MISSOULA, Mont. — Students are back in their classrooms this week, the heat of summer has cooled and new chalk lines have been placed on the football field as the University of Montana Grizzlies and their devoted fans prepare for the opening kickoff on Saturday.

But as the season gets under way, some longtime fans in this mountain-ringed college town are wrestling with their feelings in the wake of a series of allegations of sexual assaults by football players that were either unreported or minimized, and the most serious of which remain unresolved.

Susan Hay Patrick, chief executive of the Missoula United Way, is a Grizzly supporter who will not be in the stands. “The magic has not gone away for me,” she said in an interview. “But I want to stand with the people for whom the magic has gone away. It’s my way of having it not be business as usual.”