Well, it’s been almost 5 years since colleges are transitioning into the NIL landscape. Coaches have turned to strategies that would have been downright unacceptable for fans in earlier eras. However, now it seems they are fans who have also accepted the harsh reality of the NIL world. Coaches like Matt Rhule, Ryan Day, and Steve Sarkisian have already canceled spring practices, which were a long-standing tradition in college football. And other colleges are following suit.

The reasoning behind every program may be different, but we all know why the cancellation of spring games is happening. Be it the conveniently timed stadium renovations or reasons like player fatigue and outright tampering concerns by coaches like Matt Rhule. It seems colleges are now leaning more and more toward avoiding spring games and open scrimmages. Arizona, Florida State, Illinois,  Michigan State, and several other colleges have canceled their spring games. Which essentially looks to curb tampering by rivals. However, there are few coaches too, who are swimming against the tide.

A hall-of-fame inducted former NFL player who becomes a coach surely takes that winning mentality with him, even in his coaching manual.  Deion Sanders looks like he is following that mentality to the letter and spirit. Recently when he was asked about coaches canceling spring games and the plans for Colorado if they will do the same. Sanders not only declined the cancellation of spring practice but provided a pathbreaking pro-ball idea of organizing spring games with other teams rather than within the squad. This is an idea on which few coaches have already leaned in.

Warren Sapp, Sanders’ assistant coach, who was himself a Super Bowl champion and 7 times Pro Bowl featured defensive tackle, loved the mouthwatering idea, as he describes in his words. He was asked about where he stands on his coach Sanders’ idea, to which he said. “ You just made my mouth water, i get another color that my boys can just go to work and whoop on them and we don’t care please bring them in here. Who’s coming? Who wants some of this?  Oh, I used to love that when I was in Tampa (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)….When you got your teammates you got to kind of care a little bit so you know I’d love another team. Oh yes give me another O line in here and I can yell and cuss at their coach too? yeah please all right!!“

Sapp sure loves the idea proposed by Deion Sanders about spring games being actual spring games like in the NFL. You get an opponent who practices with you for a few days and then go face them in the Bowl game. That’s the dream right there in college football, don’t you think? However, the major thing would be to convince coaches like Matt Rhule, who are increasingly becoming skeptical about tampering. However, that doesn’t mean no coach has expressed interest in the idea.

Syracuse head coach Fran Brown jumps in on Deion Sanders’s idea

Fran Brown, the Syracuse head coach, jumped on the idea quickly. I mean this was a team in 2024 who just had a 10-3 season and decimated some major teams. Those included teams like Miami, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, and lastly, Washington State in the Bowl game, which they won 52-35. In just one season, Fran Brown took a team that was struggling to finish a winning season and delivered a 10-win season. Naturally, tampering and fatigue will be the last thing on Brown’s mind.

Brown, replying to a post by ON3 about Deion Sanders’ statement about spring games, said. “@DeionSanders we will come to Boulder for 3 days“. The reply has since then garnered 4.6 million views with 30K likes. No wonder the college football community is also fully sold on the idea. However, there’s someone still on the sidelines watching all this unfold and would be saying, “better luck hosting this one, until I’m here“.  Well, that is NCAA. According to a spokesman of NCAA spokesman talking to ESPN, the NCAA, by law, does not permit organizing competitions of this nature in their spring phase.

That essentially means that whatever party Deion Sanders and Fran Brown are starting, NCAA will be ready with their cop dresses to bust them before even it begins.