College Football Season: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Every year hundreds of thousands of college football fans prepare for tailgates, face paint, and FOOTBALL. It is what we await from the very moment our season ends. We crave 4th quarter comebacks, barbecues, corn-hole, and even the skin-piercing sun of noon games.

As you can see I included myself in the “we” of college football fans, if it were not that I am sports fan, I would still be a Seminole football fan only because I go to The Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL, which is one of the ultimate college towns in the country.

Florida State football game at Doak Campbell Stadium. Photo by Anais Tobar

Being in Tallahassee on Game Day is a life altering experience. I say this without exaggeration. The entire populations, plus those dedicated alumni with season tickets, are in full Seminole gear. On most home game weekends I cherish this, but there are times this can become a hassle.

One clear cut example happened during my freshman year, before I learned the Tallahassee-rules-of-game-day-crisis. I was in need of rain poncho for an extracurricular event I had that weekend: a Seminole football home game weekend with a high chance of rain, to be exact. My naive, freshman self waited until Friday to go looking for a poncho and let’s just say I did not have any luck. After hours of searching I found that every WalMart, Publix, Winn Dixie, Walgreen’s, CVS/Pharmacy, dollar store, and any other retail establishment I found within the city limits was out of ponchos until the following week. I other words, an entire city was prepared for the football game, while I had been totally oblivious. Tragic freshman mistake, I know. I learned my lesson that day, though: DO NOT mess with college football fans during college football season.

So as the saying goes, “If you can’t beat them, join them.” That is what I did and along with 80,000 other people I go all out on Game Day with garnet and gold headbands, nail color, earrings, shoes, even underwear! Football around here is not only about winning or losing (except if it is against the Gators or the Canes, of course!) but about the legacy of pride and party embossed in every True Seminole and in every college football fan.

Whether wearing Clemson Orange, Tiger Purple, or ‘Bama Crimson we are all cheering with the same passion, same desire, same unfaltering hope that in this football season we will reign champions.

A college football fan knows that not even Christmas morning can compare to the excitement and anticipation of college football season.

The Seminoles first game of the season kicks off tomorrow night, at 6pm against Murray State at Doak Campbell Stadium.