
As we teeter on the knife's edge of the Covid-19 pandemic, all of us wondering if things will get better or worse, I'm no different than the rest of you. I find myself constantly thinking about first and lasts. Last week I went to a movie theater for the first time in sixteen months; the last time I went to a college or pro sporting event was almost two years ago. Once upon a time we measured our lives with candles on birthday cakes or family weddings or high school graduations, but now it seems we count the opportunities lost rather than the celebrations enjoyed.
One of the things that I long for, as insignificant as it may be in the grand scheme of things, is a normal college football season this fall. I'd like to hear actual crowds when I'm watching on television, I'd like see fans in the stands -- I'd like to be in the stands at some point. I'd like to be able to track a Stanford football season without some more compassionate part of my brain wondering why we're having a season in the first place.
I want normal. We all do.
The surest sign that the college football world is returning to normal is that Stanford will be playing the most hellacious schedule in all of America. Many schools like to brag when they don't schedule any lower division teams (you don't hear those brags from the mighty SEC, however), but Stanford will be the only Power 5 school in the nation to play a schedule comprised exclusively of Power 5 opponents, a slate which looks even more daunting considering we don't yet know who the Cardinal quarterback will be. There are no trap games; there are only landmines waiting at every step. Let's take a look. (Odds of Victory percentages refer to the Cardinal's projected chances of winning according to two reputable sources -- ESPN's Matchup Predictor and me.)