Will Penn State still have a spring football game this year?

The latest trend sweeping the college football world appears to be the diminished importance of the annual spring football game. As schools move closer to putting the traditional spring games to rest, Penn State fans may be wondering what could eventually happen to the annual Blue-White Game in Happy Valley. The good news is, for now, the game for 2025 is still on as scheduled. But after 2025, the outlook is anyone’s guess at this point.

Penn State announced back in December it will hold its traditional spring game on April 26. At that point in time, it felt like routine to just assume a school that holds one of the most well-attended spring games to lock in a date for sometime in April. But since Penn State’s announced date for the Blue-White Game, the discussions about spring games around the country have grown with concern about whether or not the spring game should even be played.

It is not necessarily a player safety concern that is igniting these talks, but concern about roster preservation in the era of the NCAA transfer portal and the influence of NIL.

Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule made headlines with his openness about concerns about playing Nebraska’s spring game and potentially showcasing his players for other programs who may take advantage of the transfer portal to address needs on their own rosters. In recent days we have seen Texas announce the cancelation of its spring game and USC and Ohio State each confirming changes from a traditional spring game setup.

Penn State head coach James Franklin said earleir this month there were no plans to drastically change the approach with spring practices (although he did acknowledge the changes to some winter workouts), but he did suggest the program may make some tweaks to the actual spring game.

“You know, I do see us making some modifications to the spring…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/penn-state-still-spring-football-125032164.html

Author : Nittany Lions Wire

Publish date : 2025-02-23 12:50:00

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