I was going to title this article" Spring Football: What We Missed". I'm not sure we missed that much.
After numerous I-AA/FCS schools cancelled their fall 2020 schedules, a number of conferences decided to return for a one-off spring football season. The Patriot League was one of 12 conferences that committed to a spring schedule, with the patricians at the Ivy league standing athwart. Bill Buckley would have been proud.
What followed was a complete salad bowl of mixed competition and a collection of games that varied wildly between conferences. Jacksonville State got 12 games in this season. New Hampshire got just one game in. The MEAC continued to take on water as only three schools opted for spring football and, as such, they did not have enough schools to get an autobid for the playoffs.
Six Patriot League schools signed up for spring football and it surprised no one that Georgetown passed. Given the state of local laws on COVID, it was entirely understandable; yet, the fall sports at GU caught the short straw on all of this. The Big East wanted its sports playing in the spring and, for the most part, Georgetown obliged; however, the Patriot League does not have that clout.
The original PL press release noted that "if conditions allow and within permissible local and federal guidelines, the Hoyas will work to bring football student-athletes back for training in the spring in preparation for the traditional fall 2021 football season." That wasn't going to happen and it did not. The next Hoya practice will come 20 months and two recruiting classes since its last session, and will be, for all intents and purposes, a brand new team, and an inexperienced one at that.
But in retrospect, the spring PL season was not one for the history books.
A four team, four game schedule was organized, but half the games were cancelled. No team played more than three games in the regular season, and Colgate got only two. A six team conference was sliced into thee team divisions, but the league could not even get a full intra-divisional slate completed.
The best of the bunch was defending 2019 champion Holy Cross. The Crusaders opened spring play with a convincing 20-3 win over a Lehigh team that raised more questions than answers this spring. The Engineers managed just 137 yards total offense for its home opener, with a veteran lineup.
By contrast, HC went to the freshmen (2020 freshmen, that is) in a 34-24 home win over Fordham, with QB Matthew Sluka establishing himself as an early name to watch this fall. Despite giving up 440 yards in the air, the HC defense held late and picked up its second win.
Its next two games were cancelled, leaving the Crusaders' 2-0 record as the nominative "North Division" champion, having defeated Fordham with Colgate already out of the running. Holy Cross went on to play "South Division" champion Bucknell (2-0) for the PL autobid, with the suspense of the Bison in range for its first ever NCAA playoff bid--one of seven I-AA/FCS schools since the 1978 split not to have made the playoffs. In a season where longtime struggling programs like VMI and Davidson each earned a bid for the first time, Bucknell was no match for the Crusaders, 33-10.
Unfortunately for the Patriot League, it's flagging reputation took another step downward in the playoff pairings. In a 1-16 ranking of the teams selected, Holy Cross was seeded last, and sent to Brookings, SD for a first round matchup with South Dakota State. HC arrived with low expectations but played as well as they probably could have, and SDSU pulled away in the second half en route to a 31-3 win. And that's the season.
What was gained?
Holy Cross can claim a PL title--celebratory t-shirts and caps are now on sale. Bucknell did better than expected, as they were picked last at the outset. The others leave the spring with as many questions as they arrived with. Lehigh and Lafayette got a rivalry game in, which drew 2,600, the largest crowd of any PL game but still a fraction of usual expectations.
So outside of the reps, did Georgetown miss out on anything? Probably not. A two or three game schedule, with home games canceled outright by DC restrictions, would have done little for the 2021 Hoyas. No one got hurt, and no one got sick. And other than the seniors, there will be another day. Georgetown still hasn't said which, if any of the 2020 seniors will be back this fall. Chances are better that their football days are behind them. Instead, Georgetown has to reboot a program that's likely to start 2021 where it was in 2001 when it joined the PL: at the back.
Spring football was an experiment, but it wasn't a success. Here's hoping that the fall brings back the players, the students, and the tradition of college football where it belongs.
