Some sports can resume practice next week

How players handled season of COVID-19

The Saturday night after winning an afternoon home game is one of the best times to be a college football player.

Family and loved ones usually await with congratulatory hugs. Then there is a nice dinner and maybe more celebrating with teammates and friends. Few things get a college town hopping like a football victory. But not this season.

“I’d pretty much go home, lay on my couch, watch (video) cut-ups of the game like two or three times. Probably go pick up some food,” Notre Dame offensive tackle Liam Eichenberg said.

To play through a pandemic, players had to sacrifice much of their lives away from the game, along with some of the best aspects of being part of a team.

To reach the playoff, No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Clemson, No. 3 Ohio State and No. 4 Notre Dame had to go a combined 37-2 on the field and keep the coronavirus at bay.

“It’s been incredibly challenging,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said. “I just tell them, don’t give up what they want most for what they may want at the moment. It’s just really that simple. And the teams that do this the best and manage this the best, that’s who’s going to finish the best.”

Doing so required lots of COVID-19 testing, and the anxiety that comes with knowing the next test could be the one that puts a season on hold, and little time spent with anyone outside the team.

Even when the players were together, there were obstacles — both literal and figurative — to bonding with teammates.

“Eating together as a team, we do it with a glass divider between us,” Notre Dame receiver Ben Skowronek said Monday during media Zoom sessions for the CFP. “I miss

those meals and just getting to know people in the locker room. All that stuff.”

Another oddity brought on by the pandemic: Four days before the New Year’s Day semifinals, the playoff participants were still on their respective campuses.

Alabama faces Notre Dame in the relocated Rose Bowl at the home of the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas. Clemson and Ohio State meet at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans in a rematch of last year’s thrilling

ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTOS Notre Dame wide receiver Ben Skowronek (11) evades Clemson defensive tackle Tyler Davis (13) during a carry in the second half of the 2020 Atlantic Coast Conference championship game in Charlotte, N.C.

Ohio State offensive lineman Wyatt Davis (52) is shown during the first half of the 2019 Fiesta Bowl game against Clemson in Glendale, Ariz.