The king of self promotion just did something for the good of the whole, throwing out a line of succulent bait for all to nibble.
Now let’s see who bites.
Let’s see which universities see Colorado coach Deion Sanders’ invite to come to Boulder, Co., and play a “spring game” agains the Buffs as more than hyperbole from college football’s masterful carnival barker.
Which see it as blazing down the path to a fresh future, not rehashing or reorganizing the past.
Hours after Sanders’ spring practice game statement during Monday’s press conference, Syracuse coach Fran Brown responded on X, posting that he’d like to take his team to Colorado for a spring game. A few joint practices, too.
You know, the whole NFL training camp model thing.
But it’s not up to Brown or Sanders or North Carolina coach Bill Belichick, who Sanders wants to see on the other sideline this spring. The highest-paid employees at their respective schools have no control over this.
The heavy hand of It’s Not Happening belongs to – who else? – the NCAA.
The NCAA says teams cannot play each other in the spring. Not a commissioner at the top of the NCAA food chain, who could individually make nuanced decisions. Not an end-all, be-all deity doling out dos an don’ts.
That would make too much sense.
SPRING POWER RANKINGS: Big Ten | SEC | ACC | Big 12
LOOKING AHEAD: Our way-too-early college football Top 25 for 2025
But 300-plus universities who make up the NCAA, who have glommed together in planned purpose, through various committees and subcommittees, to decide the specifics of every sport. Then placing president Charlie Baker out in front, with a hefty contract, to take the slings and arrows. And giving him zero power.
It couldn’t be more bureaucratically entangled if it were run by the federal government.
Colorado and Syracuse simply can’t have joint practices, and then a controlled scrimmage. Why, you ask?
Well there’s airfare for players to Colorado, and who pays for that? There’s also lodging and housing and meals, and who pays for those?
Then there’s insurance waivers, because, buddy, this thing isn’t insured for spring football — even though the Big Ten spent months in 2020 trying to convince anyone who would listen that teams could play spring football in 2021 instead of forging through the Covid season.
The Big Ten also – just in case anyone forgot – floated the idea of its teams playing two seasons in nine months to avoid playing in 2020. Now, that can be pulled off ― in the middle of a flipping pandemic.
But two teams getting together for a week, holding a few joint practices and playing a controlled scrimmage spring game? Heavens, no.
Why? Because they’re all about rules at the NCAA — except for rules against member institutions tampering with players from other schools.
And that’s how we got into this mess in the first place.
“The way the train is going,” Sanders said, “You never know if this is going to be the last spring game.”
That train gained momentum earlier this spring when Nebraska coach Matt Rhule declared he wouldn’t have a spring game because he didn’t want every swinging scout from FBS schools watching his game — and seeing what players were prime for the transfer portal picking.
Translation: the tampering problem the NCAA refuses to honestly discuss, much less include in rules enforcement.
NCAA bylaw 13.1.1.3 prohibits any communication with an enrolled student athlete before they enter the transfer portal. Violations can result in penalties, including recruiting bans and loss of scholarships.
The joke goes something like this: the NCAA was so mad about tampering in FBS, it threw the book at an FCS school. If you think that’s a joke, let me introduce Southern Utah.
The Thunderbirds (best mascot, ever) were in the NCAA crosshairs because coach DeLane Fitzgerald was accused of illegally contacting two players. Southern Utah was given one year of probation and a $5,000 fine, among other slaps on the wrist.
To this day, no FBS coach has been accused and sanctioned for tampering.
So it should come as no surprise that after Nebraska bailed on its spring game, Texas soon followed. So did Ohio State and Southern California and LSU and Oklahoma … and stop me if you don’t get the picture.
All of them, and many others in FBS, have either eliminated spring games or substituted another form of practice to wrap up spring drills.
“Those other coaches who want to come watch our spring game, they’re going to get a good look at our threes and fours,” West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez told me last week. “We won’t have our best out there. (Coaches are) going to have to go way down the list to find out who these guys are.”
Or, and I’m just spitballing here, power conferences desperate for additional revenue streams could televise the joint practices and controlled scrimmages and make a boatload of media rights money. Take the NFL model ― and cash in on it.
“I think the public would be satisfied with that tremendously,” Sanders said.
That would make too much sense.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
