Pre-Season Football Games

[DFW HOYA]

The Hampton Roads (VA) Daily Press' David Teel echoes a thought I've been consdiering for years--if basketball and baseball can have pre-season exhibitions, why doesn't college football?

One or two games against local competition could be a fan favorite in the down-time of August against non-traditional (read I-A) foes. Would James Madison fans watch an exhibition with Virginia Tech? Would Harvard fans be interested in a scrimmage with BC? Conversely, if VMI wanted to play Washington & Lee for an exhibition, no harm in that either.

http://weblogs.dailypress.com/sports/teelblog/2010/08/should_ncaa_permit_football_ex.html

[Pard94]

The Hampton Roads (VA) Daily Press' David Teel echoes a thought I've been consdiering for years--if basketball and baseball can have pre-season exhibitions, why doesn't college football?

One or two games against local competition could be a fan favorite in the down-time of August against non-traditional (read I-A) foes. Would James Madison fans watch an exhibition with Virginia Tech? Would Harvard fans be interested in a scrimmage with BC? Conversely, if VMI wanted to play Washington & Lee for an exhibition, no harm in that either.

http://weblogs.dailypress.com/sports/teelblog/2010/08/should_ncaa_permit_football_ex.html

I haven't read the article but my intial response would simply be, "violence". You could make the argument that basketball is a contact sport to some degree, baseball certainly is not and neither of them are collision sports. The risk of injury to key players is way to great. In addition given the comparatively short season football plays one key injury could scuttle an entire season. Why risk it?

[Bogus Megapardus]

I haven't read the article but my intial response would simply be, "violence". You could make the argument that basketball is a contact sport to some degree, baseball certainly is not and neither of them are collision sports. The risk of injury to key players is way to great. In addition given the comparatively short season football plays one key injury could scuttle an entire season. Why risk it?

On the other hand, P94, our JV scimmages against D3 teams like Albright and Moravian. Would it be so bad if we had a preseasn game against the Rutgers JV? We'd likely win that one.

[darell1976]

I haven't read the article but my intial response would simply be, "violence". You could make the argument that basketball is a contact sport to some degree, baseball certainly is not and neither of them are collision sports. The risk of injury to key players is way to great. In addition given the comparatively short season football plays one key injury could scuttle an entire season. Why risk it?

I agree. Even NFL players don't like a lot of exhibition games due to threat of injury. Injuries happen enough through training camp and thats all you need is your star player going down in a game that doesn't count.

[DFW HOYA]

I agree. Even NFL players don't like a lot of exhibition games due to threat of injury. Injuries happen enough through training camp and thats all you need is your star player going down in a game that doesn't count.

If that's the case, why not play 10 games instead of 11? You can't fear early season injury, and there are kids every year hurt in spring practice, too.

The exercise is for both teams to get in some plays before the season, so it would certainly be benefiicial to freshmen and reserves seeking to show the coaches what they can do.

[darell1976]

If that's the case, why not play 10 games instead of 11? You can't fear early season injury, and there are kids every year hurt in spring practice, too.

The exercise is for both teams to get in some plays before the season, so it would certainly be benefiicial to freshmen and reserves seeking to show the coaches what they can do.

I would rather they play more games in college at least 12-14. We need more football on Saturday's. The NFL is talking about having 18 games with only 53 players on a roster. I don't know what the roster size on a college team is but if we could increase it with more games so be it. I think more fans want to watch games that count. I hate preseason anything and wouldn't waste money watching it in person. Its just tryouts.

[jstclmet]

Pre-Season games would mean kids would have to report sooner. As it is, they're already on campus taking Summer classes in order to graduate on time as well as work out with their team. Kids get injured during Pre-Season camp, now you want to add 1 or 2 games???

The NFL is having this same discussion with adding two games to the schedule and reducing the Pre-Season by 2 games. An 18 game season (plus playoffs) will put a tremendous drain on the NFL players body, but at least he's getting paid. 11 College games plus 4 playoff games is a lot for 18 - 22 y/o's.

As much as I love to watch football, this is one thing I don't think will be in the best interest for the Student Athlete. You're only 18 - 22 once.

[Uncle Rico's Clan]

The Hampton Roads (VA) Daily Press' David Teel echoes a thought I've been consdiering for years--if basketball and baseball can have pre-season exhibitions, why doesn't college football?

One or two games against local competition could be a fan favorite in the down-time of August against non-traditional (read I-A) foes. Would James Madison fans watch an exhibition with Virginia Tech? Would Harvard fans be interested in a scrimmage with BC? Conversely, if VMI wanted to play Washington & Lee for an exhibition, no harm in that either.

http://weblogs.dailypress.com/sports/teelblog/2010/08/should_ncaa_permit_football_ex.html

It would be tough for the teams out west to schedule local competition. For Montana, our closest division 1 neighbor is Eastern Washington and the second closest is MSU. I don't see a positive outcome from scheduling either of them for a pre season scrimmage. From there, our closest local competition would be NAIA teams.

I think that a lot of teams use their first game of the year almost like a pre season warm up. The past few years the Griz have had a DII team early on the schedule, and next year we play Tennessee to open the season.