College football is in a constant state of chaos these days. From NIL and the transfer portal to conference realignment and College Football Playoff reorganization, things are always undergoing upheaval. This off-season, spring games became the latest thing to go under the knife. Many notable programs, including Texas and USC, have outright canceled their practice sessions.
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Deion Sanders, unsurprisingly, tried to go against this grain. Earlier this month, he went seeking an opponent to play Colorado in a potential spring game. Syracuse head coach Fran Brown answered the call, creating an intriguing matchup during an otherwise slow period.
Unfortunately, NCAA rules prevent spring games between schools. The Buffaloes and Orange applied for a waiver to make the contest happen but were denied on Friday afternoon.
This understandably disappointed fans and analysts throughout the industry. Nick Ferg is one of those upset folks. On his namesake YouTube show, he blasted the NCAA for “derailing a great idea.” His dismay centered on the “potential academic impact” reasoning they offered in their explanation for the decision.
“The NCAA, in NCAA fashion, shut it down, claiming, ‘well we want to make sure that we don’t interrupt classes’… this is somewhat of an outdated type of mindset. It’s about time the NCAA adjusted. This would only enhance competition around college football. It’ll be preseason for a lot of teams.”
Ferg added that if College Football Playoff expansion can happen, these spring games should be allowed as well. RJ Young, an avid advocator for CFP expansion, agreed. He believes what Sanders and Brown attempted would be great for the sport.
“I, for one, believe this is the wrong decision. I think the reasoning that they gave for this wrong decision is also really flaccid, extremely weak, very limp… what [Colorado and Syracuse] were trying to do… was innovative.” – RJ Young, The Number One College Football Show
While the ruling isn’t what college football’s biggest advocates were hoping for, there is a positive takeaway here: the NCAA didn’t entirely dismiss the idea. The “potential academic impact” wasn’t the primary reason they denied the request. Their main argument, shown by The Athletic’s Chris Vannini, focused on the timing.
If timing is the biggest issue, spring games could easily become commonplace as soon as 2026. Schools already have non-conference opponents scheduled up to a decade out. Coming to a similar agreement for spring practices in the months ahead likely wouldn’t be difficult.
Following this offseason’s ambitious try, Sanders and Brown have given themselves and others a foundation to build upon. Nobody can be certain about these things working out, but it’s now hard to imagine competitive spring practices won’t litter the college off-season in 2026.
