virus and it has been depressing. But together we will get through this. I have resigned myself that I may not get to go watch an Ole Miss football game this fall. While I’m disappointed that I may have to wait for the Lane Kiffin era to begin, I have to realize that it’s a game, and my family and I are healthy and that’s what really matters. In the meantime, stay safe and keep your faith. This too shall pass.  Hotty Toddy!

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