NCAA wouldn't allow Red-Orange spring game, but we can dream
Published: 4/18/2011 8:44 PM
Last Modified: 4/19/2011 6:47 AM
Question: How would you feel about Bedlam spring football? Wouldn't you rather watch the Sooners play the Cowboys the second or third Saturday every April instead of the Sooners? Wouldn't you rather watch Red play Orange, not White?
I was doing a little radio with pals Al Jerkens and Jimmie Tramel last Friday, and we got to talking about how, really, spring games don't amount to much in the grand scheme of college football. In a moment of great sportstalk epiphany, Al blurted out the idea of making the scrimmage just that – an actual scrimmage.
Put an end to the intrasquad drudgery, he suggested and we all agreed, by playing another team. Pro teams do it at summer camp. High school teams do it all the time.
But college teams, because the NCAA doesn't allow it for starters, pound on each other to end spring practice. Fans come out and enjoy a nice day – there were 92,000 at Alabama the other day, and 25,000 in Norman Saturday – but it's like watching baseball. You pay attention for maybe a half-hour, look for excuses to stick around another half-four, then give up and leave somewhere between the 60- and 90-minute marks.
It's good to see college football again, especially since OU locks the gates to practice, but the thrill lasts about as long your average roller coaster ride, minus the exhilaration.
So why not do something to liven things up? Why not invite OSU over to Norman next spring and see what happens? Not any added costs there, just a whole lot of benefit.
Why not, unfortunately, starts with NCAA Bylaw 17.9.4, whereby "one scrimmage or contest at the conclusion of spring practice" is allowed "provided the game is with a team composed of bona fide alumni or students or both."
To that I say: petition the NCAA to change the bylaw to read: "provided the game is with a team composed of bona fide alumni or students or both EITHER from your member institution or another within the boundaries of your state."
How's that.
Keep the quarterbacks in untouchable jerseys. Keep coaches on the field. Defuse the scoreboard, even, if you're worried people might get the wrong idea.
Make the rules something out of "Leatherheads." No blitzing. No cut-blocking. No kick returns. No gadget plays. It's not like Stoops and Gundy empty the playbook at this thing anyhow. (The most popular word after every spring scrimmage is "vanilla.")
The most boring Bedlam in history still beats the tar out of the most exciting Red-White Game.
Last year I used this space to suggest OU stop charging fans $10 for this glorified practice. Make it an OU-OSU practice, the Sooners can charge what they want and I won't write a word. It would be more than worth it.
Then, when OU returns the trip to Stillwater in April of 2013, Boone Pickens can set the price however he feels. Bet he'd get slightly more than the 16,000 fans who showed up last Saturday.
Dreaming a little big here? OK. Forget OSU. Have Joe Castiglione call Bubba Cunningham and invite Tulsa over. Pick up the tolls if you have to.
TU can't make it? Call UCO and invite the Bronchos down I-35 for the day. They'd hitch if they had to. For the thrill of an afternoon of football at Owen Field, are you kidding me? Ask Washburn how cool it feels losing at Allen Fieldhouse by 50 the first week of November.
What business does a Division II team have playing the Sooners? None, if it's September. But this is April. A scrimmage. Bring 'em down, if you can't come to an agreement with the Cowboys.
UCO can't come? Call Northeastern State. Call NEO.
I had sports radio on as background noise in the office today. Listened for about five hours. Heard one – one! – call about the Red-White Game. Seriously, two guys called about the NASCAR race, another two about baseball, and the other 200 wanted to talk Thunder basketball.
I fired off a tweet wondering if either A) Oklahoma City metro sports fans had migrated from OU football to NBA basketball, or B) OKC fans had figured out how insignificant the spring game had become.
Judging from the response, it's much more B) than A).
Kenny Mossman, OU's associate AD and a pretty reasonable guy, tweeted something around that time: "Spring games are dull because we want winners, losers. If an opposing school was there, regardless of play calls, it would be interesting."
Precisely.
I put it to you, Kenny (and Joe and Bob): You guys are OU. Throw your weight around. Get the NCAA to see some light on the issue of spring games, so that your fans can see football that closer resembles the fall.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
