Part 2: Why we need scrimmages

In what I posted a couple days ago, I talked about why scrimmages should occur in college football.

In this post, I will post on how these scrimmages would work under my plan.

In order to make more money for these schools, I would have the option for scrimmages during the spring and right before the season in August.

Most college football teams have spring games, even down to the lowest levels in Division III and NAIA. Outside of FBS, spring games do not get big crowds at all. Teams have varying times where they practice. There's one school in our area that started spring practice right after Valentine's Day.

Matt Barber of Dixie Fried Sports, another SC sports blog, proposed this idea, but his was to play games in major football stadiums (mostly professional). http://www.dixiefriedsports.com/CFB_Jamboree.html

My idea would be for teams to play some of these type games, but for many of these teams, they would travel around to smaller cities and stadiums in order to entertain those fans.

South Carolina and Clemson (and just about every other major football program) has a statewide following. Even with their large stadiums, there are lots of people who don't have the ability to go or can't afford a ticket.

Having scrimmages in different stadiums would help energize the fan base. In addition to having gatherings at local event centers (like most places), they could play these games.

Smaller FCS and lower division teams would also make a huge amount of money in this.

For example, The Citadel. They have one of the larger stadiums in FCS (21,000 seats), and their program is probably the biggest in-state besides Carolina and Clemson. Their stadium, like most FCS stadiums, is under-used except during the season.

Every year, a local high school football jamboree is held on Thursday and Friday nights in the middle of August. Those games, one and two-quarter jamborees, often get at least 10,000 fans per night.

South Carolina and Clemson are more popular than the high schools. Bringing one of these teams in for a scrimmage or a jamboree would sell out Johnson-Hagood in hours. You could bring in most D1 teams in the Southeast, and you'd get a very good crowd.

The fans would enjoy it, getting to see their team in a game-like atmosphere. Businesses and hotels around town would love to have additional business. Coaches would enjoy getting to play against actual competition instead of the glorified scrimmages they are now. It's a win-win situation.

In part three, I will talk about the format for my plan and how it would work.