Talk about your crazy seasons, who knew that in 2020 the Mid-American Conference would stand as the conscience of college football and a beacon of enlightened reason amid the scourge of COVID-19?

Yet, it is the actions this weekend of this 12-team league buried deep in the Big Ten Conference’s Midwest shadow that has forced the powers of the sport to engage in sober meetings this week that could bring about the cancellation of major college football this fall.

The MAC announced on Saturday that it was pulling the plug on fall football and, now, there are reports from CBS, Sports Illustrated and ESPN that the Big Ten and Pac-12 could follow in a matter of days.

Apparently the MAC had reached a point where it had neither the risk tolerance or the money to play on in the pandemic. It isn’t the only league so challenged. But in Northern Illinois President Lisa Freeman, a medical researcher, it had someone willing to stand firm and others who followed to make it the first of the 10 conferences that play on the NCAA’s highest level, the Football Bowl Subdivision, to boldly step apart from the crowd.

This could have been the Mountain West, the conference Hawaii calls home in football, taking the intrepid leadership role. Instead, on Thursday the MWC announced it was adjusting its opening date to Sept. 26 and would attempt to play on for as many as 12 games, if possible.

Given what is going on in and around its footprint, the MWC had more reasons than most to slam on the brakes, but tapped them instead.

In New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has reiterated her stance that the fall sports season should be suspended for the Lobos. At Colorado State an investigation is underway into allegations of the handling of COVID-19 issues. All this as several conference members, including those in California and Hawaii, sit in virus hot spots.

In the middle of all this, a group of concerned athletes who compete in the MWC announced the formation of #MWUnited to focus on issues of “health, safety and well-being.”

The Ivy League, the first league to cancel its basketball tournament in March, on July 8 became the first Division I conference to cancel its football season. But only a few lower rung Football Championship Subdivision conferences dared to follow.

Now, in short order as the start of the season has grown closer and virus cases have mounted, Connecticut, an independent, called off its season and the MAC has turned out the lights. Their actions have forced a much needed, deeper look beyond the money at the reality of the situation.

The MAC, largely stuck playing weeknight football games for TV, will be known in 2020 for something else, setting a prime time example.