College football regroups following COVID-19 season.

During the hours leading to tipoff of the second round of the SEC men’s basketball tournament in Nashville on March 12, 2020, Commissioner Greg Sankey wrestled with the unimaginable.

With concerns about the coronavirus pandemic growing by the minute and the NBA already suspending its season the night before, Sankey scribbled down a few thoughts on paper before coming to the inevitable conclusion to cancel the rest of the conference tournament.

In one of his final thoughts he wrote, “I need help.”

“We have in the 12 months since walked a journey of disruption, of a lot of questions,” Sankey said from the same venue, Bridgestone Arena, a year later.

“Around this same time last year, at a press conference where likely the most frequently raised — the most frequently uttered phrase by me was, “I don’t know,” — and that was simply an honest assessment of our situation.”

That uncertainty carried over to the coming days and months. Universities and professional sports leagues came to a grinding halt as the country tried to get a handle on one of the most deadly health crises since the influenza pandemic of 1918.

For some, spring football camps were suddenly shuttered, campuses closed and everyone retreated to the safety of their homes. Players were left to wonder when they would next set foot on the gridiron.

N95 masks replaced helmets and jerseys. Virtual conferencing on platforms like Zoom replaced faceto-face interactions with coaches and teammates.

“It’s different,” UCF quarterback Dillon Gabriel said back in April 2020 from his home in Hawaii after the cancellation of spring football camp. “Staying home, I’m really not used to. Seeing masks, I’m not used to. I guess it may be the new normal in wearing masks and wearing gloves.

“We’re going to have a lot more

people worrying about being clean and sanitary.”

Offseason workouts took on a DIY approach as each school’s strength and conditioning staff came up with its own makeshift assignments for players to finish at home, uploading videos to their social media accounts to help demonstrate old-school fitness techniques.

Some of those involved loading books or rocks into a backpack for pushups, or grabbing gallon water jugs or cinder blocks as weights.

At the same time, college officials grappled with how to safely move toward a return to play while infection rates soared across the country.

“I told our group today that the only constant in life is changes,” former ACC commissioner John Swofford said in May. “We’re certainly seeing that right now. Life is often about Plan B. We’re going to have to be ready for a Plan C and a Plan D.”

Players returned in June to their respective campuses, where they faced strict safety protocols. Everyone had to wear a mask and the team was greeted by health care officials and members of the training staff armed with thermometers for monitoring temperatures daily.

Testing became a common occurrence, first during fall camp and then later in the season with players and staff tested multiple times during the week. It started with PCR tests, which took longer to receive results, and later with a rapid antigen test before game days.

A positive result would send a player into quarantine for two weeks, and sometimes multiple players because of contact tracing.

The players, however, weren’t the only ones to feel the impact of COVID19.

Nearly two dozen Football Bowl Subdivision head coaches missed time because of positive test results, including FSU coach Mike Norvell, who missed the team’s game against Miami Sept. 26 as he self-quarantined for two weeks.

“Like I told our football team, it’s an opportunity for all of us to show a response to adversity that comes up,” Norvell said at the time.

A patchwork season began Sept. 3. Each conference came up with its own tailor-made schedule.

Even then, the Big Ten and Pac-12 decided initially to forgo playing football in the fall for a spring schedule. That decision didn’t last long. Both leagues caved to pressure from fans and administrators, choosing instead to play a shortened season starting in October.

Perhaps one of the biggest adjustments for teams was playing games in front of limited fans.

Universities across the country relied heavily on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with state and local health officials, when it pertained to social distancing. With that advice in mind, many schools limited attendance to about 20-25% of capacity.

UCF reduced its attendance to 25% of the normal 44,206 capacity at the Bounce House for its four home games. FSU also set a similar limit for the 79,560 capacity Doak Campbell Stadium.

Florida reduced attendance to approximately 20% of the 88,548 capacity at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.