FAYETTEVILLE - Better late than never.
After months of concern, the SEC kicked off its revised fall football season just three weeks late.
It was a beautiful day for it here, sunny skies and easy temperatures.
Most likely there would have been 60,000-plus here for the debut of new head coach Sam Pittman.
That was BC, before coronavirus.
Limited to 16,500 fans made for some big changes.
With little traffic, dozens of policemen were missing.
Parking lots were half full and there was no tailgating, although a few hung around their tailgate, but there were no tents, coolers or cookers.
The students sat in clusters of two to four. Apparently four was the max allowed, and they were socially distanced by at least 6 feet.
The very loud pregame music was still for the students and not the average fan.
With little pregame fanfare and no party, the fans were late to arrive but they spread out, not daring to be escorted out of an event with a ticket as tough as this one was.
The band sat in ones and were more than socially distanced.
The end zones where TV shots focus during extra points and field goals had some cutouts.
Georgia was so big when they came onto the field for warm-ups it looked like stadium might tilt.
Yesterday was different in many ways, but it was football.
SEC football and deficits that all 14 schools are facing with the 10-game schedule will be cut in half.
For a day that was manipulated by the virus, the focus was football.