It's not breaking any news to say that the second week of September was a horrific one for the sport of football in general. In fact, in 10-20 years' time, we may look back on this past week as the beginning of the end of football's reign as America's most popular spectator sport.
And from the Ray Rice video that appeared early Monday morning, to John Abraham's awful memory loss brought on by years of head injuries to Adrian Peterson's indictment on child abuse charges, each piece of bad news makes me wonder seriously if this is a sport I want to support. I also have concerns if it's one that can even survive due to prohibitive public health concerns.
Of course, all of these big stories this week were in the NFL and not college football. But the naiveté ship of college football somehow being a more pure game has long since sailed. Former Missouri receiver Dorial Green-Beckham will likely play next year for Oklahoma after assaulting a woman this past offseason. The reigning Heisman Trophy winner was accused of rape last year, and not charged after a shamefully weak investigation. And then there's the continued behavior of the NCAA, athletic directors and university presidents, who are clinging to a broken and outdated pretense of amateurism.
From a personal fandom standpoint, this season began in a frustrating way. South Carolina, my favorite college team, was projected by many to win the SEC East. A very manageable schedule by SEC standards meant that a conference championship, a potential one-loss season and a berth in the inaugural College Football Playoff weren't necessarily overly optimistic goals.
Then the games started.
From the first drive on against Texas A&M, the Gamecocks were thoroughly outclassed on both sides of the ball. The only respite came on a couple of long first-half touchdown passes for South Carolina, each time because the same Aggie defensive back made an error. For Week 2, the Gamecocks had to pull out a victory over underdog East Carolina with a marathon drive in the fourth quarter. In retrospect, after the Pirates' win at Virginia Tech, that close call might be a quality win.
But facing Georgia would be another challenge entirely after the Bulldogs’ dominant second half against Clemson followed by a bye week. Frankly, it was a challenge I thought would be over South Carolina's head.
When thunderstorms in the Columbia area delayed the start of the game by 90 minutes, my reaction was something along the lines of, "Hey, they won't lose until 8:30 Eastern!" It also meant that I could watch the conclusion of the excellent Real Madrid-Atletico Madrid game, the second straight game in the early Spanish La Liga season that Real has lost.
In juxtaposing the sports during a day watching soccer and college football, and after reading Bill Connelly's magnificent series this week of soccer travels in England, the beauty of college football, despite everything frustrating and supremely concerning about it, became crystal-clear.
As you probably know by now if you're reading this, South Carolina saved its season (for now) with a heart-stopping 38-35 win. The fourth quarter alone felt like it had enough dramatics for a couple months, or even a season. The Outback Bowl after the 2012 season was the only true comparison I can offer as a Gamecocks fan from a suspense standpoint, with the caveat that bowls, to me, are not as important as games with iconic and/or good conference teams.
The fact that this contest was such a huge SEC tilt led me to conclude that college football's most wonderful aspect is its brevity.
There's a certain amount of irony in making a statement like this, depending on what angle you take. After all, televised college football games typically run longer than NFL games and even most playoff baseball games. But the season is so short that every game takes on a massive importance that no other big professional or college sport can offer.
Think about the massive stakes for the Georgia/South Carolina game. If Georgia had won, it would effectively have a two-game lead plus a tiebreaker over South Carolina. The Bulldogs likely would have been favorites for every remaining game, and an Oct. 11 win at Missouri would have made it extremely tough for anyone else to win the East. A South Carolina loss would have effectively meant the Gamecocks' goal of going to Atlanta was dead and buried a mere 16 days after kicking off the season.
Now, as it stands, while you'd think that Georgia still has the strongest team on paper in that division, it's anyone's to win.
If you're looking for those kinds of stakes and potential implications in a September NFL game, or a contest in the first several weeks of a major European soccer league, you won't find them. And even though if you follow both sports, you're sure to hear talk this week of why 0-2 NFL teams can't make the playoffs, or why Real Madrid 's hundreds of millions have destabilized the Champions League winners, the fact is that they have quite a bit of time and many opportunities to turn things around.
When South Carolina clinched the game on Saturday after the closest first down measurement you could ever possibly imagine, I had to lay on the floor and simply laugh at what I had just seen. In no other sport can you have such crazy finishes and have them mean so much to the progression of a season so early in the season.
And while one incredible game of football on a rainy Saturday evening in South Carolina's Midlands won't have any impact on the societal and wellness issues that affect the sport, it did remind me why I watch, and why the thrill of down-to-the-wire competition in college football is unlike anything else.
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