Your Take is a chance to start to thoughtful, spirited, intelligent and nice conversation about some of the hotter topics in college football. It allows the reader to have a voice as the best comments will be compiled into a later post (if there are enough good comments).
It's that time of year where spring football culminates in a spring game that has unique rules, situational plays and a complex scoring system that no one ever understands.
What if spring games were modified?
What if teams could play other teams during their spring games? Like a Texas-Texas A&M matchup (that will never happen, but we can dream) or Oregon-Boise State? Would this make spring games, which draw decent crowds anyway, a more attractive piece to college football both for the fans and for college football's pockets?
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney seems to think so. He told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that he'd like teams to have the option of playing "exhibition" games to culminate spring practice.
He said teams get to choose whether to play in an intrasquad scrimmage or against another team to end spring practices. The games would be between teams that were not in the same conference but within reasonable driving distance.
"Personally, I think it would be a good thing for college football to do," Swinney told the AJC. "College football takes in a lot of money. I think it would be an opportunity to give something back to your school or a charity."
Swinney also pointed out that several other sports already do this but the events just aren't public. Clemson and Georgia play ever year in basketball during the offseason, but no one gets to see it.
Swinney said he'd have no problem with closing the scrimmage, but then I think that takes away from the mystique of it. If the NCAA allowed teams to play open scrimmages as a culmination of spring football, it would be a big financial boost to a lot of programs and give those jonesing for college football in April an appropriate fix.
Are spring scrimmages against other teams a good idea or are the risks too great? It's possible that the game could be a little more physical than an intrasquad spring game and someone could get injured, even lost for the entire next season. It's also possible that you could enjoy some great spring football.
What's your take?
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