Don’t write off college football’s traditional spring games just yet.
Colorado coach Deion Sanders is talking about doing something with the Buffaloes’ spring game that would be thinking outside the box a bit.
Sanders would like to see the powers-that-be in college football give their blessing to programs scheduling each OTHER for spring games, rather than the games be intrasquad, as they’ve always been.
The former “Prime Time” offered up his thoughts publicly on Monday.
“I would actually like to play the spring game against another team, in the spring,” Sanders said. “That’s what I’m trying to do right now.”
Spring games often have side promotions, like autograph days with players and coaches, or the losers eat beans for their postgame meal while the winners eat steak, and so on. But the one constant has always been that it’s a game played between that program’s roster, and that program’s roster alone.
Over 100,000 Alabama fans famously packed Bryant-Denny Stadium shortly after Nick Saban took over that program, and “A Day,” as they call it in Tuscaloosa, still exists: ‘Bama will have its annual spring game on Saturday, April 12, although coach Kalen DeBoer has said there may be a change in the standard “crimson vs. white” format.
Alabama is in the minority. Programs like Texas and Southern Cal have called off their spring games this season, although Texas coach Steve Sarkisian has told the media that their dismissal of the contest was based on the sheer amount of actual games his team has played the last four seasons, and didn’t rule out bringing it back.
Presently, NCAA rules prohibit facing another program in the spring.
The NFL allows teams to scrimmage each other during camp each summer. Maybe Sanders, whose team has a spring game April 19 that will be televised on ESPN2, is onto something.
“I would like to style it like the pros,” Sanders said. “I’d like to go against someone for a few days, and then you have the spring game. I think the public would be satisfied with that tremendously. I think it’s a tremendous idea.”
Syracuse coach Fran Brown was listening. Shortly after Sanders made his idea public, Brown took to X / Twitter, saying his team would like to “come to Boulder for three days.”
