The approach toward spring games has seen a considerable shift over the years.
It started with programs like Ole Miss where Lane Kiffin held The Grove Bowl games last year that included a dunk contest and tug-of-war instead of the conventional spring game.
This fall, a number of high profile programs have already announced there will be no spring game of any sort on campus, as concerns regarding tampering remain at the forefront of coaches minds with spring games as a way to showcase the talented depth that some teams have accumulated through recruiting and the transfer portal.
While there are plenty of coaches hopeful that cancelling their spring games will help to keep their rosters more intact when the spring portal window opens, Clemson's Dabo Swinney has called programs with that line of thinking onto the carpet while he moves forward with plans for a traditional spring game for his team.
“We’re going to have a spring game and I hope we can have some type of fan day with it as well. I don’t know, we’ll see. Listen, whether you have a spring game or not it’s going to be tampering.”
“Ain’t nobody going to go look at the spring game, go, ‘Oh yeah, boy,'” Dabo Swinney shared, according to On3.
He goes on to share that teams using Pro Football Focus, the in-depth analytics and scouting service, already have information on everyone's roster in college football.
“They got PFF. They’ve got everything on everybody already. Canceling the spring game ain’t going to stop tampering. We’re going to need a lot more help than that to stop tampering. And hopefully at some point that’ll happen.”
If we're being honest with ourselves, I think Dabo has a point here. Spring games aren't the issue, tampering with rosters is and there's no guardrails in place to prevent that at this point.
Seeing reports of how talks in Congress went in regards to NIL earlier this week went of the rails and somehow ended up covering proper hydration instead of the issue that was brought to the table, it's hard to see an end to the rampant tampering ripping across college football that coaches are concerned about until true leadership is established for the sport.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.