As the sun rises you can already hear the faint sound of the wind whistling through the trees. Like the other days of the week you clamor for something to eat. Perhaps you’re thirsty as well.
As you get out of bed you can already hear the faint sound of music-it’s coming from downstairs. The tree by your window can now barely cover the sound of your roommate’s favorite song. Then you realize, it’s Saturday.
But there’s something more to this particular Saturday. As the chill of an early fall lingers in the morning air, you realize it’s the first Saturday of the best time of year. That smile creeps upon your face as you make your final preparations to get yourself out of bed.
It’s game day.
College football is a ritual, a rite of passage for many. Across America, its beginning signifies the changing of the seasons, among other things. As you transition from the thrill of summer to the grind of school, college football is there to ease you back in to life as you know it for those six or so months.
Like any great tradition in any culture, it takes place at the same time every year. It’s as ingrained in American culture as apple pie or your favorite John Mellencamp song. As a nation, we love our sports. College football might be the sport most intertwined with our national identity. Fall most closely identifies with three things; the turning of the leaves, Thanksgiving and football.
Unlike professional football, the college game is the fountain of youth. We are a people that admires youth above many things. The longing for days in which we could still do things the way we did when we were younger never goes away. In fact, it worsens. College football is a spectacle of youth and all that it entails; fun, passion, emotion, love and heartache.
There’s something to be said about all the emotions that come along with following this sport. And make no mistake, it is an emotional commitment. It’s not something that one can fully appreciate in another sport. But that’s part of the territory when your team, your school, is such a significant part of who you are. By nature man is a social, tribal beast. We need a sense of belonging, we crave it. College football is a sense of community, a sense of belonging. We know that we love our school for more reasons than the colors of our shirts or the logo on our ballcaps. It is very much a part of who you are in the deepest parts of your soul.
That’s why the best part about this sport we love so much isn’t the game itself but everything that comes with it. Tailgating, pregame rituals, traditions, memories, love. The love not just for football or for school, but for one another. All of my memories of football season are deeply intertwined with my best memories with my friends and family. That is why college football is a gift. It is something that continually brings us together.
That’s why we keep enjoying the simpler things about the game. Through all the scandals, ridiculous coaching contracts, the NCAA and many other things we come back every season. There’s still a goodness to this whole thing that we live through vicariously. There’s pureness in a beautiful autumn day. There’s pureness to the unbridled joy of victory and the agony of defeat. There is certainly pureness in the traditions that have nothing to do with the outcome of the game, the traditions we love the most.
So as we come back to our favorite time of the year, for its 150th autumn, let’s forget all the previews or expectations. Forget about your futures bets for a moment. Stay in that bed a second longer and savor the sound of the leaves dancing on the wind. When you’re out and about, look around and soak in your surroundings. Embed every image of the smiles of your friends, the look of campus, the reunions that were way overdue. Save all of it.
When this whole thing is over, you’ll miss it like hell. You’ll miss it until week one of next season. As you get older, you’ll miss it forever.
Humans are divided between those who can still look through the eyes of youth and those who cannot. -Dave Eggers, What is the What