College football's 2025 season will be over before you know it. Soak in the feeling you have right now, before it begins. Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

College Football's Christmas Morning Is Almost Here

Originally posted on Nebraska Cornhuskers on SI
By Josh Peterson | Last updated Aug 22, 2025 8:30 AM ET

Remember how Christmas Eve felt when you were a kid?

The presents were under the tree, but you couldn’t open them. Every gift you asked for could conceivably be under there.

Anything was possible.

The anticipation of the final month ahead of Dec. 25 felt so long and short at the same time. You enjoyed the lead-up to it: the cookies or chocolate-covered pretzels. The colors of it all: the tree, the different plateware, and the wrapping paper.

The anticipation.

You wanted Christmas morning to arrive as quickly as possible, but with those gifts sitting under the tree, you couldn’t be disappointed. Your list was still intact. That box tucked away on the back left held a brand-new pair of socks, but you didn’t know that yet. It could be a new Star Wars toy. Or your favorite player’s jersey. It could be anything. Why would you want to imagine it being a pair of socks?

Like I said, anything was possible.

The first game of the regular season is almost here.

As I’ve gotten older, the month of August has turned into my Christmas season.

Anything is possible in 2025. Nebraska could put together its best season in years. It’s pretty easy for me to imagine how it could happen. The 2025 season could also be a pair of socks; it gets the job done (it’s a football season, after all), but it’s not a season (or gift) you’re going to remember years from now.

Bottle up this feeling. We only get 12 of these. There will be ups and downs. Infighting. Debates. Some might even call for the coach to be fired.

But right now? Right now, anything is possible.

The next few months will go by in a blur.

Football is the sport that best represents the passage of time; the way the calendar flips from one month to the next. The way time moves from one season to the next. The way life ebbs and flows.

When camps started around the country, it came in the heat of July and August. Even the northern schools can’t escape the high temperatures and humidity. The sun was still setting late in the day, where the afternoons stay afternoon, even past dinner.

MICHAEL CLUBB/SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

By the time the first College Football Playoff games are played, days will be as short as ever; the sun will go down before it’s even 5:00 here in Nebraska. The warmth of the summer will be but a memory at that point. For those lucky enough to attend a playoff game, many around the country will do so, braving the elements. Trudging into their favorite team’s stadiums wearing layers upon layers. Those of us watching at home will be thankful. “Can you imagine being there?” we’ll ask.

And in between, the leaves will change. The colors will be immaculate. Fall weather will undoubtedly get mentioned time after time after time.

And in the midst of it all, we’ll watch football. Lots and lots of football.

NIL. The transfer portal. Revenue sharing. Leadership within the sport. Arguing constantly about the future and size of the College Football Playoff. All of that takes up so much oxygen from February until August.

We put up with it because we know what the next four months could bring.

We put up with it because we know what the next four months will bring.

Dylan Widger-Imagn Images

New stars and surprise teams. Upsets and storylines. The best rivalries in sports played out in September, October, and November.

As annoying as college football can be – as college sports can be – it’s still worth it.

It’s worth it for the romanticism of the sport. It’s still a game, played by young people, in pockets of the country that represent every single part of America. College football is America. Because it’s messy, something you can believe in, filled with things that you’d love fixed. You love it in spite of itself. You love it because of the mess.

It’s worth it for one of those special Saturdays, where your most-hated team is upset. It’s even better when your favorite team delivers the upset that sets the college football world on fire.

It’s worth it for one of those special Saturdays, where seemingly every single window sees an unranked team take down someone in the top 25. One of those Saturdays where the “biggest story” of the day changes a half dozen times between 2:00 in the afternoon and midnight.

It’s worth it because we only get 12 regular-season Saturdays a year (and Thursdays, and Fridays, and sometimes Sundays or Mondays because of Labor Day) to watch our favorite team.

It’s worth it because in three months, you’ll wish you could go right back to this very moment in time, when anything was possible.

It’s Christmas morning tomorrow.

College football is back.

This article first appeared on Nebraska Cornhuskers on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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