By Paul M. Banks and Melissa Wollering
Despite the fact that media coverage for it has increased exponentially in recent years, how come no one seems to give a flying rat’s ass about college football spring games?
At least no one outside the South anyway. Sure, in places like Ohio State, they’ll draw a packed house for their spring scrimmages, but in most places: YAWN! Ten or fifteen years ago, there was no media coverage at all of spring football practice.
Today, it’s like National Signing Day, much ado about nothing. Is it simply because “spring football” is an oxymoron like “Cuddly Dick Cheney” or “Sober Tara Reid?” Seriously, autumn is a word synonymous with the gridiron or some chick who dances on stages in clear heels. Springtime is for baseball, not football. It’s just unnatural.
Or is the fact that every school uses a different system for scoring their spring games which no one understands except the coaching staff and that particular school. Northwestern had the second most wins in school history last season, yet only 3,000 people came out to watch their spring game (but is it a game when the scoreboard shows 15:00, Purple 0, White 0 the entire time? Their “game” was just 75 plays with no score. And these arcane scoring systems vary greatly from each program, and many schools don’t even have scoring. And with the limited contact and inversion of playing time given what you would expect upon viewing the depth chart, you really can’t discern much about your team. So why does ESPN bother televising spring games, as Homer Simpson would say BOR-RING!
Or is it because there’s just way too much going on right now, NBA/NHL playoffs, MLB regular season, the NFL Draft: there’s just no room for it. Big Ten Network and ESPN U have to broadcast SOMETHING this time of year, so I guess that’s the answer.
–PMB
MELISSA S. WOLLERING:
Spring football at Camp Randall is more about marketing the Athletic Department than it is about gauging individual player development. I would argue everyone already knows that though, so the coverage of such games (at least by the Big 10 Network) is about branding the network and its product more than anything.
The good news: the University makes it “Family Day” and invites kids and parents to collect autographs from their favorite players, meet Bucky and get a chance to play catch on the field itself before the game. It’s free, so if a family can’t afford tickets to a Big 10 matchup in October, there’s certainly value in the experience.
As for stats on the game, it can take some research. Over the years, the Athletic Department has varied its scoring system and the way it divided players among its “Cardinal” and “White” teams. Years ago, Cardinal was comprised of first-stringers, so White’s points were worth double. Now the teams are a bit more evenly divided in talent and the scoring is standard.
What did I “discern” from the Badgers in terms of potential from this brief glimpse at the ’09 season? Well, in terms of rushing, Zach Brown exceeded expectations while John Clay wasn’t as impressive as I’d hoped. I learned that if we ever put Frosh Curt Phillips in at QB that he’ll either be so scared to throw the ball that he’ll run it himself on the keeper (which he wasn’t bad at) or he’ll go for the short completion. I learned that our likely QB starter Dustin Sherer feels most comfortable throwing to Soph WR Nick Toon (yeah, he IS Al’s son). Doesn’t appear as though we have a replacement for Travis Beckum and our male cheerleaders need to pump iron during the summer because I feared for the lives of the female members of our spirit squad.
Nick Toon is gonna be a beast this year… I have him high on my Big Ten Football Fantasy Draft board
What about Juice Williams? or Mike Kafka? how high are they on your draft boards?