Should Georgia football have a spring game

The Georgia Bulldogs enter the 2025 spring with a significant amount of roster turnover. Georgia lost a number of key contributors in the trenches to the NFL draft and quarterback Carson Beck exited via the transfer portal.

Georgia’s new starters and key depth players could certainly use the experience of playing in spring game in front of a home crowd in Athens. However, Nebraska Cornhuskers head coach Matt Rhule raised a legitimate concern about spring games this offseason.

Rhule and Nebraska won’t have a spring game that’s open to the public to prevent other college football teams from recruiting the Cornhuskers’ roster via the transfer portal.

Would Georgia be better off just having a behind closed doors scrimmage? Last year, four Bulldogs left via the transfer portal in the spring including several after UGA’s spring game. Georgia survived a major scare with defensive lineman Christen Miller deciding to enter the portal following Georgia’s spring game, but ultimately Georgia did not lose or gain any spring transfers last season.

Of course, there’s be several big losers if UGA (or any other program) does not have a spring game open to the public. Players wouldn’t get an opportunity to showcase their talents in front of fans, who would also miss the best chance to see their football team action until August. The school and the media would miss out on revenue earning opportunities as well.

Georgia’s spring game represents one of seven or eight opportunities all year that fans can attend a home game. Closing the spring game to the public because Georgia might lose a few players to the transfer portal is not worth the revenue-earning opportunity associated with a spring game.

We project that Georgia’s spring game will be on April 12, which is days before the transfer portal opens on April 16.

This article…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/georgia-football-spring-game-203109243.html

Author : UGA Wire

Publish date : 2025-02-12 20:31:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.