College football’s gradual 2020 return: And then there were 103

The college football calendar calls this coming Saturday Week 8, but for 25 schools, the season is just now beginning after a long delay.

Entering Week 8 of the college football season, the majority of programs that intend to play this fall have seen action. There have been disruptions, postponements and cancelations (as was expected), but for 78 schools, at least one contest has been completed.

This week the Big Ten and Rice return to action for the first time this season. The Big Ten caught flak for how they handled their shutdown and subsequent reboot, but that will quickly fade away when it comes time for Wisconsin and Illinois to kick off on Friday night.

The Mountain West will (mostly) be back, save for a postponed contest between Colorado State and New Mexico. State guidelines in New Mexico could cause more hurdles for the Lobos in the coming weeks.

Rice delayed the start of their season several times, using a Week 7 bye week to push their start date back seven weeks from. They’ll play host to a Middle Tennessee team that’s already played six games, quite the discrepancy for a season opener, but that’s kind of how 2020 has gone to this point.

Altogether, that brings the total of active college football teams up to 103 for the fall semester. The MAC and the Pac-12 will join in two weeks’ time. Then, by the time the calendar turns to mid-November, college football will be back to a somewhat sense of normalcy.

It won’t stay there.

Cancelations and schedule juggling will be a fixture of the sport in the weeks ahead. COVID-19 is not going to allow even the best-laid plans to unfurl without a hitch. But for the first time in several weeks, it feels like everyone is starting to get on the same page and we can resume debating the most deserving College Football Playoff participants. Wouldn’t that be nice?