Link: Hugh Freeze In Favor Of Playing Other Schools In Spring Games

TideMan09 said:

I would absolutely love to see this happen myself, cause you know what you have with your returning Players, but, playing other schools in a "Spring Game"..Would be a great way to give the young players a chance to get their feet wet, in a game like atmosphere, it would be a great experience for young players that won't play that season in the regular season..Of course there's always that chance of injuries, but, injuries happens in practice all the time(Bo Scarbrough ) anyways..I think it's a win win for schools to play each other in Spring Games..

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Maybe,but its not like the NFL in where they can just get a stub through a trade or free agency if they get hurt. The NCAA is too stuck on rules and regulations on people transfering to other universities that I dont think we could run that risk of playing preseaon games unless people stop whining about the SEC playing FCS schools.

If done for charity, I think it would be good.

Isn't the spring game more for the fans? How would traveling to another school be good for Bama fans?

I don't think it is a good idea. Right now it is more of a fan day with free admission. Other schools aren't going to travel for free which means they'd probably start charging to get in, and if you wanted a bigger school it would probably cost close to a regular season game. Would they start adding it to Tide Pride at that point? Right now, if I get there early enough I can sit in seats that I would never be able to afford otherwise, I'd hate to see that go away.

It wouldn't be long before paid sponsorships started to drive the cost up even more and then it would turn into a spring bowl season. I'm just not interested in more costly games with nothing on line except injuries.

Frankly, I would never want to see Bama play USC or any other big time school when it doesn't count for anything. I want to beat them in the fall, when it actually matters, doing so in the spring would mean nothing.

The spring game is almost the only time I get to go to a "game" due to cost, I just can't afford to go games these days and I bet I'm not the only one. If you start bringing other teams into the mix then people are just going to want to find ways to make a buck off the game. TV money would get more involved, travel expenses would get involved, elite fans would want there special seats etc. The whole spring game atmosphere would be ruined IMO. Please, keep it cheap for us poor fans.

Meh.

How much are you going to charge for a non-game? At a minimum, the away team's travel costs have to be paid.

And, at A-Day, there will be 22 Alabama players practicing, getting reps and being evaluated at any given time during the game. Throw another team in there and that number drops to 11.

Regardless, I think Freeze is spinning a false narrative here. He says they won't get as much out of it as they would if they were practicing ones versus ones and twos versus twos. Then structure your spring game that way. He says he'd like to hold an open practice. Well, do that, then.

Meh.

Bad idea IMHO. Spring game is practice. Inter squad scrimmage gives our guys more reps than they would get in scrimmage/ game with another school. Getting game like experience is a huge perk of the spring and it would limit some of our 2nd string with reps they get and the evaluation/ experience that comes with it.

In the B1G, most schools charge a small ticket fee ($5-$10), which goes to charity. I believe in the system used by most larger schools, including Alabama. It challenges the players and gives the coaches an idea where to focus going forward.

Playing an opponent would not allow as many players to see the field in a meaningful way. You learn less about your team, the players learn less about themselves, and you are going to need some of those players before the season is over.

NO!

There are multiple reasons this is a terrible idea.

1) Injuries - no comment necessary

2) it'd be sorta like a bowl game where a coach like Saban is prepping for the year while an upstart (like Ole Miss usually is) would be playing to win so they could brag about how they beat Alabama's third-string in a meaningless exhibition

3) you could only really do this if you had a situation like the SEC, where the schools are all pretty close together. The Western states are much larger (in terms of area, Michigan is the only state completely east of the Mississippi in the top 21) so if USC doesn't play UCLA, who will they play?

And if you DO get USC-UCLA, how much will it take away from the uniqueness of a rivalry?

I can think of others but those are good reasons right there. Besides, ESPN already shows the spring games and except for ours in 2007 the attendance tends to not be overly impressive anywhere. As the USFL found out, there really is no market for spring football.

Rolltide1017 - post #7 and formersoldier71 - post #8

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I agree with the "no" votes. IMHO, it comes down to: What is there to be gained?

• Right now players know that their DC spot is on the line heading into the fall. Will he compete as hard in a meaningless game where players aren't going full speed?
• Right now Bama fans get to meet players past & present and maybe some legends. Will all of those former players be there if we travel to Oxford?
• Is a spring game really worth players & coaches traveling away from their families at a time when they're normally home?
• If we brought a smaller school in so that we didn't have to travel, would that even provide a benefit to us?

I just don't see where this provides an advantage for anyone.

formersoldier71 said:

Meh.

How much are you going to charge for a non-game? At a minimum, the away team's travel costs have to be paid.

And, at A-Day, there will be 22 Alabama players practicing, getting reps and being evaluated at any given time during the game. Throw another team in there and that number drops to 11.

Regardless, I think Freeze is spinning a false narrative here. He says they won't get as much out of it as they would if they were practicing ones versus ones and twos versus twos. Then structure your spring game that way. He says he'd like to hold an open practice. Well, do that, then.

Meh.

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*like* this

I would much prefer our coaching staff having control of both sides of the ball, getting extra reps in. I'm not sure a spring game ever really accomplishes anything more than getting players playing in front of fans. Even so there will be reps lost which are NCAA limited anyways. If Freeze can't get as much out of a scrimmage as he would like it's not another coaching staff's duty to help.

BamainBoston said:

OK. Have ADay as you do now and then play the game. Not like there's a time limit.

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Doesn't A day count as a practice scrimmage, and part of the countable practice hours? If so wouldn't the subsequent game count the same way?

Alabama A and M practice with the alabama team for a day. We're talking about those things.. Did NFL allow the patriot to practice with Jets I think last year... so I can see this happen. Maybe Tide can practice with patriots... I mean it is NFL ready team..

JustNeedMe81 said:

Alabama A and M practice with the alabama team for a day. We're talking about those things.. Did NFL allow the patriot to practice with Jets I think last year... so I can see this happen. Maybe Tide can practice with patriots... I mean it is NFL ready team..

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It is a nice idea, but there are way too many negatives to make it practical.

Also another point is in the nfl the preseason is used more to get the starters a quarter to loosen up more than allow backups a chance to battle for a position. While this may be a good idea on the surface to do; again you have to remember that the nfl has the opportunity to trade players or sign free agents if there are injuries. Also in college most key games are played in late September and the whole month of October. The first quarter is usually forgiven if a team makes up for it the rest of the season. So while the Wisconsin game is a big game; it doesn't carry the weight of the Arkansas and ATM games in October. I'm not saying that we should go half hearted into that game I'm just saying a loss there isn't as detrimental as a loss to a SEC west team in terms of our goals to win the SEC and CFP. So basically our quasi preseason games are the first two games. It is a nice concept by Hugh freeze but it won't, can't, and shouldn't happen until the NCAA has looser rules and regulations regarding players transferring.