Fran Brown on NCAA rejecting joint spring game with Deion Sanders: 'We should have told Bill Belichick, Bill O'Brien to come up with it'

Both Colorado and Syracuse received disappointing news from the NCAA on Friday. Their waiver to hold a joint spring game in Boulder was denied. A general idea proposed by Deion Sanders and followed up on by Fran Brown, the Buffaloes and Orange will not face off in the coming weeks.

Brown was able to speak about the decision for the first time on Monday. He said the NCAA was not going to let him or Sanders be the one to pull this off for the first time. Even suggested the waiver may have been passed if North Carolina‘s Bill Belichick or Bill O’Brien of Boston College were behind it.

“We should have just told Coach Belichick and Bill O’Brien to come up with it,” Brown said in front of reporters. “You know damn well they weren’t about to allow Coach Prime and Fran Brown to be the first two guys to do it. Over their dead bodies.”

Quickly, Brown clarified he was joking about the entire matter. The Syracuse head coach does not want anybody at the NCAA to be upset over the comments. Nor does he want athletic director John Wildhack receiving any kind of phone call.

“I’m just messing with you NCAA,” Brown said. “Don’t get all mad, call my AD and try to fine me. I’m literally joking.”

Getting his jokes out of the way, the decision is one Brown ultimately understood from the NCAA. While there was more planned between him and Sanders than just practicing on the football field, not every team out there would have had the same opportunity.

Brown admits he thinks “we’ve opened up” the possibility of something similar happening in the future. His final remarks were “It should happen next year” before the clip from CNY Central’s Ashley Wenskoski ended. But for now, Brown has to live with the NCAA’s decision.

“I think they’re heading in the right direction,” Brown said. “They had all the right reasons. It wouldn’t have given everybody the same opportunity. It would have been a little bit of an advantage.”

Syracuse will continue on with their own spring practice, as will Colorado. Programs across the country are canceling spring games for a multitude of reasons. Changes are happening in the sport with how offseason scheduling works. Brown hopes they can be a leading force behind bringing some value back to this period of the college football calendar.