Spring Games

No, this isn't about the USFL. Although that would be a fine topic. A bumpy story that ends with the NFL losing another court case but winning in the long run. This Flicker is about the spring football games that are played at colleges across the land.

The games are often played at the end of spring practices. These practices, long held, have greatly increased in importance. So much so that high school kids are graduating early to enroll in college and attend these practices. They get a jump on the playbook and an edge over incoming freshmen that take the more traditional route. Current Detroit Lions QB Matthew Stafford got a jump start on the Georgia system to play early and often. It's difficult for any high school player to make the jump to college and play right away. Not everyone is like the Vikings dynamite RB Adrian Peterson, Heisman Trophy runner up as a freshman. Anyway, Stanford had their spring game this past Saturday. The Cardinal team beat the White team 42-3. New head coach David Shaw stacked the Cardinal team with all the starters. I'm not quite sure what this proved. He could have gone across the street and gathered up the Palo Alto High Vikings and kicked their ass too. I guess that all-world QB Andrew Luck needed the confidence boost. Last year, head coach Jim Harbaugh divided up the teams evenly and thrilled the fans with a 3-0 game. Maybe the one-sided fireworks of this years game was all for the fans. Of much greater importance, I think that Cal plays their Blue-Gold game this weekend. It seems that it often falls on my Anniversary weekend. Temptation? Oh, no!

What I have always found especially striking about these games is the disparity in fan interest between colleges. Stanford had about 6,800 fans attend the game. Cal probably draws a bit more, because they are simply better. Schools like Ohio St., Nebraska, Michigan (before Rich Rodriguez), and Tennessee regularly draw 90,000 or more fans. Some of these schools generate more money than all their sports, excepting football and basketball, combined in one day, It's astonishing. One day of football practice can fund the entire athletic budget of some schools.