Ohio State, Nebraska among teams eschewing spring games as part of college football’s changing offseason

College football spring games are starting to become a thing of the past. For now, many programs around the nation will still hold a traditional showcase to wrap their spring practice slates, but there is a growing list of prominent schools that have decided to do away with the game day format in favor of different plans — or, so far, nothing at all. 

Nebraska coach Matt Rhule got the ball rolling when he announced his team would not play its spring game, which routinely attracts 60,000-plus fans. 

“I think it’s really, fundamentally — I hate to say it like this — 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 said in February. “To go out and bring in a bunch of new players and showcase them for all the other schools to watch, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”  

Since then, schools like Ohio State and Texas have announced they will do away with a spring game format that has existed for years now. While Nebraska’s concerns centered around the transfer portal and tampering, each school has cited its own reason for eliminating spring games. 

While some schools have chosen not to play spring games in the past, the adjusted college football calendar has undoubtedly played a role in the increasing cancellations. With a majority fo spring practices set to commence in March, here’s a running list of schools that are either canceling their spring games or overhauling the format. 

…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/ohio-state-nebraska-among-teams-eschewing-spring-games-as-part-of-college-footballs-changing-offseason/

Author : Will Backus

Publish date : 2025-02-24 18:06:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.