Hickey: The time has come to give spring football games some sizzle

Spring football games are not unimportant. They are, however, almost always uninspired — especially in an era when roster turnover makes it harder to produce anything resembling an actual game.

On Saturday, Michigan State’s spring game was instead a glorified practice with some scrimmage periods mixed in. A defensive lineman shortage forced Mel Tucker to adjust to his personnel and minimize that unit’s time on the field.

Last year a similar thing happened at Penn State, only due to not having enough offensive linemen to split the roster into evenly matched squads.

In both cases, you felt bad for anybody who actually might have carved out time to watch it on Big Ten Network. And even worse for any fans who might have traveled from any distance outside State College or East Lansing to be there.

Don’t blame the coaches. That’s the hand the new transfer portal rules have dealt them. And it often benefits those coaches in the fall when their own new arrivals reach campus.

But it’s time to do something to make spring games more interesting. And it doesn’t require a great deal of creativity — you’d just be copying every other sport.

Spring games with sizzle

Auburn coach Hugh Freeze doesn’t come across as a forward thinker, but on the topic of spring football he’s quite progressive.

In the leadup to Auburn’s spring game, Freeze banged the drum for a rule change that would allow teams to schedule outsiders for an exhibition scrimmage.

“Allow us to scrimmage somebody on A-Day. Another team,” Freeze said. “I think everybody would get out of it exactly what they want.

“Let’s have Alabama play Troy and we play UAB or vice versa. I don’t care. Alabama State. People will come see that.”

They would. We know this because it happens in other sports.

College basketball teams can play up to 2 exhibition games or hold 2 closed scrimmages before the start of the regular season. Most teams do 1 of each. Playing a spring game against another school would essentially marry those concepts into an open, public scrimmage.

Baseball and softball teams can schedule exhibitions against opponents during fall ball. Nebraska’s women’s volleyball team recently played a sold-out spring exhibition match against Wichita State. It may not count in the standings, but at least it’s the real thing — something that can rarely be said for a spring football game.

Even if it looks like a typical spring game — no tackling the quarterback — it would feel different for players and fans alike to have an actual opponent.

Coaches can control it like a practice, lowering injury risk. But now that practice can take place against a team that doesn’t run your exact same offense and defense. Which is another silly thing about spring games.

How often are you going to run into a clone of your own team? It makes a lot more sense to scrimmage against a team that runs similar schemes to an upcoming opponent.

It would also eliminate ridiculous scoring that nobody understands. For instance, Ohio State’s spring game was scored as a true Offense vs. Defense contest. There was a scoring system for three-and-outs, sacks, turnovers, etc.

Unless you have a glossary, good luck keeping track of scoring.

If nobody knows whether the play you just made results in points, that’s not a very spectator-friendly event. And when you’re charging money to attend the event, as Ohio State did, the fan experience becomes a priority. Or at least it should.

College football is the only level of the sport without any type of preseason game against an opponent. The NFL has games and practices against opponents. In many states, you can scrimmage against another school.

In college, nothing. It’s part of what makes prepping for Week 1 so difficult.

And though that adds to the intrigue of the season opener, it’s part of the reason that it feels slightly unfair for conference games to be scheduled in the first week. Everyone needs a couple weeks to figure out their strengths and weaknesses.

Having a spring game against an opponent would help expedite that process.

Is it realistic?

There’s a fairly significant hurdle standing in the way of this idea working. It requires cooperation and collaboration.

College football coaches are a notoriously paranoid bunch.

Oklahoma once frosted the windows in several dorm rooms because it was possible for students to see out onto the practice field — as if those students would have reported anything other than, “Nope. They can’t tackle anybody.”

A year later, Lincoln Riley banned reporters from covering Oklahoma practices because some intrepid student reporters went to the top of a parking garage to see whether Spencer Rattler was practicing that week.

It seems likely that not every coach would be down with the idea of sharing spring secrets with anyone else, even if it is a team they won’t see in the fall. The coaches on that team could have friends on the coaching staff of an actual opponent, you see.

But I’m not suggesting that a spring game against an opponent should be mandatory. A traditional spring game can still provide good moments, like when Archie Griffin scored a touchdown for Ohio State this weekend. That’s a moment that probably wouldn’t be replicated if the Buckeyes were scrimmaging against Bowling Green or the like.

But it would be nice to have an outside opponent as an available option. And fortunately, it appears to be gaining traction. Freeze isn’t the only coach high on the idea.

Starting next year, Division II teams are allowed to conduct 1 scrimmage against an opponent.

In typical fashion, Division I decision-makers will probably take 3 or 4 years to see how it works out at that level before voting on whether to adopt it themselves. But there seems little reason to say no.

Alex Hickey

Alex Hickey is an award-winning writer who has watched Big Ten sports since it was a numerically accurate description of league membership. Alex has covered college football and basketball since 2008, with stops on the McNeese State, LSU and West Virginia beats before being hired as Saturday Tradition's Big Ten columnist in 2021. He is an Illinois native and 2004 Indiana University graduate.