Deion Sanders went public with an idea to host a joint spring football practice and game against another team and it didn’t take long for him to apparently get a taker.
Syracuse head coach Fran Brown took to social media to indicate that he and the Orange are willing to take the field with Colorado as soon as possible.
“We will come to Boulder for 3 days,” Brown said in an X post that has since been seen by 4.5 million people and garnered nearly 30,000 likes.
The idea comes after Sanders offered a solution to the issue of college football programs backing away from traditional spring football games.
Rather than cancel the game, just play a real game against a real opponent.
“I would actually like to play the spring game against another team, in the spring,” he said. “That’s what I’m trying to do right now.”
Such an idea would not only help keep one of college football’s preseason traditions alive, but would add an interesting twist, not unlike when NFL teams hold joint practices prior to their meeting in an exhibition game.
But there would appear to be a problem with that idea: it’s not allowed.
That’s according to an NCAA spokesman, who told ESPN that the organization’s current bylaws do not permit football teams to play against other teams during the spring practice window.
The sudden urge to do away with spring football games comes as some head coaches are concerned that the exhibition will serve as little more than an effective try-out for backup players to later be poached by rival schools in the spring transfer portal period.
That trend really started when Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule said as much this offseason, citing that very concern, and electing to host an alternative spring event instead.
Following the Cornhuskers’ example, several other prominent schools have elected to do something other than the spring game, including Ohio State, LSU, Texas, and several others.
Coach Prime still sees value in the spring game itself.
“The way the trend is going, is you never know if this is going to be the last spring game,” Sanders said of those decisions.
“Now, I don’t believe in that, and I don’t really want to condone that… To have it competitive, and to play against our own guys, it can get kind of monotonous, and you really can’t tell the level of your guys.”
Right now, Colorado’s spring football game is set for April 19, and it looks like the NCAA’s bylaws will ensure that the Buffaloes are playing against themselves.
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