Opinion: Welcome To The 2023 Season. Let’s Savor it.

It’s August 26. Finally.

It’s early morning in Europe as I make my way to Ireland to see Navy face Notre Dame in Dublin. Navy and Notre Dame play every year, but I highly doubt I’ll ever have the opportunity to see this specific matchup in this specific setting, under these specific circumstances ever again. I want to savor it, if I can.

In a weird way, there’s a parallel to what’s happening in college football, currently. A very odd, specific set of circumstances brought us here.

A century-old conference is likely dead. The West Coast is part of the East Coast now, apparently (or the midwest, maybe?). Conferences literally named for the number of teams in the league have nowhere close to that number of teams in them.

What brought us here? Money, basically.

But we’re not just doing this for money...we’re doing it for a shitload of money.*

*that will go to a few dozen people that already have a lot of it

A tweet got passed around this week that said something to the effect of people being crazy if they were excited for any of the Week Zero games...obviously, I disagree.

Why shame people for being excited about it? We’ve just endured eight months of talking about contract law and watching for tweets about Board of Regents meetings. Let me enjoy my large adult sons slamming into each other for a few hours.

Things are going to continue to change. Let’s not kid ourselves - most of that change isn’t going to be good for college athletics. Will we eventually figure it out? I think so. I hope so. I need to.

But for now, make some buffalo chicken dip, crack a frosty beverage, and soak in the premier matchup of New Mexico State vs UMass.

Welcome to the 2023 season. Let’s savor it...before things get weirder.

God willing, we’ll all meet again in the 2024 season: the search for more money.