Deion Sanders has a good idea. He often does. This idea isn’t original but it’s extremely interesting. It’s also currently against NCAA rules. Let me explain.
Sanders said on Monday he wants the NCAA to consider utilizing the NFL preseason model, and allow programs to practice and scrimmage against another team during the spring.
‘I would actually like to play the spring game against another team, in the spring,’ Sanders said. ‘That’s what I’m trying to do right now.’
‘I would like to style it like the pros,’ he said. ‘I’d like to go against someone (in practice) for a few days, and then you have the spring game. I think the public would be satisfied with that tremendously. I think it’s a tremendous idea. I’ve told those personnel, who should understand that, that it’s a tremendous idea.’
It really is a tremendous idea. But is it even allowed?
It’s not.
‘Under current NCAA Bylaws,’ an NCAA spokesman told USA TODAY Sports, ‘teams cannot play another school in the spring.’
So, for now at least, the entire thing is a pipe dream. That could of course change but likely not soon.
As for the merits of the idea, it’s a smart one. NFL teams will conduct joint practices with another team for several days during training camp. Conversely, college teams practice against themselves leading to a scrimmage.
Most starters in the NFL don’t play in preseason games but many of them take part in these practices.
So Sanders’ idea makes sense but it comes with risks.
In fact, one of the ironies of Sanders’ idea is that some NFL teams, while utilizing joint practices, are cutting back on the number of days teams participate in these practices, because in too many instances they turn into all-out brawls.
On the NFL level, the summer practices between the two teams are often extremely intense. In the summer of 2024, multiple fights happened during a joint practice between the Lions and Giants. The fights were so problematic that the NFL fined both franchises $200,000 each.
“Man, look, that’s who we are,” Lions linebacker Derrick Barnes told MLive at the time. “I mean we don’t take no (expletive). That’s, like I said, who we are. That’s what we do. It’s not like you go back and look it, and it’s us starting stuff. We just finished stuff, you know what I’m saying? We finished what was going on out there. That’s how you compete. When you compete at a high level, obviously we want to keep everyone healthy, everyone has a season to go play, but however the intensity is, we’re going to be higher than that.”
Yeah, things get crazy at these practices.
The Associated Press reported that in 2023 about 80 percent of joint practices lasted two days. Last year, some two-thirds of the sessions lasted just one day.
“Every time I’ve ever had a joint practice, the first day will be a little rough and then the second one ends in a fight,” Packers running back Josh Jacobs said last year.
The NFL last summer sent out a memo to teams saying fights and unprofessional conduct at joint practices wouldn’t be tolerated, according to the Associated Press. Packers coach Matt LaFleur once noted that “sometimes it becomes a wrestling match out there or an MMA fight” when joint practices go beyond one day.
That is the type of mentality you can expect at a joint college practice, too. It could get wild. It doesn’t matter that these would be college players.
Overall, NFL coaches like joint practices because they’re a break from the monotony of camp, and offer their team a test against an unfamiliar opponent. It’s likely college coaches would feel the same, as Sanders notes.
But also, like in college, these scrimmages are extremely popular with fans.
This is likely what Sanders is going for. The crowds for something like this would be remarkable.
‘The way the trend is going, is you never know if this is going to be the last spring game,’ said Sanders. ‘Now, I don’t believe in that, and I don’t really want to condone that…To have it competitive, and to play against your own guys, it can get kind of monotonous, and you really can’t tell the level of your guys.’
Will it happen?
The NCAA will likely take its sweet time before making any type of change to its rules that’s this big. So, again, it’s just talk.
Smart talk. But just talk.