Five college football games in NC and SC you won’t want to miss this spring

College basketball teams are in the home stretch toward postseason tournaments, and baseball programs are launching their spring campaigns.

Is there any room left for a college football season?

More than a dozen Carolinas schools are among more than 60 FCS and Division II programs nationwide that are participating in a special spring football season.

They are playing football in the spring because the NCAA gave its FCS, Division II and Division III programs an opportunity to delay the season, in hopes that the COVID-19 pandemic would be waning by now.

The season got under way last weekend, and most of the programs that elected to participate will be playing games by early March.

This will be no glorified version of spring practice, say coaches and players.

“It’s a real season,” says Tre Lamb, who was named to head the Gardner-Webb program 13 months ago and has waited patiently for his first game as a head coach.

“We want to win the conference this spring. It’s not a warm-up for next fall,” Lamb says.

For the first time, the FCS and Division II programs won’t be playing in the shadows of their big brothers from the Football Bowl Subdivision.

“We’re the only show in town,” Lamb says.

Wide receiver Izaiah Gathings, a Statesville High product who is Gardner-Webb’s top offensive player, says the unique spring season “is an opportunity. There will be more eyes on us.”

Here are some things to know about this never-before-seen spring college football season:

It’s a real season

This is not a series of exhibition games. It’s a full-fledged season, although most teams will be playing only seven or eight games.

But there will be NCAA-sponsored postseason playoffs, starting in late April, with champions crowned.

Games will be played on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays most weekends, although no contests are scheduled for April 4, which is Easter Sunday. None of the major TV networks are carrying games, as their schedules are loaded with other sports.

But most of the games will be streaming on some network.

Not everyone’s aboard on this

The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, which includes N.C. A&T, N.C. Central and S.C. State, has scrubbed the spring season because most schools chose not to play. Division II’s CIAA also is not conducting a season.

Citing the problems of conducting a season during the pandemic, N.C. A&T athletics director Earl Hilton said, “The juice is not worth the squeeze.”

And a few other schools, including Campbell, played their games last fall and are holding regular spring drills this year.

But the Southern and Big South conferences are in, as are the Big Sky, Colonial Athletic, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Pioneer Football, Southland and Southwestern Athletic conferences.

Carolinas schools playing this spring are Charleston Southern, The Citadel, Davidson, Elon, Furman, Gardner-Webb, Presbyterian, Western Carolina and Wofford from the FCS ranks, along with Division II’s South Atlantic Conference and UNC Pembroke.

There’s some of the old

It’s a list of familiar names in favorite’s roles. Furman and Wofford are picked to dominate the Southern Conference. Kennesaw State is the choice in the Big South.

And the top four nationally in the FCS preseason poll are North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Weber State and James Madison.

Wofford, the two-time defending Southern Conference champ, has eight defensive starters back. And Furman is loaded, with players like senior wide receiver Ryan DeLuca of Fort Mill returning.

Davidson, coming off a highly successful 2019 season (eight victories), opened the spring campaign last week with a last-minute 26-23 loss to 21st-ranked Elon.

And some of the new

Presbyterian has moved from the Big South to the Pioneer Football Conference, joining Davidson.

But locally, the biggest change is at Gardner-Webb, where 31-year-old Tre Lamb will be the nation’s youngest Division I coach.

“After all these months, I can’t wait for a real game,” he says. “My wife is six months pregnant, and I have a 1-year-old daughter. It’s been nice to spend more time with them.

“But it also will be a relief to focus on football,” he adds, rather than worry about getting the program organized the way he wanted. The Bulldogs’ opener is Saturday afternoon against visiting Elon.

There’s another difference. Freshmen will take the field with a full autumn practice behind them.

“Typically, they are with us only for a few weeks before the season starts,” Furman coach Clay Hendrix says. “But this time, they were with us for an entire fall practice season.”

Spring college football games to watch

▪ James Madison at Elon (1:30 p.m. March 6): The Dukes are the giant of the Colonial Athletic Association. Elon lost 45-10 to James Madison in 2019 but gave the Dukes a scare in 2018, losing 27-24.

▪ Kennesaw State at Gardner-Webb (1 p.m. March 27): Kennesaw State is seventh-ranked nationally in the preseason poll. Gardner-Webb will have a month’s worth of playing time to get used to its new coach’s program before this big game.

▪ Lenoir-Rhyne at Wingate (6 p.m. April 2): These two South Atlantic Conference powers each made the Division II playoffs in 2019.

▪ Davidson at San Diego (time TBA, April 3): Behind quarterback Tyler Phelps, Davidson could be a Pioneer Football contender this season. Perennial power San Diego will be the biggest obstacle.

▪ Wofford at Furman (1 p.m. April 17): The final day of the regular season brings this likely Southern Conference championship contest.