Spring Game Will Not Be Televised, And It Won't Be a Game
Angelique posted this on Twitter, and MGoBlue confirms - Saturday's Spring Game will NOT be televised because it won't be a game at all. It's basically going to be a practice in pads with some controlled scrimmage plays at the end.
Bummer for those of us who can't make it to A2 that day.
I had a feeling this was going to happen with all the injuries reported lately.
I guess I'm in the minority, but I don't care about a spring game. Playing a scrimmage against your own team does nothing for me. Now if they let teams practice against other teams, like high school and the pro's, I'm all in, but this, Meh....
Finally somebody said this. I feel the same. Wake me when summer practices start.
Wait...for you wouldn't it be Winter practices?
Don't want their opponents getting a glimpse of that high flying Speed in Space offense!!!
Brilliant!
I think this may actually be a part of it.
The trade off is that this is missed opportunity in terms of a recruiting event. Columbus is going to have 80k+ and the atmosphere is going to be great. They can do that because it's consistently been a game and been treated like a special event, so their fans know what to expect.
Michigan is on/off on this, and so the fans are as well, because either the the weather's sucked or there hasn't been a ton to see. I don't think recruits are going to make a decision based on this, but it can't help looking at this event for each school. Why wouldn't you want to have a great event in spring when a lot of kids making decisions or narrowing down their lists?
Agreed Bodog. They absolutely use this as a recruiting event in Columbus. Recruits seeing ~80K fans showing up to a spring game/practice certainly doesn’t hurt and gives them a small idea of what it’s like to play in front of 100K+. It’s not a make or break but it’s good for the fans and good for recruiting. I can’t help but think there would be far more positives than negatives.
Edit - It also gives access to fans who can’t afford game day tickets a chance to take their kids and others for less than the cost of a movie.
Give credit where it is due. Ohio State does this right.
It just means more in Columbus. More intensity, more rabid fan base, more passion.
To be completely honest man, I don't think it is entirely because Michigan is deciding not to make it the kind of event it is at Ohio State, I just don't think it would get anything close the reception at this point. I kind of feel like big-event type Spring Game's are "for closers." I am not saying that Michigan football does not still have a strong, intense following, but how many people do you think we would put in the stands right now if it were an actual game? 30,000? 35,000? Maybe? Win a couple of national championships, hell BIG championships, hell beat Ohio State, and then I think the Spring game would take on a little more meaning or impact.
I just don't think it does right now. I think perhaps the only thing worse than the lack of a notable Spring Game for recruiting is a heavily advertised and recruiting-leveraged Spring Game that nobody shows up to watch.
I disagree and think it would be just as big if it had the same history of being just as big.
Could be. When they really "did it up" for a few years and played a game we got some attendance, but nobody was knocking down the doors to get in.
My memory is that Michigan was the the "first" to really have a huge turnout for a spring game. This is going a ways back, but wasn't it the Tate Forcier year that 50k people showed up for the spring game? I thought that was unheard of at the time. Then everyone else starting jumping in. I could be wrong though.
EDIT: limited internet research indeed shows 50k attendees for the Forcier game, which was a Michigan program record, but unclear if that was large relative to OSU/Alabama/others.
Further limited research indicates that while there had been spring games with high attendance before that (Tennessee drew over 70,000 for a 1986 Spring game), it does look like they came back in vogue right around the time of that notable Forcier game you are talking about. We drew 60,000 in 2015. That was right smack dab in the middle of the Harbaugh hype machine though. That has certainly faded to a large degree.
Not high comparably though. OSU and Alabama have topped 90,000 on five occasions, with OSU basically selling out the stadium in 2015. BIG highest is Nebraska with 80k in 2008 (notably the year before the Forcier one).
Thanks. I thought the 2009 spring game basically prompted OSU to start doing the same, and began the spring game arms race. What I'm saying is that if it had been a consistent event, celebrated, a game, made special, etc., just as OSU did since that time, we may have as big an event.
The RR and Hoke years of such didn't help. But you could re-boot this event, have it be a game, as late as possible to encourage good weather, have events surrounding it, etc. All of that would get M to 50k+ consistently in my view.
I think the biggest recruiting advantage that OSU has over us is going 13-1 since 2004, with 2010 being vacated. We need to beat them often again for us to look at the spring game and weather as advantages or disadvantages in recruiting.
The spring game has ever been a big deal in Ann Arbor, even with the tickets being free. And, I think it has little to do with the win % against OSU. Columbus has a metropolitan population in excess of 2.0 mil and the Buckeyes are the pro franchise of the state. Their spring game is a cheap means for median families to see the favorite team. Moreover, all allegiances in the state of Ohio are for OSU, does not matter if you went to OU, Cincinnati, Akron, Miami, Bowling Green,.. they are all Buckeyes. Do Ferris State or Western Michigan grads root for Michigan, or graduates of any other Michigan school? I think there is NO comparison. Michigan is not the school for "everyman" and thank goodness it is not OSU.
I would be willing to bet most grads of MAC schools plus Ferris and Grand Valley still root for MSU or Michigan.
I have largely found this to be true, particularly if they are Michigan natives. My experience is that due to the nature of the Big Ten, so to speak, most "kids" chose to root for MSU or U-M many years ago and continue to do so even if they do not attend either, whether by choice or not. My wife and I are counted in this - we both went to WMU for economic reasons (Portage/Kalamazoo natives) back in the 80s. We grew up Michigan fans with regards to Big Ten. Our daughter graduated from MSU and our son is a junior at U-M. Probably best that it turned out that way as our daughter is much more low key with regards to sports, though she is definitely NOT a Michigan fan (thanks 2nd grade teacher).
I've worked with many folks who have gone to all different schools in Michigan - GVSU, WMU, CMU, EMU, Michigan Tech, small private schools - and they all cheer for either MSU or U-M, as well as their alma mater.
I'm sure it's a plus for recruiting on some level but didn't UM cancel last year's spring game because of weather? And yet still signed a pretty good class..
Seriously, when was the last time we had a good spring game? Seems like the same story every year.
2 years ago. Pretty sure Peters & Schoenle had monster games!
Speight vs. O'Korn in '16 that ended 14-13 with a 2pt conversion stop at the end had this entire board screaming "I LOVE FOOTBALL!"
But yeah, same thing every year.
That was a great day. Beautiful weather, 1/2 full stadium, all the hype after Harbaugh's opening season and beating Florida's ass in the Citrus Bowl. It should be like that every year.
That was awesome. It felt like a real game.
When it was over, the whole world seemed at our feet. All things were possible with Harbaugh now firmly at the helm.
*sigh*
And what about the revolution?
The revolution will, however, be brought to you in 4 parts with commercial interruption.
Well that sucks. I was hoping to see a game type showing for all the unknown quantities on the roster. It fuels my off-season and gives a ton of podcasters stuff to talk about, which fills my 50 minute commute.
Meh. Basically stopped being something interesting as soon as Harbaugh took over. First year was must see for obvious reasons, but haven't taken the time to watch anything the last couple. If something good happens, I'll see it online or broken down in detail here anyways.
Was it ever interesting before Harbaugh took over? It seems there were few years before that where it resembled any kind of real type of scrimmage
i am disappoint
I’d still prefer it to be televised. It’s not like any of the spring games are true “games” and it’s not like the BTN is so filled with programming that they couldn’t add 90 minutes of practice. Even if they are just running practice it would be good to see the team. ESPN televises the combine, this would be more entertaining than guys running a 40 yard dash. (Assuming poss incorrectly that it was the BTN thar made the decision)
So we went from having a Fan Fest on 4/6 which was later changed to a no pads practice.
Now we get no spring game and the thing isn’t even televised.
Fun stuff.
So much for getting excited for the season and all the new changes.
When does basketball season start?
It will be exciting, it is just five months away. The good thing about basketball season is that it is available immediately after football ends and kind of feels like the same season. We have a while until football.
Until then I offer you plenty of threads about Game of Thrones, Cord-Cutting, dozens of very meaningless arguments about the semantics of Harbaugh interviews, and entire days in which there are seriously no OPs. Fun times around here.
It does seem like the program misses a lot of opportunities to engage with fans (and create new ones via the kids).
My fandom took root when my elementary school took a field trip to an open practice in the mid 80's. We had the run of the stadium and got to go on the field and meet players (who seemed like giants) and Bo (who seemed even bigger). Every single kid left that day a Michigan fan.
This^
The current college and pro sports environments sucks at exposing kids to their sport and their teams.
All the emphasis is on the big money customers and donors. The regular fans, and especially kids, are an afterthought at best, barely tolerated at worst.
Who's going to watch these games in 20 years?
You DO know, WD, that they decided against the fan fest as soon as they found out that you were complaining about open practice w/fanfest AND Softball AND Baseball AND HashBash all happening simultaneously. Member?
I member !
Wins in the fall are fun. Who cares if it’s a scrimmage or practice ? I don’t understand why, it matters, other than if you think it would be a huge recruiting benefit. Another practice Ian probably better for development than a scrimmage.
"Practice."
-Allen Iverson, 2002
Injuries/Roster Depth issues causing this. Could see it coming a mile away.
Should just go back to never even having, or attempting to have, spring games. OSU is amazing at hosting spring games. We apparently do not even care about them. It is what it is at this point.
Well when OSU football is the only consistent contender the entire state can put out there, its easy to see why they sell out those spring games.
The Cavs suck now that LeBron has left them again, the Browns look the part but they're still the Browns until they prove otherwise on the field, the Bengals are on the decline and have never won anything, the Reds/Indians haven't won anything in decades, and while the Bluejackets are a good NHL team, they're not seriously contending for a Stanley Cup anytime soon. OSU football is all the state of Ohio really has as far as a consistent national contender.
So, I get it. I wish we cared more about spring games too, but it is what it is.
Our pro teams are not exactly good right now.
Hey, if the season ended today, the Tigers would win the AL Central.
Honestly, not a big deal. There was enough random iPhone footage of last weekend's practice to keep me satiated. Another week of that, and I'd say the overall product will be better than a crappy spring game with dancing Arby's Curly Fries.
Same shit different year. You know what this tells me actually, the offense and defense are actually way behind and in a game setting on regional tv it wouldn’t look good.
I don't think so man. I just don't think it is Harbaugh's thing. I think it really is that simple.
Out of any of the years besides maybe his first year this spring game is the most important to players development. So many question marks on defense and installing a whole new offense. Live reps is what these guys need, and playing in front of people is always a good experience builder. Drills with bags is only good for so long.