Opinion: Are USU football games still worth attending?

A huge part of the college experience comes from student life and, here at USU, football games are a significant part of the student culture. However, like many things, football games look a lot different this year.

I’m not a big football fan (or sports fan in general) but I enjoy sports when I am watching a game from the stands. The energy of the crowd makes it easier to get invested and excited about the game being played. There is also something to be said about being able to watch the close plays and calls in person. 

I decided to go to the USU vs. San Diego State football game on Halloween. I was a little apprehensive because I wasn’t sure if the energy of the crowd would be the same with everything being so different this fall due to the pandemic.

The safety measures most notably included keeping the stadium’s capacity at 20%. There was also a required mask policy and marked seats every other row that were spaced out from each other. Each seat number had a QR code to scan to register your A-number at. If you claim a ticket but do not scan the QR code at your seat, you will no longer be able to attend any games for the rest of the year.

I think that USU did a good job with thinking through the safety measures, especially the caveat that you must register the spot that you were sitting at if you want to continue to go to games throughout the year.

However, in execution it fell a little flat. I don’t think this is USU’s fault, but the individuals who weren’t wearing their masks and were moving around to different areas to talk to different groups of people.

The crowd shots on the big screen were a little weird to see — in some shots every single person was wearing masks. In the next, only one or two were. 

A positive of the coronavirus measures is that the facemasks helped stave off some of the cold later in the game. Additionally, it was easy to find seats and took almost no time to get into the stadium. With people more spread out, there was also a very clear view of the field.

The energy of the crowd was still definitely there. In Saturday’s game, the one touchdown the Aggies scored was just barely qualified as a touchdown, and the crowd went wild when the referee called it as such. (For more detailed coverage of the game, here is the ESPN coverage.)

I would say that football games are still worth going to even amidst the coronavirus measures. It’s a rite of passage to freeze while watching the Aggies lose.

Ella Olson is an opinion writer at the Statesman. She’s originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota and enjoys reading, debate, and hammocking.

ella.olson@usu.edu