Alabama football doesn’t need a crowded stadium to win in 2020.
The 2020 college football season is going to be unprecedented. Although we are not aware of how the season will go, there is a great chance that stadiums will not be at full capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The state of Alabama reached a high of new cases on June 11 with 848 confirmed new cases. Without serious safety measures and improvements, having full stadiums seems to be out of the question. That likely means that many programs (Alabama football included) will have to play games without the electric environments that they are accustomed to.
If that is the case, this will have to have an impact on football outcomes. Playing a game at home or on the road has always had a key impact, and that is mostly due to the fans in the stands. They can cause false start penalties, delay of games, nerves, and miscommunication for visiting offenses. Without that, some teams will be at a disadvantage.
I do not think that this will have a major impact on Alabama football. Although two of their three biggest games are at home, they still have some things going their way. The Crimson Tide are known for being highly disciplined. Although home fans are a great boost, they don’t necessarily need them. Alabama football plays well at home or on the road. However, other teams rely on fans to pull off upset wins. Let’s see who will need fans for 2020.
Unlike Alabama football, these teams need fans in the stands.
LSU Tigers
With the LSU Tigers playing without most of the pieces from their championship team, the majority of players will be inexperienced. It doesn’t help that two of their top games will be at home against Alabama and Texas. With young faces and inexperienced minds, having these games with a strong crowd would be great. If they lose their home-crowd advantage, these games will be a lot harder to win.
Mississippi State Bulldogs
Most of Mississippi State’s toughest games are on the road, but they still need to win the majority of their home games in Mike Leach’s first season with the Bulldogs. That includes games against Texas A&M, Auburn, and Missouri. Those games would be a lot easier to win with the cowbells ringing in the stands. The Bulldogs rely heavily on crowd noise to impact opposing offenses, but that might not be there in 2020.
Tennessee Volunteers
There are plenty of people who believe that the Tennessee Volunteers are one or two steps away from being an SEC contender, but they might be a few more than that without fans in the stands. The Volunteers host Florida and Alabama at home. For them to be near the second tier of SEC teams, they have to beat either the Tide, the Gators, or Georgia on the road. Without their fans singing Rocky Top, their odds of pulling off an upset in Knoxville are pretty low.
These teams still have a chance to pull off some unlikely wins, but they should be rooting for full stands more than Alabama football.