Your schools don’t give a F&CK about your Spring Game, bro
Spring Games through the land used to be fun time to go to a ‘game’ for free, see the people you hadn’t seen for months for a few beers, put the steaks back on the grill, and tell yourself that this would be the time when Coach would turn things around.
But College Football doesn’t give two sh*ts about the fans anymore (if they really did), and some of the biggest names in college football – Ohio State, Texas, University of Southern California and Nebraska proved that.
TAPPING UP
They aren’t hiding behind worries that Player A might get poached by Team B if they watch the ESPN coverage and they see a disgruntled WR look as though he wants to go somewhere else and so they’ll tap him up.
Nebraska HC Matt Rhule was more blunt: “The word ‘tampering’ doesn’t exist anymore. It’s just an absolute free open common market. I don’t necessarily want to open up to the outside world and have people watch our guys and say, ‘He looks like a pretty good player. Let’s go get him.”
REIMAGINING
Ohio State are trying to please the fans by giving a free, three-hour ‘Showcase’ in April and will feature ‘live entertainment’, food and drink, activities and giveaways at The Horseshoe (whatever that means).
Ryan Day said: “I think we have to be smart about how we handle this…When you look at the NFL model and they’re playing the number of games that they play in the NFL, we just played 16 games, so to think that we can continue with the same spring game or spring practice model, I think is asking for trouble, because of the amount of games now.”
Of course, Texas AD Chris DeConte – who used words that sounded like something one of those types who moved from Silicon Valley to Austin because it was ‘cool’ – said: “Normally you play your last game, and you have a bowl game 30 days off,” Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte told ESPN. “We went last game at [Texas] A&M, then SEC championship game, home game, quarterfinal and semifinal. The reality is we played four extra games. In my mind, it was, ‘Hey guys, we gotta reimagine what the spring looks like.”
“REIMAGINE”? What in the hell does that mean?
This would have been the chance for a lot of Texas fans who couldn’t afford to get railed by the Longhorns on a matchday to the tune of nearly $1000 ($738 actual seat plus ‘donation’/bribe) to see Arch for a snap or two, and get excited. Hey, even the Longhorn Network could show something cool instead of replaying the close Ohio State loss or a failed Texas run in March Madness.
But nope, Sarkasian nor his employers care about the common fan. Not does Lincoln Riley, Ryan Day, or even Rhule.
And by doing this, them and their universities have shown it loud and clear: PAY FOR YOUR TICKETS OR ELSE.
(For posterity’s sake, here’s a video at a kid with brain cancer- Jack Hoffman running for a ‘TD’ at Nebraska’s Spring Game in 2003. You may cry now. A lot.)