Perhaps some of my readers will have seen the url=https://www.ajc.com/sports/college/captivating-photo-georgia-tech-from-1918-and-the-story-behind/XOukYT9082wGyHDyP27XVL/now-famous photo of masked fans attending a football game at Georgia Tech in 1918, during the Spanish flu pandemic. This week, I wanted to see the same place as it confronted a new pandemic, just over a century later. As luck would have it, one of my favorite teams, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, were playing at Georgia Tech on Halloween afternoon. This game was on the calendar before the pandemic, but originally scheduled to take place at the Mercedes Benz Stadium instead, presumably to accommodate the larger crowd expected for Notre Dame. As such, it had been one of my must-see games before the pandemic, and since it’s the only game this season (so far, and most likely will continue to be) that regular fans... read more

I wasn't sure if I would go anywhere this week, at least when the season began. My undergraduate alma mater, Mercer University, was one of those programs that decided to sit out the full season for 2020. I don't normally go to a Mercer football game every season, but I try to get back every other year. The school didn't have a football program while I was a student there, but I know people who still live in Macon, so it's usually a semi reunion when I get to go back and see Mercer football. I was surprised to find that Mercer actually was going to play football this season; I noticed only after I saw that they were going to be playing at West Point at the end of October. That led me to the ... read more

Dear readers, if I develop Covid symptoms in the next week to ten days, I’m pretty sure it will be because of this game. Fingers crossed. I hope this doesn’t become a common theme in my football travels this season. Once the current season began to take shape—and it still is taking shape with each passing week—I staked out a few places in the “lesser” conferences that I wanted to visit. Some of them were out of necessity, due to weird scheduling, ticket prices, and distances. But the University of Southern Mississippi, in the Conference-USA, was one that I wanted to make sure to visit. I drove through Hattiesburg about five years ago, on a trip to Texas, but I remember thinking how nice the campus looked and how big the stadium was (they call it ... read more

If DC in the daytime has been eerily lacking in throngs of tourists, nighttime is downright spooky. If I believed in ghosts, my stroll along the National Mall after sunset would’ve been filled with fear or, perhaps, reverence. As it was, though, my only (visible) companions were the ducks at the Reflecting Pool until I got to the Lincoln Memorial. Even then, the small group of students loitering and posing at the top of the steps to the Memorial were positively tame. Global pandemics and the specter of authoritarianism will do that to you. But that was the end of my day. What about the rest of it? I parked my car at my hotel when I got to DC because the key fell apart on the way up here, and my duct-tape job feels rather ... read more

In the world of college football, bowl games are beauty pageants at the end of the season that both end the year and set up the next one. Unless you’re playing for a national championship, that is. All the other games at the end of December and the beginning of January are understood to show the direction of your program—if you win the bowl game, you’re in good shape and get a little boost going into next year. Lose, and some people may get fired, but questions will certainly be asked about the health of your program. There are also several levels to bowl games; let’s call them tiers. The Playoff is the top tier, since only the four teams involved in it have a shot at winning the title. The next tier comprises the “New ... read more