It has been a rough two years since McNeese State played football in the fall. Saturday at high noon that changes.

Talk of hurricanes, pandemics, floods, freezes, conference shifting, transfer portals and playoff bans ends with kickoff.

West Florida will be waiting, but the real foe inside Cowboy Stadium is expectations. They are higher than ever for McNeese, which has been in a playoff slump that’s grown to five seasons.

The players seem to be ready to greet such expectations.

“We welcome it,” said defensive end Mason Kinsey. “We expect big things from ourselves.”

There is a lot riding on this season, maybe more than the players and fans even know.

When McNeese takes the field this season it is playing for a city still in recovery mode, fans who are desperate for normalcy and a program whose tradition has been wavering.

That’s the obvious.

However, there is more on this season, that which will play out through back channels and meetings of McNeese officials.

This season is also about the direction of McNeese’s future.

The Southland Conference is in flux, to be polite, on life support to be more accurate. That’s what happens when almost half your football teams bolt to other leagues on the same level.

Left behind are those who either don’t have a life raft or have yet to inflate theirs.

This is the hidden game of football being played out on a national level by big schools, regionally for teams like McNeese and others on that level.

The better the Cowboys look on the field, the more fans they draw in the stands, the better option they become for conferences looking to expand. And, because of that, the better their options when it comes to making their own decisions.

Wins + fans = money and then options.

That’s a lot of pressure on kids who are just trying to win a football game and find their way in life, but it is today’s college football world.

McNeese has been in the Southland a long time, perhaps too long. But really where else could it have gone? Secure in their position as one of the top, if not top, program in the conference, the Cowboys had little to worry about. Meanwhile, others moved onward and upward.

For some it worked out great, others it has been a struggle.

Now the game is different, the playing field shifting. Movement is everywhere. That means there is an opportunity for new challenges, new riches, new rivalries.

It’s the game within the game but the winners and losers can’t be found on any scoreboard.

For the players and coaches, West Florida is the start of what they believe can be a championship season.

For the fans, West Florida is the start of what they hope is a return to elite status for their Cowboys.

For the program and school administrators West Florida is the first chance they can showcase their product for possible new suiters.

With the backdrop of a campus and city still in the long process of rebuilding from 2020’s double hurricane hit, this season is one of great interest and great opportunity. Most importantly, it’s a new season full of hope. After a year of darkness and blue tarps, we could all use the sunlight hope brings for the present and the future.

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Jim Gazzolo is a freelance writer who covers Mc-Neese State athletics for the American Press. Email him at jimgazzolo@yahoo.com