Why SMU, Texas and other college football programs are canceling spring games

College football has become an ever-changing landscape, and that isn’t only limited to what happens between August and January.

With changes across college football, including NIL, the transfer portal and the newly-expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, many programs across the country are choosing to cancel their spring football games.

Seven of the 13 FBS schools in Texas are not having spring games this year, many for the first time. Coaches have cited injury concerns, potential tampering in the spring transfer portal window and a lengthened schedule as reasons why.

“From the moment we were told we didn’t have to, we weren’t having one,” SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee said.

The tradition of spring games dates back to the 1800s and was an integral part of the sports calendar, providing teams a chance to test out new rules, settle position battles and sell tickets to a packed home crowd.

But now there’s a split opinion across the sport, with many advocating for the games’ demise and others standing strong that the tradition should remain even as the rest of college football continues to change.

“This thought of people recruiting off your roster or some of those things, I’m not buying some of that stuff,” Texas A&M coach Mike Elko said.

‘More potential downside’

Lashlee didn’t feel the need to make a big announcement that SMU would be canceling its spring game this year. He just didn’t feel it was that big of a deal.

“At the end of the day, internally, we don’t get a lot out of it,” he said. “There’s more potential downside than there is upside for it.”

Lashlee acknowledged spring games are great for fans and TV exposure. But when he learned he could instead open up a practice to the public and have it televised, he didn’t see the need for a coordinated scrimmage, especially with the spring transfer portal window.

Coaches don’t want to showcase their schemes or players for opposing coaches to see. The spring transfer portal window is open from April 16 to 25. All of the Texas teams planning for spring games are having them before or during that window.

Last year, more than 900 FBS athletes transferred during the spring window. An extra showcase only opens the door for opposing coaches to target those who perform well.

“The portal’s not the only reason,” Lashlee said. “But it’s not false. We had people last year at our spring game that started offering our guys stuff. It is what it is. They stayed, but you do have issues.”

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said the portal isn’t an issue for his team this year. The Longhorns’ spring game would have been after the portal window closed.

But injuries have always been a big concern, and with the lengthened college football schedule — that’s seen Texas play 30 games over the last two seasons — he didn’t see a reason to add another game to his players’ plates.

“I think college football’s changing right now, and we need to do a great job, as coaches, of adapting to college football, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” he said on the Up & Adams Show in February.

A strong contingent of supporters

As much as there’s a contingent of coaches advocating against spring games, there’s still a strong group for them.

Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Houston and Texas State are among the Texas programs treating this spring like any other.

Elko said he doesn’t see the need to make any changes yet because his Aggies’ 2024 schedule looked similar to years past.

“There’s some teams who played real long seasons, and I think there’s a reality to having to redefine what your next offseason looks like with the extended playoff and how many games some teams are playing,” he said. “We’ll continue to have a spring game until we make it to the semifinals, and then we’ll rediscover what our offseason looks like.”

Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire not only backed the spring game tradition, but made the argument to expand it.

He joined the calls led by Colorado coach Deion Sanders to push for off-season joint practices or scrimmages between programs.

“We’re the only level of football that doesn’t have a scrimmage,” said McGuire, a longtime Texas high school football coach. “In high school you’re going to have a scrimmage before you play your first game. You’ve got preseason games and joint practices in the NFL.

“I think it would be good to at the very least have a joint practice. Whether it’s A&M, or Texas, or OU, wherever we’re traveling.”

NCAA rules currently don’t allow FBS teams to conduct spring practices or games against one another, and an NCAA committee denied a request by Colorado and Syracuse to hold a joint practice and scrimmage this year.

McGuire said if it ever did come to fruition in the future, there would need to be some strict terms.

“I’ve been in scrimmages, too, where like this is somebody’s Super Bowl, and it went over the top,” he said. “You see some of that in the NFL with the fights and stuff like that. For us, the player safety has got to be in that waiver, but you’ve also got to be really smart with who you’re going to scrimmage.”

Both the coaches planning for spring games and those that have canceled them agree that there needs to be some way to keep fans engaged in the offseason. They’ve all taken different approaches to do so — from selling out their stadiums for one day to holding an open practice and youth clinic.

They’re all taking their own approaches and doing so in a way that they believe is best for their competitive advantage come fall.

Which Texas FBS programs are hosting spring games?

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