By SCOTT ADAMSON
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Clemson opens spring football practice this Saturday, while South Carolina hits the gridiron March 20. The highlight of both offseason workouts will be the annual intrasquad game.
Nothing wrong with intrasquad games. Fans can cheer for both sides, which is a rarity. Still, I think college football should tear a page from the high school playbook.
Play another team in the spring. Heck, play a jamboree with several teams involved.
Give the players what they want and give the fans what they want, and what they want is real competition. This would be a tasty spring salad for football hungry fans and _ if anyone in the NCAA is listening _it'd make a whole bunch of money.
In the 1970s several coaches proposed such a game, but it never got beyond the planning stages.
I say we revive the plan.
What if this spring, instead of the Clemson oranges lining up against the Clemson whites, a full Tiger contingent was playing the Tennessee Vols? By the time the real season started in late August, the game would be long forgotten. But it would make for some interesting water cooler talk in the spring.
If Clemson wins, fans can wonder if it's a preview of even better days in the fall. If Clemson loses, fans _and players and coaches _ can shake it off, knowing there are four or five months to correct any problems.
But I believe it would benefit all the players to test their skills against guys they don't room with, socialize with, and see day in and day out on campus.
This plan would succeed at all levels of college football.
Television would love it. ESPN's College Football Spring Fling (presented by a corporate sponsor to be named later) could feature a full day and night of offseason football action.
We'd see a little of the Tigers and Vols, a little of the Gamecocks and Gators, and they'd break in frequently with fight updates from the Florida State-Miami game.
Although I'm more in favor of this format, a jamboree would be pretty interesting as well.
Bring Clemson, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida to one site. Tennessee plays Florida one quarter, Clemson plays Tennessee another, South Carolina plays Florida for 15 minutes and the fourth and final quarter could be reserved for South Carolina-Clemson.
Seriously, how could one spring football game _ or one spring jamboree _ be a bad thing for college football?
I'm not saying the folks who spend the day watching Clemson or South Carolina intrasquad games won't enjoy themselves, especially since it's a no-lose situation.
I'm just saying they'd enjoy themselves more if Florida's Urban Meyer or Tennessee's Phillip Fulmer were standing on one of the sidelines.
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