MIAMI _ Fractured. Diminished. A weak, torn facsimile of itself.
There are gentler ways but none more accurate to describe college football in America in 2020.
We can pretend. We can think, "The season goes on!" and see it as some sort of triumph of normalcy. But we know better. The sport staggers ahead as closer to a symbol of anything but normal.
A national champion will be crowned, but whatever school wins that last game will have reigned over an apocalyptic season, its title bearing the yoke of an historic, forever asterisk.
Might as well put Clemson and Alabama in the final four right now and not deny a sameness and aspect of foregone conclusion that hinders this sport. Ohio State would have been assigned that tier as well, had its Big Ten conference not been among the many deciding to not play at all in 2020.
Unless perhaps the eventual asterisk-champion has run the table unbeaten, surely Ohio State will claim it was robbed of its rightful crown. Heck, the T-shirts are probably already printed. Buckeyes quarterback Justin Fields even started a petition urging the Big Ten to reverse course and play, just as eight Nebraska players sued to have the season reinstated.
(I don't imagine the wording of the petition or lawsuit includes, "How dare our conference make paramount the health and safety of student-athletes!")
There were reports in late August the Big Ten was weighing a January-into-spring season, a belated 2020 season in '21. There was even consideration of starting closer to Thanksgiving. But either option would leave the Big Ten separated from playing for the 2020 championship. And the whole notion of a spring season is fraught with the likelihood of top players opting out rather than risk injury so close to the NFL draft.
The whole thing has been a fluid mess. Even conferences that are starting seasons as scheduled like the Atlantic Coast Conference and Miami Hurricanes _ will they finish?
Miami coach Manny Diaz said he was "a little surprised" when the Big Ten and Pac-12 opted out. Was he concerned the ACC might follow suit?
"Of course," Diaz said. "That could have gone in a different direction. It's been the ultimate day-by-day year. You take nothing for granted and nothing is assumed. You focus on what you can control."
Nothing can prepare even the most prepared coach for anything like 2020.
"You had a year where every day you're on the phone with our administration, making plans, just trying to solve problems," Diaz said.
Every other major sport or league, college or pro, has moved forward as one through this year of the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest over racial injustice. Only college football has seen a rending at the seams, a coming apart.
The 13 FCS-level (Division II) conferences and the 28 smaller (Division III leagues) all said they would not play this year, many looking hopefully to a spring startup. That means most of college football overall is sitting out 2020.
The fracture is at the top FBS level (Division I), where six conferences are playing and four are not.
Among the Power 5 conferences, three are playing (SEC, ACC and Big 12) while the Big Ten and Pac-12 opted out.
Of the 10 FBS-level conferences overall, including the six FBS independent schools, 77 major football programs are playing in 2020, while 53 of the biggest programs are sitting out due to the ongoing coronavirus threat.
Put bluntly, that's 59.2% of major-college football putting revenue ahead of risk, and 40.8% opting for the No. 1 health and safety precaution available _ not playing.
Teams that are playing will do so in empty stadiums or before limited crowds, such as Miami Hurricanes games allowing 20% capacity at Hard Rock Stadium, or 13,000 fans.
It is more than the risk of COVID-19 itself, the virus that had caused almost 185,000 U.S. deaths as of early September. Even among those who recover, there are reported coronavirus links to myocarditis, an inflammation that in some cases can lead to heart failure.
Amid this vortex of concern, the season will seem as normal as possible in Florida, where all seven state FBS teams will be playing: Miami Hurricanes and Florida State Seminoles in the ACC; Florida Gators in the SEC; UCF and South Florida in the American; and FIU and FAU in Conference USA.
But even for schools playing, nothing is "as usual."
Every university has felt the upheaval. Miami, for example, saw glamour opponent Michigan State erased from the schedule when the Big Ten said it won't play this fall. And even limited crowds at home games might be considered an especially unnecessary risk in Miami-Dade, which has had the ninth-most COVID deaths of any county in the U.S.
UM also suffered a major loss on defense when elite pass-rushing end Gregory Rousseau opted out of the 2020 season. He had 15 { sacks and 19 tackles for loss last season, and was a 2020 Associated Press preseason first-team All American. He is expected next April to be the first Miami defensive lineman drafted in the first round since 2003.
More than 60 FBS-level players had opted out of the season over coronavirus or injury concerns or both entering September, with the number expected to grow. No. 21-ranked UCF alone had 10 players opt out as of early September.
This college season is diluted not only because four FBS conferences including two in the Power 5 are sitting out, but because a ton of individual talent has been erased.
Almost half of the players on The AP's 2020 preseason All-American first- and second-teams _ 23 of 50 _ won't be playing this year, 16 because their team's conference opted out, and seven (including Miami's Rousseau) who opted out individually.
The headlines we have seen are disconcerting, but not surprising, surrounding conferences that have opted to still play in 2020, including this one off the Canes' Coral Gables campus:
'UM opens more than 400 disciplinary cases _ mainly due to students breaking COVID rules'
There was this headline even as that petition circulated calling for the Big Ten to reverse its decision:
'Ohio State positivity rate almost triples as classes resume'
Everywhere you looked: Texas Tech announced 21 active cases in its football program. Oklahoma State and North Carolina State reported virus breakouts. University of Alabama officials reported more than 500 student cases, and even as beloved coach Nick Saban implored Tuscaloosans to wear masks, the mayor shut down campus-area bars for two weeks to help stem the outbreak.
Though Alabamans may find it unthinkable to not play in the fall, "They had best start thinking about it," mayor Walt Maddox warned in late August.
It is difficult to zero in on football, the sport itself, in the context of the shadow over this season, but we'll do so briefly.
As national powers Clemson and Alabama lead the preseason polls, the Florida Gators are the big dogs among Florida schools, No. 8 in both the AP and coaches' polls. UCF is No. 21 in both. Miami is outside the Top 25 but receives votes in both, ranking the equivalent of 30th by the AP and 34th by the coaches.
That may be surprising considering Miami is coming off a dispiriting 6-7 season including a first-ever loss to crosstown lil' brother FIU and an embarrassing 14-0 bowl loss to Louisiana Tech.
"Some things were certainly exposed," said the coach, Diaz. "There were a lot of things I learned. There's no pretense."
The pressure entering his second season as head coach is squarely on Diaz, who made major staff changes, especially on offense, and scored a major transfer get in former Houston quarterback D'Eriq King, who threw 36 touchdown passes against only six interceptions in 2018. King is tied for third in best preseason Heisman Trophy odds, after Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence and Oklahoma's QB, the exquisitely named Spencer Rattler.
Miami also returns what could be a formidable defense led by end Quincy Roche, a second-team preseason All-American.
Diaz knows UM must show dramatic improvement and challenge to be in the ACC Championship Game. And that, he said, has demanded an attitude adjustment in his team.
"We have to understand when you wear the 'U' on your helmet you get everybody's best shot," he said.
Diaz referred to a "lack of respect" for opponents that he sensed in his team last season, maybe an assumption being "The U" had an entitlement with it.
"We have to understand the enormity," he said, of rising from OK or pretty good and again becoming the kind of top-tier program that won five national championships between 1983 and 2001. "We have to stop pretending that it isn't really, really hard."
For the Miami Hurricanes and for America _ for better or worse, ready or not _ here comes an unforgettable college football season.
