Could Spring Game Changes Help CFB Schedule Concerns?
We hear it over and over from the casuals. Nobody wants to watch SEC powerhouse beat up on Citadel! That’s, of course, because they fail to realize those smaller schools receive funding just to play those games. It’s how half of those programs survive. If UAB can lose their football program, then so can any of these other schools without scheduling those big Power 5 opponents. However, what if there was somehow a happy medium? What if changes to the “Spring Game” could quarrel those issues of scheduling cupcakes during the year?
The Spring format in college football has largely been unchanged for several years. Teams practice for about four weeks and hold a Spring Game at the end. It’s supposed to serve as an appetizer for what’s to come for the Fall. Some of it turns into nonsense. Some of it turns into relevant information.
What if there was a way to tweak this where everyone wins? The NFL has a preseason for a reason. With NIL money pouring into the sport, it’s time we stop pretending things haven’t changed. At the end of the day this is an entertainment business. The idiotic expanded playoff is already making them play the same number of games NFL players played once upon a time. There is a way to make the Spring game a win-win for everyone involved by taking an NFL approach.
What if there was a way to change the Spring format to where teams had the option to scrimmage opponents? Instead of scheduling Furman in the Fall, what if there was a way to do it in the Spring? The format could replicate something similar to the collegiate All-Star games. Three days of practice and then a game at the end where the score doesn’t really matter and you’re rotating players in there like a preseason game.
Football fans who aren’t into baseball would eat it up. TV Networks would love to air something like that. You mean a real football game in the Spring? I’m supposed to believe the SEC Network would have no interest in that? It also represents a chance for these small schools to receive a pay day rather than getting hammered when the games really count in the Fall.
Is this the way the sport is trending? Is this a way to get those small schools a paycheck to the point where they survive? Does that mean no more wasted weeks where Alabama gets a bye when they play Beef Wellington Tech for no reason? It’s a happy medium for college football to consider.
