Image courtesy of Boston College Athletics
Spring football games could become a thing of the past thanks to the changing climate in college football.
Once a staple of the spring sports calendar, spring football games are now being cancelled across the country. Nebraska, Texas and USC are among the programs that have announced they are not doing a spring game this year. Several other programs, including Boston College are debating whether or not to play a spring game.
“No, we’re not going to have a spring game,” Texas coach Sarkisian told Kay Adams on the “Up & Adams Show” podcast Thursday. “College football is changing right now, and we need to do a great job as coaches of adapting.”
According to Texas Athletic Director Chris Del Conte, the expanded playoff and playing more games is also factoring into the decision.
“Normally you play your last game, and you have a bowl game 30 days off,” Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte told ESPN. “We went last game at [Texas] A&M, then SEC championship game, home game, quarterfinal and semifinal. The reality is we played four extra games. In my mind, it was, ‘Hey guys, we gotta reimagine what the spring looks like.'”
Spring football games are popular and networks like ESPN cover these games by conference. As hard as it is to believe, spring football games draw large audiences and are popular among advertisers.
The changing landscape of college football, especially the transfer portal has forced more coaches to re-evaluate whether or not they want the games should be played or if the practices should be covered. The feeling is, it highlights the players in the program and they could end up leaving after spring ball in the portal if they generate interest from other coaches.
It is a valid concern and why many coaches like Washington’s Jedd Fisch believes that college football should go the way of the NFL and adopt a similar off calendar. Like the NFL, college programs would have OTA’s, mini camp and a window in players could enter the portal. It would be right around the same time as the NFL Draft.
“We should literally just take the NFL schedule… When they have their draft, we can have our portal, and then we can roll,” Fisch said recently in an interview.
Logically it would make sense but it is probably not going to happen. College presidents are notoriously slow movers when it comes to change and so is the NCAA. It is highly unlikely that we would see that drastic a change anytime soon.
In the short term, you will see more FBS schools and some FCS schools eliminate their spring football games and just do 15 practices. Locally, Brown has been doing that for years. The Bears so not play a spring game. Expect more teams in the area to adopt that model in the years to come.
In the meantime, enjoy the games we do have for now. Spring football games are still great events and are a fun way to get your first look at next season’s team. College football will never be the same so enjoy the spring game tradition while we still have it.