Colorado and Syracuse have filed paperwork with the NCAA requesting the ability to hold spring practices and a spring game on April, Orange coach Fran Brown said. NCAA bylaws prevent teams from holding intercollegiate practices and exhibition games against each other in the spring.
The NCAA Division I FBS Oversight Committee will meet on April 10 and could decide to allow the waiver. Colorado’s spring game is scheduled for April 19 in Boulder and Brown offered to fly his roster out for the game. Syracuse has a spring game scheduled for April 12.
“For us to be the first to do it at two historic schools would mean a lot,” Brown told reporters. “Two African-American men, too. To have the opportunity of doing that means a lot. Especially with [Deion Sanders] being an icon.”
On Monday, Colorado coach Deion Sanders pitched the idea of scrimmaging another college football team as the Buffaloes prepare for a nationally televised spring game. Many major programs have opted to cancel spring games altogether with concerns over injuries and depth pieces getting scouted for the transfer portal. Practicing against other live opponents is a model commonly found in the NFL during its preseason.
“To have a competitive [game] against your own guys gets kind of monotonous,” Sanders said. “You really can’t tell the level of your guys because it’s the same old, same way … I would like to practice against someone for a few days, then you have the spring game and I think the public will be satisfied with that tremendously. I think it’s a tremendous idea. I’ve told those personnel who should understand that it’s a tremendous idea.”
Brown, in response, quickly offered to travel to Boulder and both practice and play against Colorado in a competitive spring game.
In a quoted social media post, Brown and the Orange stepped up to the challenge and offered to spend three days in Boulder practicing. Sanders has not publicly responded to the invitation, but called Brown “my Dawg” in a quoted post.
While a game should bring plenty of attention to Colorado, Brown and the Orange would benefit tremendously, too. Syracuse went under the radar as one of the most improved teams in college football under the first-year Brown, jumping to 10 wins and a No. 21 slot in the final College Football Playoff Rankings. The campaign was only the second 10-win season in the past 20 years.
The Buffaloes weren’t far behind, jumping from 1-11 to 9-4 over the course of two seasons. However, both Syracuse and Colorado are going through major periods of transition. The Buffaloes lost Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter and star quarterback Shedeur Sanders to the NFL Draft. Syracuse lost quarterback Kyle McCord, who led the nation with more than 4,700 yards passing in a breakout campaign.
Normal college football spring games are going extinct as coaches push for an NFL-style model that would also reduce exposure to backup players who may be risks to enter the transfer portal after the spring window, should they show out in the televised scrimmages. That calculus makes a bit of sense in the short-term, but could have far-reaching implications in the long-term development of the next generation of college football fans, as colleague Chip Patterson wrote last month.
Eliminating opportunities for fans to experience the stadium and their favorite college football team at a discount limits the opportunities to grow your fan base. The human connection that can be made with new college football fans — especially with a young fan — does not require a top-10 made-for-TV matchup with a 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff. Getting young people into the stadium for what coaches have long called a “dress rehearsal” is a path to building a real relationship with the next generation of fans.
A bevy of notable programs such as Texas, Nebraska, Oklahoma and USC have announced they will not hold a spring game in 2025.
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