George Ferguson Column: I wish I would have been wrong because I love bigtime college football, and I'm really gonna miss it

When the news of the Big Sky Conference cancellation came down, I have to admit, I wasn't surprised. In fact, in a way, I was vindicated. In other words, I was right.

Make no mistake though, I'm not here to gloat, no, I'd gladly have gotten this one wrong.

The fact of the matter is, however, I knew this is where we'd end up in regards to major college football.

I have been telling anyone who would listen, and, a lot of people didn't, that college football was going to be the one sport that wouldn't survive America's utter refusal to take the summer surge of coronavirus more seriously.

It mattered none that the NBA and NHL bubbles were working, it mattered none that the PGA Tour is back, that MLS went over a month without a positive test, or even that Major League Baseball was marching on despite teams having outbreaks. When it comes to college football, none of it mattered, and that's why, I spent the whole spring and summer preaching, annoying people, sitting on a high horse so to speak. I did it because I knew, if the numbers didn't start going back down, college football was in serious trouble.

Well, that's not the only reason I was serious about it. The biggest reason I advocated for people to do whatever it took to get the virus under control was, and still is, I care. I care about the health and safety of my family, loved ones, friends, community, and honestly, my fellow man. That hasn't changed.

At the same time, I was also preaching because I knew that, if things didn't get better, college football was done. And I didn't know because I'm some genius, or because I'm some Nostradamus, or even because I had inside information. No, clairvoyance had nothing to do with it.

I knew college football wasn't going to survive because we already had a blueprint. And I've been shouting it for months. THEY CANCELED THE NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT!! THEY CANCELED MARCH MADNESS, for crying out loud.

I mean seriously, the powers that be left 2 billion on the table when the 2020 NCAA men's and women's tournaments were canceled, and when they canceled March Madness, there wasn't even 10,000 cases of coronavirus in the United States yet. Not even 10,000.

So let me ask this, how in the heck did anyone believe that we were going to have college football, which can't live in a bubble, which has to travel across state lines, on airplanes, stay in hotels, and have 80-100 young men living in close proximity with each other while still mingling with thousands upon thousands of hard partying, happy go lucky regular students on college campuses across America. How was that going to work, or be allowed?

The answer is, it wasn't. It was never going to happen unless we got the virus under control. It was not going to happen when we're averaging 60,000 cases a day, and deaths are once again rising. It doesn't matter that college-age football players are considered low risk, which, the CDC doesn't necessarily agree with in the first place. It doesn't matter that huge schools like Alabama and Michigan can afford fancy testing programs. Most of the rest of college football can't. Political beliefs don't matter, being angry about it doesn't matter, threatening to cancel your season tickets doesn't matter, nothing but mathematics matters. And the math adds up to too much of "The Rona" to play big time college football whether any of us agree with decision or not.

Yes, this college football season was doomed the minute movements began to resist the pandemic. This season was doomed the minute people decided summer was more about fun in the sun than bringing the numbers down, and I know I said to many people, "you know, if we keep going like this, we're going to lose college football for sure. We might lose the NFL. We might lose all forms of football until next year."

No one really wanted to hear it, though. And I heard all kinds of reasons why it would never happen, most of which centered around money and greed. Oh the NCAA is too greedy, they need the money. Schools will never not allow fans, they need the money too badly. They won't cancel football, America will go crazy.

My response: HELLO, they canceled the NCAA tournament, and all NCAA spring sports. They canceled the College World Series, and we had a hell of lot less cases and deaths in March and May than we do right now.

I mean, seriously, how could we not see this coming? I did. I knew it was going to go down like this. Of course, I was far from the only one. Less than a month ago, Butte legend Bill Foley told us all we blew it. We had our chance to fix this, we didn't do it, and sports, including big-time college football, were going to have to pay the price. And yet, I'm not sure anyone believed him.

But here we are.

In Montana, this fall, Washington-Grizzly Stadium and Bobcat Stadium will be empty. There will be no Brawl of the Wild until at least spring, and no one's even told us that's a for-sure thing yet. We certainly haven't seen any kind of plan, and most people I talk to are pretty skeptical about how to even play football in the spring.

No, neither the Griz, or Cats, who are both loaded, are getting to showcase how good they are. I know how good they both are, and let me tell ya' Cat-Griz this year would have been epic. But now we won't know, and we may never know.

The Frontier Conference, for now, is forging ahead and good on them. An all-Montana schedule could very well safely work and I know all my friends in the Frontier are working diligently to make it happen. But don't be mad at me for being worried that Frontier football might get taken away from us, too, not with the way things have been going lately.

Of course, we are also losing major college football. Conferences are dropping like flies, and it's only a matter of time until it's all over, no matter what Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh say. Catchy hashtags won't salvage the season either, and no, the president of the United States cannot force college football to be played. That won't happen either.

Oh yeah and believe it or not, I've seen more than one Twitter user or message board handle claim that somewhere in the Constitution, fans have a right to football. SMH, I'm not sure I even want to respond to that, but I will.

I've read the Constitution cover to cover, and it doesn't list football, or sports as inalienable rights. And no, that's not what the Founding Fathers were talking about when they added "Right to Assemble". Nice try, though.

No, the fact of the matter is, Foley was right, we had our chance, all of us who love college football, we had a chance to save it, and we screwed it up. We could have done so much better than we did, but we didn't, so, I'm not even going to point fingers or go back and rehash how this all could have been different.

In fact, I'm not even going to debate it. People have had a right, all this time, to do as they please, and I'm not going to stand in judgement or again, point fingers. But, reality is reality, and the reality is, we don't get to have major college football this fall.

As Bobby Hauck said when the Big Sky canceled their season, it's all irrelevant because they're not playing. He's right, there's no point in reliving the nightmare of the last six months, there's no more point to talking about how we got here.

The harsh reality is, though, we are here. We are going to live in a world where there is no major college football in the fall. And while I wish I could say I'm shocked, I'm really not, because nothing shocks me anymore. Instead, I'm just going to say I'm sad. I love college football, and I'm going to miss it. I am not going to step foot inside Washington-Grizzly Stadium for the first time since 1993, I'm not going to see a Cat-Griz game for the first time since I started following the series as a kid in the 1980s and that sucks. But it isn't me, it sucks for the players, the coaches, and communities like Missoula and Bozeman, who rely so heavily on football season. It sucks for the state of Montana.

And while some of you think it was the right decision to cancel, and some of you absolutely think it was the wrong decision, that's fine, you both may be right, but in the end, the season's canceled either way. It's gone, it's over, it's done.

And the only silver lining is, now, maybe, just maybe, enough people will see what we're losing, and maybe we'll come together, and we can save the college basketball season.

Until then, man I hate being right.