The idea of teams not having a spring game has seemed to pick up ever since coach Rhule from Nebraska made his comments about his team not having a Spring game due to the possibility of other teams gathering intel for potential transfers.
There has also been more coaches getting involved in the movement such as Willie Fritz, Mike Gundy, Deion Sanders, Fran Brown, etc. Coach Rhule makes good points because teams could possibly lose more players due to younger and more inexperienced players that do get more playing time in this setting.
The same can be said if the idea of joint practices and games picks up speed over the coming weeks into next year. The real issue is the timing of the transfer windows and how it should be re-evaluated as a whole with how impactful the new NIL has been. Let’s get into a few key points for this and how it could be good/bad for the sport.
Denying a joint scrimmage is a blow to spring football, which has otherwise become nerfed in importance nationally as major schools cancel their games with coaches hoping to make it through spring without major injuries and transfer defections.
The NCAA's explanation mostly focused on timing but this seems more like an excuse for themselves to get more time to discuss all the implications since this has all been very new in the college football world. The Buffaloes would have a competitive advantage in recruiting for their spring game that other schools would lack. Colorado and Syracuse wanted to match up sometime in the spring with both coaches being in favor of this. Coach Sanders is pitching the idea of making spring ball almost like NFL preseason.
This would get the competitive juices flowing for the players who mainly go up against the same teammates in practice everyday up until their season starts up in August or September. A big plus that can be taken out of this is the possibility for team rivalries to get a recharge especially with the new conference alignments.
The new realignments has taken away certain rivalries schools had with other schools that are a part of their region or were in the previous conference. Coach Gundy brought this up talking about a Bedlam spring scrimmage against their rivals Oklahoma and how exciting this could be for the fans and schools.
Texas Tech coach Joey Mcguire had a similar idea talking about joint practices with other schools in the area so the traveling isn't too much. This would energize the fan base to come out to the event even more to see their favorite players get time on the field to give them a taste of what to expect come fall time. These events would surely sellout or come very close to it at least.
The NCAA committee did seem interested in the idea and did state they would discuss this over the year in their meetings to see how feasible this is for the league. Coaches seem very interested in this and I expect this to gain steam going into 2026.
The extra game on the agenda could get the players' minds thinking about more money since it would technically be an additional game added to their schedule. So the logistics of players' NIL contracts would have to be adjusted so no lawsuits happen over this. The NCAA would definitely be smart to cover all their corners in this predicament before just agreeing and allowing this to happen on a team by team preference basis.
The extra game could also make players more susceptible to injury but the same can be said about the spring game or just practice in general. I understand the intensity might not be the same in those settings but the coaches could get a healthy rotation going for the players that are active in the game to reduce the risk. The big risk would be players impressing other coaches and a school losing their players due to the advanced exposure.
This is the world we live in with the NIL and the transfer rules we have in place. The transfer windows really need to be revisited because this shouldn’t be a factor when it comes to making the game better and other players better as well with the extra reps.
The winter transfer window needs to be pushed back and then I would also push back the spring window slightly so teams/players have more time to gather their thoughts. Plan the joint practices and games after the spring portal window so theres no concern over players leaving to ditch for other schools last minute. There’s legs to this idea but the concerns are valid.
In conclusion, the idea for a new spring time schedule really intrigues me. Giving the fan bases and schools something to look forward to will only increase the popularity for America's favorite sport. For the coaches, this would be a home run as well because of how position battles would become clearer ramping up more competition amongst the players which is what every coaching staff wants from their players. Football fans around the country would set their calendars counting down the days if something like this actually came to fruition.