It’s the last weekend of 2024, and we’re just a few days away from 2025. This is the time of year when, to quote Kamala Harris, we are supposed to think about what can be, unburdened by what has been — and have that word salad actually make some sort of profound sense.

Frankly, though, I just don’t have it in me. I’ve taken a few days off and tried to watch some football, so I’d rather just throw out some random year-end thoughts on the greatest game God ever invented.

I am thinking about what can be (a relaxing week of vacation), unburdened by what has been (a busy week and a stubborn case of writer’s block before vacation). So here goes:

• One of the best things about the College Football Playoff is how condensed the sport’s bowl season. We normally have a long gap between the conference championships and bowl games. Now it’s one open date, which still has a couple of games, and GO!

I like that. No downtime. It makes for better games — unless, of course, your coach has been fired, half your team entered the transfer portal, and you’re playing a midweek game in Shreveport.

• Alabama lost some players to the transfer portal, which led to athletic director Greg Byrne making an unintentionally hilarious appeal to fans for more money for the NIL collective.

Throw in a Sarah McLachlan song and some footage of sad defensive linemen forced to sip off-brand energy drinks, and maybe he can start tugging at people’s heart strings.

“For just pennies a day, you can help a five-star defensive lineman achieve his dream of speeding through Tuscaloosa in a Dodge Challenger. Will you help us? Roll Tide.”

• Speaking of Alabama, they did give us the best moment of the entire season by losing to Vanderbilt. I don’t think there was a single person in the entire SEC — including Alabama fans — who wasn’t at least a little happy for the Commodores.

• Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo (pronounced SCAT-a-boo) might be the breakout star of the CFP when it’s all said and done. He’s a tough, bowling ball running back with a great name who is already a folk hero at his school. One big game in the playoffs might make him a bonafide legend.

• The last non-playoff bowl game of the season is the Bahamas Bowl on Jan. 4, with Buffalo playing Liberty. It really feels like the college football season deserves a better send-off than an 11 a.m. game in a foreign country.

• Switching to the NFL, the New Orleans Saints started 2-0 and scored 91 points in those two games. Trying to get in on the ground floor of a special season, I bet $10 on the Saints to win the Super Bowl.

Needless to say, it has not been a special season at all.

I’ve been looking forward to the day they are finally, officially, eliminated from the NFC playoff race so I can burn the ticket out of spite.

And with that, it’s time to wrap this up. I’m back to imagining what can be (the rest of the evening off), unburdened by what has been (a word count and deadlines), so it’s time to savor the last drops of football.

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Ernest Bowker is the sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. He can be reached at ernest.bowker@vicksburgpost.com