USC football fans were very unfairly savaged by other fans and by college football analysts for the small crowd at the San Jose State game. One week later, other fans across the country roasted in withering heat and humidity. The shoe was on the other foot. At College Sports Wire,I put forth a plan to adjust to reality of extreme heat in the early weeks of a season:
"The padding, the equipment, the physical punishment of the sport - nothing about football is designed for extreme heat, but that's what we saw around the country on Saturday. If we value the safety of players and fans, the sport will change its Week 1 and Week 2 scheduling practices," I wrote.
My article at College Sports Wire pointed out that fans in Austin, Texas, and Bloomington,
Indiana, among other places, were profoundly uncomfortable in the bruising heat. Fans left the upper decks of stadiums which were unprotected from the sun and moved either underneath those decks into a concourse, or to the other side of the stadium where shade cover existed. It's absurd to subject fans and players to such overpowering, extreme conditions in the first two weeks of the season.
Here's my solution, at CSW:
"What college football scheduling needs is a complete rethink of the first two weeks of the season. The sport can't be playing games in the middle of the day and subjecting players and fans to extreme heat. Here's the pivot: In the first two weeks of the season, have night games every weeknight and into Saturday and Sunday (before the NFL starts). The smaller conferences play Monday through Friday. The bigger conferences start Wednesday and continue with night games on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and for Labor Day weekend, on the holiday Monday as well."
College football should be a night-game-dominated sport in the first two weeks of the season. Saturday day games should be in domes. We shouldn't think that subjecting paying customers or players to extreme heat is acceptable. USC fans would agree.
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This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: SEC fans left stadium seats due to extreme heat this past weekend
