Texas, Florida State, Nebraska, and Ohio State scrap spring games. One coach said he doesn’t want to ‘open up to the outside world.’
It may be too early to say if spring games will become a thing of the past in major college football, but five big-name programs have already canceled spring games for this year.
That includes Texas, Florida State, Nebraska, and Ohio State. Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian explained the decision during the “Up & Adams Show“ on Thursday.
“No, we’re not going to have a spring game,” Sarkisian told host Kay Adams. “College football is changing right now, and we need to do a great job as coaches of adapting.”
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“The development that’s needed for these guys to get ready for the fall is a little bit different than it used to be,” he said. “I just don’t know if rolling the ball out and playing the game, when we only get 15 practices, is the best for us to maximize the opportunities that we get.”
As Sarkisian noted, the Longhorns have played more games than usual with 30 in the past two years. The Longhorns made the new 12-team College Football Playoff last season and reached the national semifinals, which made that a 16-game season alone. Even in the old College Football Playoff format with four teams, an entrant could have 14 games as the Longhorns did in 2023 without advancing past the semifinals.
Sarkisian compared spring practices to the NFL’s organized team activities. The NFL has OTAs in the late spring months before training camp and the start of the season.
“So it’s going to be a little bit different approach,” Sarkisian said.
Spring games include full contact in pads, which increases the risk of injury, though injuries could also occur in practice. NCAA teams get 15 spring practices in 34 days, and that includes 11-on-11 scrimmages. The spring games have varying levels of popularity, depending on the program, as a first look at a respective program’s upcoming team.
It’s not only the fans who are watching, however. The spring transfer portal starts up in April, and Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule has a problem with that timing.
“I hate to say it like this, but it’s really because last year, we were one of the more televised spring games, and I dealt with a lot of people offering our players a lot of opportunities after that,” Rhule told reporters in a Feb. 1 press conference.
“The word ’tampering‘ doesn’t exist anymore, it’s just absolute free, open, common market,” he continued. “And so, I don’t necessarily want to open up to the outside world. I don’t want these guys all being able to watch our guys and say, ’Wow, he looks like a pretty good player. Let’s go get him.’”
Fresh off a national championship run, Ohio State will showcase its program on April 12 but not with a spring game. Instead, the school will have a Spring Showcase that day to cap spring practices, which begin on March 17.
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For Florida State, it came down to the construction at Doak Campbell Stadium. However, Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell also opted to not find an alternative location for the game.
“I mean that’s’ something we discussed, but you know … we’re limited,” Norvell said in reference to the NCAA rules during a January interview with Warchant.com.
“We just felt it was in the best interest of our team … to go through spring and make sure that we’re able to capitalize … on each of those practices and every meeting,” he said.
