Deion Sanders is right: College football needs intersquad scrimmages in the spring

Colorado coach Deion Sanders is, once again, at the frontier of college football’s constantly evolving landscape. He made waves on social media when he suggested that Colorado would love to face off against another school for its spring game on April 19. 

While some college football movers and shakers have discussed potential intersquad scrimmages through backchannels, this represents the first time that a prominent coach has publicly endorsed the idea. In taking that stance, Sanders is absolutely right. 

Simulated games against actual opponents, as the culmination of spring practice, would be great for college football, especially as traditional spring games fall by the wayside. There’s of course a catch: NCAA bylaws currently prohibit teams from playing another program in the spring. 

But it’s no like that NCAA bylaws are ironclad anymore. A slew of recent litigation has gradually stripped the NCAA’s enforcement powers and there’s a good chance that, if enough significant voices called for the allowance of intersquad scrimmages in the spring, the NCAA would acquiesce. 

The problem, of course, is getting enough coaches to agree with spring games against an opposing team. A lot of the concerns about a traditional spring game apply to the intersquad scrimmage: injuries are still a worry, other coaching staffs will still get the chance to evaluate a team’s roster for transfer purposes and there’s still the risk — likely increased — that coaches could tip some of their tightly-guarded gameplans and provide useful film by playing another team. 

In the case of an intersquad scrimmage, though, the potential pros far outweigh the cons. Sanders himself discussed perhaps the biggest benefit of facing off against an actual opponent in the…

Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/deion-sanders-is-right-college-football-needs-intersquad-scrimmages-in-the-spring/

Author : Will Backus

Publish date : 2025-03-18 18:00:00

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