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Deion Sanders’ request for spring exhibition game vs. Syracuse denied
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Deion Sanders has been vocal about a chance to use the spring practice window as an opportunity for teams to play opponents in a full preseason game as opposed to the scrimmage makeup of a traditional spring game. In fact, Colorado was working to line up Syracuse as a potential opponent this year.
Sanders himself revealed that news on NFL Network during an interview at the Big 12 Pro Day event. He expressed a lot of appreciation for Syracuse head coach Fran Brown, even saying he was “praying” that Brown and his Orange program was the group to make it happen.
“We’ve already communicated,” said Sanders. “… It’s not only going to be about football, it’s going to be about financial literacy, it’s going to be about everything. It’s going to be about academics as well, we’re going to do a joint thing with both teams, if we can make this happen.”
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Unfortunately, the FBS oversight committee has ruled no dice in that effort. The committee released a statement, citing 3 specific concerns related to the request between Colorado and Syracuse.
The timing of the request coming toward the end of some programs’ end of spring, a competitive/recruiting advantage for the 2 programs if approved and the academic impact on student-athletes potentially missing class to make it happen. However, it’s fair to question if the competitive advantage would be removed (moving forward) if the committee just ruled teams were allowed to handle spring practices this way.
Deion Sanders has not been the only coach to express an interest in facing another program in spring practices with Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy even floating the idea of a spring Bedlam Series with rival Oklahoma. For now, fans will have to wait, but this is unlikely the last we’ll hear about the potential model.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
