The idea of college football teams playing spring scrimmages has floated around for a long time. Colorado and Syracuse may be close to actually making it happen.
Both program's respective compliance offices have filed paperwork with the NCAA to hold a spring scrimmage, a Syracuse spokesman confirmed to the Syracuse Post-Standard.
CU head coach Deion Sanders opined on his desire for a spring intersquad scrimmage on Monday as the sport at large is in the midst of a nationwide conversation about the importance of spring games in the Portal-and-NIL era. Nebraska, Ohio State, Texas and others have moved away from spring games, in part out of a fear of tampering ahead of the April portal window and in part a response to the lengthened season due to the expanded College Football Playoff.
"Spring game will be televised on ESPN2, and will be broadcast on (April) 19th. We've got to sell this thing out and pack this thing because the way the trend is going is you never know if this is going to be the last spring game," Sanders said. "I would actually like to play the spring game against another team, in the spring. That's what I'm trying to do right now."
Hours later, Syracuse head coach Fran Brown took Coach Prime up on his offer.
"We will come to Boulder for 3 days," Brown tweeted Monday evening.
“Let us show how it can get done,” Brown said in a podcast later in the week. “Let us be the experiment because we’re going to blow it up.”
The joint practices and scrimmages would be joined by financial literacy sessions and a session to emphasize the importance of academics, Brown said.
With less than a month until the potential date, the NCAA would need to move quickly. And if the organization approves a spring collaboration, other programs would move even more quickly to follow suit.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.