Greg McElroy debates the future of spring games amid tampering concerns

Because of the current issues in college football, Greg McElroy expects spring games to soon be a thing of the past.

McElroy discussed the topic of spring games and them not being played by programs anymore on ‘Always College Football’ on Monday. He said they’ve simply become too much of an opportunity for tampering for coaches and teams to continue to do them moving forward.

“With the era that we’re in right now, I really believe that spring games are reaching to the point of kind of no return,” said McElroy. “The main reason? Let’s just call it what it is. I mean, the main reason why these guys don’t want to play is they don’t want tampering to be done with their roster.

“This all started a couple of years ago when, basically, if you have a guy that shows up and balls out in the spring game? You’re exposing him. You’re really exposing him. That, I think, is really unfortunate. Having a spring game only highlights what these guys might be capable of and makes them even more attractive to a team that might be desperate to add a player at that position.”

This comes a few days after Nebraska’s Matt Rhule began this debate by saying the Cornhuskers would likely not be having a traditional spring game this year due to concerns of tampering after what happened after last year’s game.

“I don’t really blame Matt Rhule for saying, ‘Hey, guys, we’re going to keep this kind of in-house,'” McElroy said. “We’re going to compete and we’re going to do the best we can in the fourteen practices that are not public but we’re not going to have a spring game because we don’t want to basically create an opportunity for our guys to go potentially get picked off by other teams.”

That led McElroy to recall a similar situation regarding Texas QB Maalik Murphy during the Longhorns’ spring game in 2022. He also noted at least two other programs that have or will be going about their springs differently due to transfer tampering.

“This is not the first time we’ve seen this. We saw this last year with Ole Miss where they basically had a spring festival instead of a game. They had tug of war and they had slam-dunk contests. Like, they had fun, I guess, activities for the players to participate in but they didn’t want to put tape out there and have their players potentially light it up and now, all of a sudden, they’re having to deal with guys potentially entering the portal in May when you thought for sure you were going to have them on your roster heading into the fall a couple months later,” said McElroy. “UCF? They said they will not hold a traditional spring game this year. Some of their concerns are the same ones that Matt Rhule echoed just a day or two ago.

With that, McElroy used this as an opportunity to call for something to be done about tampering with spring games being the latest thing that it is impacting in the sport.

“We’ve got to get tampering under control…Tampering is – it’s free agency. Whether you like it or not, it is,” said McElroy. “I’m not saying I have problem with it. I just hate that there are as many bad actors in the player representation world where they will tell a guy to go get in the portal because some coach had kind of asked but they didn’t really ask for that guy specifically. Some coach goes to an agent and says we need a safety and then, all of a sudden, this agent goes and tells ten guys, ‘Hey, get in the portal. This team needs a safety’. Now ten guys are in the portal but only one gets the job so nine guys are now in the portal with nowhere else to go because this agent misled ten players. I hate that aspect of it.”

McElroy specifically made that argument because he loves spring football as much as anyone. He also thinks it’s a huge loss for fanbases with those games being about them as much as they are about the teams.

“It’s kind of an unfortunate situation, right, because I always really looked forward to spring games, by the way. I, for one, am one of those sickos that is going to sit there and watch in May when I’m just desperate for any type of football,” said McElroy. “Like, yeah, there’s a lot to look forward to in May. But you know what May has been for me the last ten years? It’s like spring game central. I’ll watch 60 of ’em. It’s sickening and I know I have a problem. I acknowledge that. The first step of realizing you have a problem is admitting that you have a problem. But I like watching spring games.

“I’m bummed about it, man. Spring games are awesome. They’re something to look forward to and they’re great for the fans. It’s cheap. In some cases, it’s free and, in most cases, it’s free to go and watch your favorite team on a beautiful, sunny afternoon in April. Now that that could be going away is unfortunate but I get it.”

This is just another aspect of college sports that problems like tampering are currently affecting. It is what it is for now, though, as McElroy gets why some coaches are feeling the way they are about them.

“If I were a coach, I’m not sure I want to expose the guys to the publicity that they would be potentially garnered with a great spring game performance,” said McElroy. “If I’m the coach, my job is to take care of the team over any one individual. So, can’t say I blame Matt Rhule but it is unfortunate.”