Syracuse HC Says Scrimmage with Deion Sanders' Colorado 'Would've Saved the Game'
The NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision oversight committee rejected a waiver from Syracuse and Colorado to hold joint practices and a spring scrimmage.
On Wednesday, Syracuse head coach Fran Brown spoke about the matter with Andrew Sicilano, who was filling in on The Rich Eisen Show.
Brown clearly feels strongly about that spring game, to the point where he felt it would have "saved" the game of football (36-second mark).
"Yeah, I thought it makes sense on a lot of levels right, just for saving the game of football, just for right after this March Madness is done, like what are we doing right during that time? You can have something else to lead up into that or to get you going right for March Madness…" Brown said in part.
He then later added: "I just feel as though it would have saved the game. Just imagine Syracuse historically who this program is and Colorado getting to go against each other and getting to go out and then being able to compete against each other. I mean I just think the market, the money that we would have been able to make, just both schools, what you can do. Everyone's always complaining about NIL and the different pieces, maybe you can take this spring ball and say everything that you guys make, you're allowed to take and put into the NIL so then we don't got to worry about all the stuff like that, it helps. I just think there's a lot of things that we could do and we would have been able to help out with it."
Brown then said that players were going to do schoolwork in study halls and also take classes on financial literacy as well, a topic that the coach cares deeply about.
As noted by ESPN's Adam Rittenberg, the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision oversight committee opposed the waiver request last Thursday. The idea to have joint practices and scrimmages originated from Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, and Brown was eager to have his team take part.
However, the idea will not come to fruition, in 2025, at least. Rittenberg provided the reasoning.
"The FBS oversight committee cited three factors in opposing the waiver: the late timing, as most teams have planned out spring practice and, in some cases, concluded their sessions; a recruiting advantage Colorado and Syracuse would receive when other teams couldn't hold a similar scrimmage this spring; and the potential academic impact for athletes missing classes to participate in the practices and a scrimmage."
The committee did state in its report that it would talk about "a concept that could permit joint spring practices in future seasons." However, in 2025, it will not happen.
So for this season, Syracuse's spring game will still occur on April 12. Colorado's will happen on April 19.
