NCAA shuts down Colorado-Syracuse spring game but leaves door open for future scrimmages

Colorado football coach Deion Sanders is continuing to change the way modern college football is played. He worked his way from Jackson State to Colorado and will presumably have two players selected in the top 10 in the upcoming draft, including his son. 

Now he’s trying to mimic what NFL teams do in the preseason and have spring games instead of just intrasquad scrimmages. Pitting two FBS teams against each other for some friendly competition, if you will. 

Though the FBS oversight committee denied Colorado and Syracuse’s pitch to play each other for their spring game, per The Athletic’s Chris Vannini, they left the door ajar for the future of that being a possibility — not just between the two schools, but a standard among FBS teams.

This isn’t a bad idea at all. The spring game has become more of a gimmick than a real scrimmage to give coaches an idea of what they’re working with. Several teams announced they were canceling their spring game. 

Sanders and Fran Brown at Syracuse still see value in the spring game, and hope it can evolve into a more competitive event around college football. 

The FBS allowing teams to scrimmage each other could save the spring game

Look at the NFL, where teams practice together often. I think there’s some added benefit to practicing together ahead of a preseason game. While the injury risk is the biggest factor in why most schools will opt out of it, it gets boring scrimmaging against your teammates. 

You don’t want to injure anybody so you don’t always go full contact. You can already anticipate how to attack the offense/defense too. On top of that, you’ll spend the entire season practicing against the scout team ahead of each game, why not add a little flavor to college football?

Since Sanders arrived in Boulder, it’s been all about making big moves. He brought “his own baggage” with him from Jackson State to Colorado, building a solid Big 12 team in the school’s first year in the conference. 

He can recruit and continue to bring players in. When he arrived at Colorado, the athletic budget could barely cover his salary; earlier this week he was given a five year, $54 million extension. 

This is just the latest move he’s making to modernize the tradition of college football. NIL and the transfer portal has upended the tradition of college football. This is a completely different game than it was a decade ago. 

That’s fine, but as arrogance and entitlement overshadow what college athletics were supposed to be, it’s good to see a few coaches still care about some of the customs of college football.