10 Reasons Why Spring College Football Is a Waste of Time

Even though we’ve just passed Valentine’s Day and only 45 days have gone since the playing of the national championship game, spring college football is already underway.

That’s right, according to a schedule compiled by College Football Talk, Army kicked off its spring practices last Monday, Feb. 13, South Alabama (new to the Sun Belt) began on Feb. 15, Texas Tech laced it up on Feb. 17, and Duke, TCU, Texas, San Diego State, Memphis, Tulane, Louisiana-Lafayette, Texas State (new to the WAC) all have practices scheduled for this month.

So, really what’s the point of spring practice?

Yes, at the end of the festivities we’ll see early depth charts for each squad, and OK, it will be exciting to see the boys hitting the field again and maybe we’ll get an insight into certain positional battles, but at the end of the day does it really have any meaning?

The following slideshow pinpoints 10 reasons why spring college football isn’t really a consequential process in terms of impact to the upcoming season.

Not Everyone is On Campus Yet

The truth of the matter is the team we see hit the field at spring practice is not a complete representation of who will suit up in the fall.

To begin with, missing from the ranks are the signees from earlier in February who haven’t enrolled early or transferred from a junior college.

And beyond those guys, who may or may not impact the depth chart in September, are any injured guys who aren’t back or student athletes who are experiencing academic or eligibility issues.

The Decisions Will All Be Revisited in Fall Practice

Though the local and sometimes national media will cover (and over-cover) which players are ahead in key positional battles (i.e. the QB situation at Notre Dame), in reality most of the real personnel decisions won’t be made until after fall practices give way to Game 1 of the season.

Yes, we may be bedazzled with a wide array of stats and a barrage of data on who is on the first team, but the fact is that the coaches won’t have all the pieces of the puzzle until August which makes most of the results, at the very least, incomplete.

Playing With Yourself Doesn’t Really Do Any Good

The big build-up of spring practice surrounds the weekly scrimmage and then climaxes with the playing of the all-important spring game.

Logically, we all know that though you can come away with some feeling for how individual players might perform in a Red vs. Blue or Green vs. White intra-squad scrimmage, any real indication of how a team might play is not to be gained from a team taking on itself.

Say what you will, but game day can only truly be simulated on, well…game day.

And that means playing an opponent from another school.

It’s Too Far From the Regular Season

When we hear about NFL players reporting to camp or baseball players travelling down to spring training, we know that the upcoming season is finally imminent and live action play is literally just days from kicking off.

In college football, spring practice and the spring game is a good six months away from the actual season getting underway.

This means that after getting excited for 15 practices and an intra-squad scrimmage, the wait is up to five months before the team gets a crack at an opponent in an actual game.

And this is the logical cornerstone of why spring ball just doesn’t have the spark it might if it were in July.

Limited Access

Another element to spring college football being less than compelling is that most programs limit fan and even media access to the practices.

Though this is understandable and easy to support, it causes the spring to offer up a bunch of talk (in the form of reports, predictions and school-released stats) and very little action (no tape to watch, no players to evaluate, no live action to enjoy).

Yes, it’s pretty difficult to get excited about watching the coach’s press conference after your team wraps up practice No. 6.

“Well, the boys practiced today…I feel like we’re making decent progress, but we’ve still got a long way to go…”

Yawn.

It’s All About Working the Freshmen and Fundamentals

Another necessary component of spring ball that makes it less delicious to the consumer is the fact that it is the time of year when the coaches get to work with the freshmen.

Yes, these are the guys that simply haven’t gotten much of a look during their first year at school, and it’s a time to teach fundamentals and see what this untapped pool of talent can do.

Though you could argue that storylines about who’s who going into year two of a signing class’ college football career are intriguing, it’s not necessarily Notre Dame versus Michigan State in Week 4.

Hell, for that matter it’s not really Maryland versus William and Mary in Week 1.

Timing Makes Injury Issues Completely Unclear

As mentioned earlier, issues with injuries suffered in the previous season are hardly going to have time to have healed in time for the February or March time period when spring practice begins.

Yes, the guys who were injured last season, or even those who have sat out an entire year have not, generally speaking, had the time necessary to heal properly.

And why rush it when you still have six months to go before the opening gun?

This all leads to the hoopla regarding a spring depth chart being almost useless.

Case in point, if Marcus Lattimore is back in 2012, he’s the No. 1 rusher at South Carolina. If not, it’s another guy, and it’s likely that we won’t have a definitive answer regarding  this burning question until Aug. 30 when the Cocks square off with Vandy.

Potential for Injuries

Speaking of injuries, what happens when somebody gets hurt during spring ball?

Yes, you’re six months from the season starting which begs the question: What will your team even remember, physically or mentally, once the campaign begins in earnest?

Indeed, why risk your talent being sidelined when it may be that spring practice really has no positive impact on the season?

The Weather

This seems almost too ridiculous to mention, but how can you excited about college football teams lacing it up in the time frame of “April showers bring May flowers?”

Yes, the bees are buzzing, the flowers are blooming and the world is a glorious place, but please, this is simply not a suitable atmosphere for college football.

Indeed, it’s almost sacrilegious.

Football has always been about leaves falling from trees (not sprouting from them) and a certain change in the direction of the wind that spells crisp cool mornings, not hot nights in a bikini.

Spring football makes no sense because this is the time of the year for the classroom, the weight room and hiding precious future plans within the safety of a practice dome, bubble or less-visited field of dreams.

Many philosophers have weighed in on the effects nature has on the human spirit resulting in the hypothesis that we are mere products of our environment.

And this line of thought can very logically be expanded to help us to understand why college football makes no sense in the springtime.

It’s naturally wrong, and it plays havoc upon our delicate relationship with our Mother Earth.

Yes, it’s not time for college football yet.

“Big” Atmosphere Takes Coach’s Focus Off the Ball

In a different approach, what if the current climate of “media induced frenzy” surrounding college football causes coaches, players and even entire programs to take their eyes off the ball?

Yes, what if the over-celebration, the amped-up coverage and mis-gauged importance of spring ball actually causes coaches to not have the time to focus on the real football issues at hand?

What if leaving coaches to “do their thing” and coach throughout the spring without the big game celebrations (let’s call them off) would allow the gridiron leaders to focus on the players, not only honing their athletic gifts but working on their academic paths as well?

What if moving the next hyped up event in college football to August (where it belongs) actually wound up helping the sport long-term?

Yes, whey not have a string of work outs and quiet practices in the spring and save the Blue vs. Gold and the Scarlett vs. the Black for mid-August?

The timing would make more sense and perhaps we’d be doing everyone a favor in the process.