George Ferguson Column: Forgive me while I mourn what should have been the opening weekend of Griz, Cats football season

Under normal circumstances, this page would have been filled with preview stories on the upcoming season for the Montana Grizzlies and Montana State Bobcats football teams. As we all know by now, though, these times are anything but normal.

Last month, the Big Sky Conference, and a bulk of the Football Championship Subdivision voted to pause their seasons due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The move was disappointing for many, including Montana head coach Bobby Hauck and Montana State head man Jeff Choate, who both spoke candidly last month on their feelings about the decision.

However, it does appear the move was the right one, for a multitude of reasons. Here we are now, on the eve of what would of been opening weekend for the Cats and Griz, and, since the decision to postpone the Big Sky season, Montana's infection rate has risen, not declined. Montana's death toll and hospitalizations have also steadily increased since the Big Sky opted to postpone, too. And the same factors can be said for almost every state that fields a Big Sky program, only those stats have a lot more people and a lot more coronavirus than Montana does.

So while everyone is disappointed that there isn't Bobcat and Griz football this season, by simple arithmetic, it looks like the Big Sky presidents made the right call.

Of course, that doesn't take the sting out of it for players, coaches and fans, and it doesn't help that the FBS is going ahead with football despite skyrocketing coronavirus cases on major college campuses just one or two weeks into the fall semester. For example, the University of Alabama has reported nearly 3,000 students and faculty test positive for COVID-19, and yet, somehow, they expect the pandemic to not hit the football team? Somehow, even though many major programs have already had outbreaks, people think that once the games start, coronavirus will just up and disappear? That's the sentiment it seems with the FBS, and all they need to do is ask how, not operating in a bubble worked out for Major League Baseball teams like the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals.

No, I think the Big Sky made the right call, no matter how much I hate it. And I mean, I really hate not having college football in Montana. It's going to be a not so fun fall without it. And it will be really gut-wrenching when November rolls around and there will be no buildup to the Brawl of the Wild. It will really hurt because I believe the 120th edition of Griz-Cat could have been the biggest game in the series' storied history - that's how good the Bobcats and Grizzlies were both going to be this fall.

Still, there is hope. I, like many, are skeptical of what an official spring football season is going to look like, but the powers that be are going to try nonetheless. In fact, the NCAA is scheduled to weigh on dates and formats for a spring FCS playoff today, and if they settle on that, then we might get a glimpse at what Montana and Montana State's schedules will look like very soon.

Now, knowing what we already do, the spring season really means winter. In other words, Montana and Montana State are going to be asked to conduct a training camp in January and early February, and most likely start playing the regular season before March arrives. And there's only one word I can think of that sums up what that will be like in Bozeman and Missoula - brutal.

Still, some Cat and Griz football is better than none, and if that's what we're left with then that's what we'll go with. And it will get better. I've coached tennis in the spring for nearly 20 years, and while I can assure you it always starts out brutal, spring in Montana does eventually get better. It's not spring like in the south, but it does get a bit warmer, and eventually, it really does stop snowing. In fact that might occur right around the time a Cat-Griz game is scheduled in mid to late April. In fact, yours truly is kind of hoping they schedule that game as a night game. Sure it would be a little chilly but it's chill in November and December, too, so let's do it.

Yes, that's where we are with Cat-Griz football right now; we're left to imagine, we're left to winder, because, with almost everything else in our lives disrupted by this virus, we just don't know. And, we're probably not going to know for a while yet.

So, for right now, all I can do is mourn the fall. This weekend, the Griz and Cats were supposed to open their season with night games at home. It's always exciting, it's always the start of a journey that ends up gripping seemingly the entire stare. There's just nothing else like it in Montana.

For now, though, we'll have to go on without. For now, we'll just have to wait. For now, we'll just have to hope, and do our part to get Bobcat and Griz football back. For now, as much as it sucks, that's all we can do.