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Message: [QUOTE="IthacaMatt, post: 5369547, member: 405"] I think a lot of people feel like this Q&A from Stewart Mandel's latest column: [B]With teams seeming to do away with spring games, or at least heading in that direction, why couldn’t they do closed-door spring games? I get coaches don’t want to lose players to the portal but wouldn’t it still benefit the players and staff to get a live game in? — Jasper Schmidt, Crosby, Minn.[/B] Most teams hold scrimmages during the spring that the public never sees, and coaches will tell you they’re far more useful than the spring game. The spring game is primarily for the fans. Which is why I HATE that coaches are falling all over themselves to cancel them this year. Nebraska, Ohio State, Texas, USC and right on down the line. Why do they have to be the most paranoid people on the planet? I’m not unsympathetic to the concerns about other schools going roster poaching, but as Dabo Swinney — who is keeping Clemson’s spring game — said last week, “Whether you have a spring game or not, (there’s) going to be tampering.” But sure, let’s take away this tradition that 40,000-60,000 fans of a school enjoy annually because someone might watch them on Big Ten Network and poach their second-string linebacker. I have a particular bone to pick with Matt Rhule, whose 12-13 record in his first two seasons at Nebraska apparently has turned him into the arbiter of all things college football. First, he touched off the spring game revolt, and then, after Nebraska canceled its upcoming home-and-home with Tennessee, went on Urban Meyer’s podcast and said, “Why would you ever play one of those games?” I’ll tell you why: The fans like them! Much more so than watching their team play Akron and Houston Christian, Nebraska’s two nonconference home opponents this season. Even if it means the Huskers might win seven games instead of eight. Sorry to go on my soapbox, but I[B] feel like college football finds new reasons every year to alienate its fans, from realignment to watered-down schedules to the price of hot dogs[/B]. It makes you want to shake a guy like Rhule and say, “Do you realize how you’re able to make $9 million a year to coach football? Because of those people!” But I digress. = = = = = = = = = = I think a LOT of us feel this way, like every year they make it worse. [/QUOTE]

Verification: What is a Syracuse fan's favorite color?