Do you miss college football? Do you miss the tailgates, the roar of thousands of spectators, or the thrill of seeing a touchdown pass? As summer begins, many fans are already counting down the days until college football season begins, unaware that the sport never even really left.
The Alabama Crimson Tide clinched the College Football National Championship on January 11, 2016 and this victory seemingly marked the end of the season. However, Alabama’s win over Clemson in Glendale, Arizona actually marked the beginning of a new year in college football as opposed to the conclusion.
Even though the games have concluded, the spirit of college football lives on. The media offers constant coverage of college football throughout the entire year, and fans consume all of it. I remember going to bed around 1 a.m., and waking up later that morning to at least three or four “Way Too Early Top 25 Polls for the 2016 Season." The championship game was not even a day old and people were already moving onto the next season.
The coverage did not stop after the title game either, as media, fans, and coaches alike focused on the future of college football: National Signing Day. Message boards, Twitter feeds, and comment sections were full of speculation, excitement, anger, and hope based on the commitments or decommitments of senior high school football players across the nation. National recruiting websites such as 247 Sports, Rivals, and ESPN offered around the clock coverage of recruiting events. On National Signing Day itself, news outlets both locally and nationally broadcasted day-length shows full of interviews with players and coaches, rankings of the top recruiting classes, and updates on official signees.
The madness that is National Signing Day then carries fans into team workouts. During this early portion of the spring, players train to condition themselves for the upcoming spring practice. This is also the time where early enrollees, signees that forgo their second semester of their senior year to attend college early, arrive on campus and officially join the team for the first time. Even though this period of time appears to bland, fans still want to know who is running fast, who has gotten stronger, and which player might step up, even though no practices are being held.
The next phase after workouts is spring practice. In years past, spring practice was an afterthought. It used to be something only players and coaches cared about and the outside world had little knowledge of the events that transpired during this period of time. Today, however, spring practice has become a spectacle as college football enthusiasts now use spring ball as a chance to get a preview of how teams may look in the upcoming season. Any info that media members can extract from a practice becomes sacred to fans starving for knowledge on their favorite team. If a new player makes an insane catch or a big hit it becomes headline news. If a coaching staff makes a change up among the starters or in their respective schemes, either praise or concerns arise.
The circus that is spring practice finally culminates with the spring game. The spring game in its essence is a glorified scrimmage. The main difference between the spring game and normal practice is that fans are allowed to watch the entirety of a spring game. That one difference may appear to be minor, but it has become a game changer in recent years. I attended Florida State’s spring game, which was held off campus at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando. According to 247 Sports, 49,913 fans were cheering on the Seminoles at their spring game. The University of Georgia had 93,000, while Ohio State University had 103,000 attendees.
The enthusiasm for college football never wanes. The aforementioned spring game attendance totals clearly indicate this. As teams and fans alike transition from spring practice to the summer, the longing for college football intensifies. Despite this longing, if one looks around they will realize that the game never left. Fall camp will be here before you know it, and pre-season Top 25 polls are already arriving. For those that only want real game action, then they only have to wait a little longer. There are less than 100 days until the college football games take place, less than 100 days for the clock to keep running on the game that we all love.
