Make it make sense! I understand that it has become en vogue for Power Four college football programs to do away with their annual spring games, but it needs to stop yesterday. While I may be an old head at this, canceling spring games is a great way to show your fanbase you truly do not care one iota about them. This is how you create new fans. Nobody cares about your spring combine, y'all.
So with Oklahoma being the latest team to cancel its spring game, this is yet another thing Brent Venables has gotten horribly wrong as a head coach. It feels like the Sooners are merely trying to keep up with The Joneses, better known as Texas, who canceled its spring game weeks ago. Texas has been a College Football Playoff team the last two years, so Steve Sarkisian can do what he wants.
As for Oklahoma legends like Gerald McCoy, these cancellations cannot possibly sit well with them. While he went No. 3 overall to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after an illustrious college at Oklahoma in 2010, McCoy recognizes that the spring game may be some of the guys at the bottom of the roster's only chance of seeing the field. It also should reward players for how hard they worked.
So many Oklahomans dream of running out onto Owen Field and playing in the Crimson and Cream.
So no spring game? Just a showcase? No opportunity for young guys to perform in front of fans? Guys who have improved to do it in front of the fans. What about the guys who may never see the field in a real game getting an opportunity in the spring game to get reps in front of a…
— Gerald McCoy (@Geraldini93) March 4, 2025
I am just afraid that college football as a whole is getting way too serious with this type of measure.
Gerald McCoy is frustrated that Oklahoma has cancelled its spring game
More so than ever, Oklahoma is experiencing an identity crisis. Who are the Sooners anymore, really? This was the preeminent program of the Big 12 and the old Big Eight before that. While Texas has all the glitz and glamor, Oklahoma won more. By leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, Oklahoma went from a top-three program all-time in college football to essentially the southwestern version of Auburn.
Perhaps McCoy being my peer and one of the greatest players to ever suit up for Bob Stoops speaks volumes to me. When McCoy played for Oklahoma, you could trust the Sooners to win 10 or 11 games every year and be at the top of the college football world in the previous iteration of the Big 12. We are talking about a massive dude doing big things in a big league for a big-time college team!
Now under Venables, I am afraid Oklahoma has become the new Nebraska, a team that made a regrettable choice in life and continues to pay for its sins of yesterday. For Oklahoma, it literally was yesterday. For Nebraska, it has been a painfully long time since Bo Pelini went 9-3 on the regular. Oklahoma needs all the positive PR the team can get, but this cancellation sends the wrong message.
For every team that has success switching conferences, another seems to get lost in the shuffle of it.