I just typed football for June to July last year. Small sample size to include the word football, but it's something. On the first page, there were like 2 out of 15 posts about the upcoming (2019) season.

5+ pages in and most posts are those outside articles that are linked, a few people saying they got their tickets, and then mostly people talking about the past or conference stuff. In fact half of June 2019 seems to be littered with the same old conference nonsense.

How am I a dozen pages in and 99% of the threads started were not about the coming season? Because it was June and early July. That's why. Same as now. Football talk will pick back up when it always does, which ain't around the Favreth of July.

That's reason 1, and 2 is what you just said about the question marks. Easy peasy. Simple dimple. Etcetera.