Why Are Teams Cancelling Spring Games?
Ahh, Spring is here. Time for brighter weather, longer days and digging out the Summer jacket. Spring is also the start of the Spring training period which normally concludes with a Spring game. It is an early chance for coaches to look at their players in a game scenario. It is also a chance for fans to see any new players that have joined the team in the offseason.
The Spring game has been a staple of the sport for many years and a focal point for fans. But its existence is currently under threat. It has generated a lot of news recently so I wanted to explore why teams are cancelling their Spring Games.
Spring Game Basics
I talked about Spring Training in my article a few weeks ago on Boise State. The rules for Spring games are set out by the NCAA and are quite strict. The key rules are:
- Practices can be conducted over a 34-day period with 20 hours per week of unrestricted activities. Players must receive one day off per week.
- 15 on-field practice sessions may be held, with no more than 12 involving contact.
- Full contact may not occur until the third practice.
- Eight of the 12 contact practices can involve tackling. No more than three of those eight may be devoted to 11-on-11 scrimmages.
- During noncontact practice sessions, headgear may be worn.
One of the 11-on-11 scrimmages has traditionally been a Spring game. The Spring game is normallly an intra-squad game rather than a matchup against another team. Some coaches might run this as “starters vs backups” whilst others have a mix of the squad members and rotate.
What is the point of Spring Training?
Spring Training serves as an early pre-season. If a team has new coaches it is a chance for them to get across their ideas and schemes on the field. If there are new players transferring in they get to interact with teammates and the coaches.
The missing element will be new Freshmen recruits who might not have graduated high school yet. However, some graduate high school earlier and join College as early as January, so will attend.
Spring games are a good chance for the coaches to see how their plans play out in a game scenario. They can also assess how certain players, normally on the periphery, fit into their schemes.
Spring Traning is normally closed to the public unlike the Spring game. The bigger games are traditionally televised and are a great chance for fans to engage with the team. As the games are normally quite affordable they are an ideal opportunity for those who do not get the chance to a see a regular season game to attend.
The trend away from these games
This offseason we have seen a number of teams come out and declare that they will cancel their Spring game. A number of coaches have also said that they will need to materially amend the format if they do continue with such a game.
Many news sites are keeping a tracker of these teams. But coaches from teams across all of the Power 4 conferences have discussed the topic in recent times.
Even before the recent announcements, it was clear that coaches were pairing back the intensity of the games and they were trending towards exhibition style events.
But why cancel spring games?
The reasons given by teams has varied. Ohio State and Texas have cited the long season that they have just experienced, which went deep into January.
Teams like FSU and Missouri are going through stadium works. NC State have a new Offensive and Defensive coordinator so will spend the Spring behind closed doors working through new schemes.
Tampering anyone?
The most interesting case is Nebraska who have come out and cited Tampering concerns. Tampering is essentially teams tapping up another teams players to move to their school. The argument being that the Spring game gives the outside world a chance to scout a team’s players who could then be targeted in the Spring portal. Tampering is against the rules but as with most sports an element of it, directly or indirectly, (allegedly) appears to go on.
I have some sympathy for this argument as the timings are such that it is a real risk. However, I am sure for starters and higher profile players there is enough tape of them anyway that the Spring game isn’t going to move the needle. But from a coachās perspective, why create more public footage for limited gain?
Coaches are not big fans of the Spring transfer portal in general. They believe it allows players to assess where they might be on a depth chart and find a new home accordingly. In this context the spring games can amplify the problem, if a player doesnāt get much game time.
The extended schedule and injury
Risk of injury has been sighted as another reason. Coaches are concerned about players taking contact this early into training and not being able to get them healthy ahead of the season start. College football is obviously a game that carries an element of risk. But you can perhaps control that better in training scenarios as opposed to a game.
This point dovetails with that of Ohio State and Texas where they flag that they were still playing competitive games deep into January and players need some additional time.
Player safety remains a key focus for the NCAA (hence the structure of Spring Traning) and for teams who want to keep their key players on the field for the regular season.
Time is a precious resource
The Spring training window is a precious resource and coaches have a finite window to get new ideas across or have a good look at new joiners. It is understandable therefore that they do not want to use a whole session on an exhibition game which is hard to replicate reality.
This is especially true if you have new Head Coaches or Coordinators who will be working with players for the first time. In this world of transfer portal where team churn is more common, getting them “on message” during this period is crucial.
The counter to that however, is that for freshmen, they will likely not have played a game since leaving high school so the Spring game could be useful for blowing off the rust.
On a similar note, coaches are loathe to provide any intel for teams to understand how they will play or behaviours and characteristics of key players. Therefore in any exhibition game they are unlikely to showcase the work they have done behind the scenes.
What about the average fan?
I wrote last week about the College Football ecosystem and the fans had a key place on my diagram. We pay to watch the team, buy merchandise and subscribe to the TV channels to catch all of the action.Ā In this new world fans can also chip in for NIL using various apps..
The big issue with removing the Spring game is that it denies fans an opportunity to come to the stadium and see the players. Spring games are normally priced at a point that is affordable for families and represents a chance for a wider crowd to engage in person. Therefore removing the spring game takes away this potential opportunity from the local fan.
Similarly, for those who would normally watch on TV it takes away an opportunity to get an early glimpse of this year’s team and build excitement ahead of the season. Fans will miss the opportunity of seeing a new star recruit taking early snaps etc.
All roads lead to the fans
The trend of cancelling the games might not be welcome for some but it appears that it will continue. The Spring games have been continually watered down for a while now and player safety is a valid point.
I think the arguments are all fair as long as the games are replaced with something for the fans. A void cannot be the answer.
As college football professionalises further, it will need to ensure fan engagement evolves at the same pace. Some teams are thinking about this and using the Spring Game slot for a “community day” of sorts where players take on challenges and meet fans.
This is likely to be where we end up which from a fan engagement point of view probably works well. As an example Oklahoma are hosting the “Crimson Combine” on 12th April which will include skills challenges and fan opportunities.
It may be that some teams move to an NFL-style training model where fans have better access to training sessions. I am not sure coaches will subscribe to that so the answer is likely somewhere in the middle.
The spring game will for the most part, stick around for now. It will likely experience more of a slow phasing out and transition to something else. Hopefully the something else keeps fan engagement as its focus.
For the players, they can still enjoy a bit of time off for Spring break. And we can enjoy the delights of Spring as we count down the days to the season starting again.
