College Football Spring Game: What It Is and Who Plays

On April 16, 2016, a sellout-sized crowd of 100,189 filled Ohio Stadium in Columbus to watch Ohio State play itself. The Scarlet team lined up against the Gray, players who would meet the next fall's opponents as teammates spent two hours trying to tackle one another, and nothing that happened counted for anything. It is still the largest spring game crowd on record.

A college football spring game is the public scrimmage that closes spring practice. The team splits into two sides, or plays offense against defense, in front of fans, usually on a Saturday in March or April. It is one of the 15 practice sessions the NCAA allows outside the fall season, nothing in it counts toward the record or any statistics, and quarterbacks wear a no-contact jersey. Some programs treat it as a showcase, some as a glorified practice, and since 2025 a growing number have stopped holding one at all.

What the spring game is and what it is not

At its simplest, the spring game is the last of the spring practices, held in the stadium instead of on the practice field, with the gates open. Its function in the program's calendar is that of a final practice. Its function to everyone else is entertainment.

It is not an exhibition against another school. NCAA rules have long kept spring practice inside the program, so the opposing side of the field is wearing the same helmet. It is not a preseason game in the NFL sense; the professional league's preseason pits teams against each other and is explained in our guide to the NFL preseason. And it is not a game in any statistical sense. Points scored, passes completed and tackles made on the day are recorded by the program, if at all, for its own internal use.

The level of seriousness varies widely. At some schools the coaching staff runs a full scrimmage with most of the starters playing, and treats it as one more evaluation. At others the starters play a series or two, or not at all, and the day belongs to the backups. A few programs have turned the day into a carnival, with a concert, a fan fest or an alumni flag football game alongside. The NCAA rules set a frame; inside it, each head coach decides how much football gets played.

Why it exists at all

Spring practice exists because a fall season gives a staff almost no time to teach. Once games start, the work is weekly game plans. Spring is the only stretch of the year when coaches can install new schemes, try players at new positions and coach technique without an opponent on Saturday. The spring game came along later, as a way to show the public what the program had been doing and to sell some tickets doing it. It stayed because it became a recruiting tool and a fixture of the school calendar.

College football spring practice rules: the 15 sessions behind the game

The spring game is not extra. It comes out of a fixed allotment of practice time set by NCAA bylaws for out-of-season football. In the Football Bowl Subdivision, a program is permitted 15 practice sessions in the spring, and those sessions must fall within a window of 34 consecutive days, not counting vacation periods and exam weeks. Whatever a program does on spring game day uses up one of those 15.

Contact is limited inside that number. Of the 15 sessions, no more than 12 may involve contact; the rest are limited to helmets and no tackling. A smaller number of sessions may be given over primarily to 11-on-11 scrimmaging, and under the long-standing form of the bylaw that figure is three. The spring game is one of them.

• 15Practice sessions allowed
• 34Consecutive days to fit them in
• 12Sessions that may include contact
• 100189Spring game attendance record

Limits from NCAA out-of-season practice legislation for Division I football; the scrimmage limit is the long-standing figure, and the NCAA has discussed changes to the whole model.

80%20%

• Contact allowed12sessions
• No contact3sessions

The NCAA caps contact sessions at 12; the other three are practices without tackling. The spring game is one of the contact sessions.

Show the numbers

How the 15 spring sessions divide by contact

Item	Value
Contact allowed	12sessions
No contact	3sessions

What else limits spring practice

Practice time on any day is capped, players must have days off, and the season's academic rules apply. Weight training and conditioning outside those 15 sessions are governed by separate hour limits, and coaches may not run organized football drills outside the allotted sessions. A program that wants a long spring game and a long practice the week after has to plan both within the same 15.

The Football Championship Subdivision and Division II operate under their own versions of these limits. The idea is the same at every level: a fixed number of sessions, a fixed window, and a cap on hitting.

The two-period out-of-season model proposed to replace it

The one-block spring model has been under review. Coaches and the NCAA's football oversight bodies have discussed splitting the out-of-season practice time into two periods rather than one long stretch in the spring, partly to spread contact over the year and partly to respond to the way the transfer portal now reshapes rosters between seasons.

Under the version discussed in 2025, a program would hold one set of sessions in the spring and another later in the off-season, with a cap on contact across the two. The detail changed with each version as the proposal moved through committees, so this page describes the one-block allotment the bylaw has long set out rather than asserting which model governs any particular spring; a reader checking a current rule should go to the division's manual. What matters for the spring game is that a two-period model would weaken its role as a single closing event. If some of the practice time moves out of the spring, the traditional spring scrimmage would either shrink or move.

Why the change was raised

Three arguments ran through the discussion. Health and safety advocates have long pushed to cut the number of contact sessions across the whole year. Coaches pointed out that the transfer portal now brings in a large share of a roster after spring practice, which means a staff often teaches its schemes to a group that will look different by August. And the money now flowing through college football has made the cost of an injury in a scrimmage higher than it used to be. None of those arguments is unique to the spring game, but the spring game is where they meet.

How does a spring game work? The formats

There is no standard format, and the rules of the day are whatever the head coach decides. Most fall into three families.

Offense against defense

The first-team offense plays the first-team defense, the second team plays the second team, and so on. Since one side cannot score touchdowns in the usual way, programs invent a scoring system: the offense gets points for touchdowns, field goals and long plays, the defense for stops, turnovers, sacks and three-and-outs. The systems differ from school to school and are often set the week of the game. They are designed to make the final score close, which is why so many offense-defense spring games end within a field goal.

The scoring tables reveal what a staff cares about. A defensive coordinator who has spent March drilling takeaways will lobby for a fumble recovery to be worth more than a three-and-out. An offensive staff trying to fix a red-zone problem may get bonus points for touchdowns inside the 20. Some programs post the table on the stadium video board so fans can follow along. Nobody claims the numbers mean anything. They exist to make every snap matter to somebody on the field.

One quirk follows from the format. Because the offense and defense are both made up of starters, the first-team matchup can be the best football anyone sees all spring, and it often lasts only a quarter. After that the depth charts take over, and the game becomes a long look at the third-string tailback.

Split squad after a draft

The second family divides the roster into two teams, often by a draft. Senior players or captains act as general managers, or the coaching staff picks two sides, and each team gets a mix of starters and backups at every position. Teams play under regular scoring. The draft itself is often televised or posted online, and it has become a small event of its own at some schools.

1. 1The draftSenior captains or coaches pick two teams from the roster, balancing starters and backups at each position.
2. 2Two sidelinesEach team gets a coaching staff, often assistants split between the two benches.
3. 3Modified rulesOfficials apply the day's rules: protected quarterbacks, a shortened or running clock and no live kickoffs.
4. 4The gameStarters usually play the first quarter or half and then give way to backups and walk-ons.
5. 5PostgameThe winning side earns bragging rights, often a better meal, and the program counts the session toward its 15.

One common sequence. Each program sets its own format, and many do not hold a draft at all.

The open practice sold as a game

The third format is not a game at all. The team runs a practice in the stadium, with drills, seven-on-seven, some team periods and a short scrimmage, and the public watches. Programs that worry most about injuries or about showing their schemes have moved toward this version.

Format by purpose

Coaches who want competition pick offense against defense. Coaches who want to see backups play under pressure pick a split squad. Coaches who want to control the day completely run a practice. The choice says something about where a program is: a team with a settled quarterback often holds a lighter spring game than one with a competition at the position.

The modified rules on spring game day

The rules of football apply, with adjustments chosen by the program. Officials are typically present, often a conference crew working the game as part of its own preparation. Most of the changes are about safety and time.

Rule	Regular-season game	Typical spring game
Quarterbacks	Can be tackled	Wear a no-contact jersey; plays end when a defender reaches them
Game clock	Stops under the normal clock rules	Often runs continuously, at least in the second half
Quarter length	15 minutes	Often shorter, set by the program
Kickoffs	Live	Usually not live; the ball is spotted instead
Punts	Live	Often fair-caught or not returned
Halftime	Full length	Often shortened or skipped

The no-contact jersey

Quarterbacks usually wear red or another contrasting color, a signal to defenders that they may not be hit. A pass rusher who gets close enough is expected to pull up, and the officials or the coaches can rule a sack. That rule makes the passing game look easier than it will in September, since a quarterback who knows he cannot be hit can hold the ball longer, and a defense cannot show much of its pass rush. It is one of the main reasons spring passing numbers are unreliable.

The clock and the kicking game

A running clock shortens the day, and spring games often finish in two hours or less. Regular-season clock rules are covered in our guide to how long a college football game lasts. Kickoffs are often skipped entirely because they carry an elevated risk of injury, and many programs do not use live punt returns either. The kicking game is the part of the team a spring game reveals least about.

What coaches get from a spring game

For a staff, the spring game has three uses.

The first is evaluation under lights. A practice is a controlled environment; a spring game in front of a crowd tells a staff something about how a young player handles noise and pressure. Coaches often talk about wanting to see who "plays the same" in a stadium as in practice.

The second is position battles. A quarterback competition, or a contest for a starting job on the offensive line, is often discussed publicly through the spring game. Coaches rarely name a winner on the day, but the scrimmage is a public data point, and the staff knows the fans, the media and the players are watching it.

The third is a first look at new arrivals. Early enrollees, players who finished high school in December and enrolled in January, take part in spring practice, as do transfers who arrived in the winter window. For many fans, the spring game is the first chance to see them. How early enrollment fits into the recruiting calendar is covered in our guide to national signing day in college football.

How a staff grades the film afterward

The scrimmage is filmed like any practice, from the end zone and the sideline, and every snap is graded the following week. Position coaches mark assignments and technique on each play: did the guard pick up the blitz, did the cornerback play the leverage the call asked for. Those grades feed into the summer depth chart far more than anything a fan saw from the stands. A receiver who caught nothing all afternoon can grade well because he ran every route at the right depth and the ball simply went elsewhere. A linebacker who made a highlight tackle can grade poorly because he was out of his gap on the three snaps before it.

That gap between the public view and the staff view is the reason coaches answer postgame questions so cautiously. They have not graded the film yet, and they know the scrimmage's simplified rules flatter some players and hide others.

Recruiting weekend

The spring game is also one of the most important recruiting weekends of the year. High school prospects attend on unofficial visits, often in large numbers. A full stadium sends a message that no brochure can, and some programs have built their spring games around the visit: the recruits on the sideline, a meeting with the coaching staff, a tour of the facilities afterward. A recruit who visits in April may commit by summer. The ratings that recruiting staffs pay attention to on those visits are explained in our guide to college football recruiting star ratings.

What fans get, and the names spring games go by

For a fan, the spring game is often the cheapest way to watch the team in person. Many programs charge nothing; others charge a few dollars or ask for a donation to a charity. Players sign autographs after the game at many schools, and alumni sometimes play a flag football game or are introduced at halftime.

The day usually comes with its own name.

School	Spring game name
Alabama	A-Day
Auburn	A-Day
Georgia	G-Day
Penn State	Blue-White Game
Nebraska	Red-White Spring Game
Tennessee	Orange & White Game
Texas	Orange-White Game

The names follow the colors or the initial of the school, and the split teams often take the two colors as their own. The traditions around the day vary, from a band performance to the first public walk-through of a new head coach. Many of the sport's broader rituals are collected in our guide to the best college football traditions.

Television

Spring games became regular television fare in the 2000s, as conference networks and national cable channels looked for spring programming. Some programs broadcast every spring game nationally, others stream them, and a few keep them off television altogether. A televised spring game is also a free advertisement for the program, which is one more reason it lasted.

The crowds: Ohio State's record and the 80,000 club

The 100,189 at Ohio Stadium in April 2016 is the largest spring game crowd on record. It was set at the end of Urban Meyer's fifth spring at Ohio State, about 15 months after the program won the first College Football Playoff, and it broke a record Ohio State had set itself the spring before, when 99,391 came to the same stadium.

Before that, the most famous spring crowd was Alabama's at Bryant-Denny Stadium in April 2007, for Nick Saban's first A-Day, when more than 92,000 came to watch a new coach's team scrimmage itself. Spring crowds of more than 80,000 have been recorded at several of the largest stadiums in the sport, usually in the first spring under a new head coach, when the scrimmage doubles as an introduction. The stadiums capable of holding those numbers are set out in our guide to the biggest college football stadiums.

Why spring crowds beat bowl games

Many of those spring attendances were larger than most of the bowl games played the following winter. The comparison says less about spring games than about bowls: a spring game is a home event for a big program, played on campus, usually for free or nearly so, while most bowl games ask fans to travel to a neutral site in late December. A program with a stadium of 100,000 seats and a fan base within driving distance will fill more of them for a free scrimmage than a bowl in another state will.

What drives a big crowd

The pattern is clear enough. A new head coach, good weather, a free ticket and a program coming off a successful season. Programs that have advertised their spring game heavily, or combined it with a concert or a fan festival, have also drawn well. Crowds tend to drop in a coach's later seasons and rise sharply when a new one arrives.

Why spring games are being canceled

In the spring of 2025, several major programs canceled their spring games, closed them to the public, or replaced them with private practices. The reasons varied, but two came up again and again.

The first was the transfer portal. Coaches argued that a public scrimmage, especially a televised one, was a showcase for other programs looking to recruit their players away. A backup who played well in April on national television could find himself contacted by rival programs, sometimes through intermediaries, ahead of the spring transfer window that existed at the time. Coaches called this tampering; the NCAA's rules prohibit contact with a player at another school before he has entered the portal, but enforcement is difficult. That particular timing argument has since been weakened: the NCAA abolished the spring transfer window and moved football to a single January window from 2026, which puts the portal before spring practice rather than after it. The rules of the portal are explained in our guide to the college football transfer portal.

The second was injury. A serious injury in a spring game costs a program a player for the season. When rosters were stable and players stayed for four or five years, coaches accepted the risk. When the stakes of every player's availability grew, and with direct payments to players arriving under the House settlement, more coaches decided the risk was not worth it.

Closed doors and the alternatives

Programs that canceled their games did not stop practicing. They held the 15 sessions as usual and replaced the public scrimmage with a closed practice, an open practice with no scrimmage, or a fan day with autographs and no football at all. Some brought fans in for a walk-through of the facilities instead.

What a canceled game costs a program

The case for keeping the game is mostly about people who are not on the roster. Local businesses near campus count on a spring Saturday crowd, booster organizations use the weekend for events, and a free scrimmage is the one chance many families have to take children to the stadium without paying regular-season prices. Recruits lose something too. A prospect visiting in April sees a practice field instead of 70,000 people, and staffs at programs that canceled acknowledged as much by building replacement events around visiting recruits.

There is a less visible cost inside the team. Players, particularly backups who will not start in the fall, have described the spring game as the one time family members see them play in the stadium. Canceling it to protect the roster from outside recruiters takes away an afternoon that mattered most to the players least likely to be recruited away.

Is the spring game dying?

Not everywhere. Most programs still held a public spring game in the spring of 2025, and several of the largest drew big crowds. The cancellations clustered among programs most exposed to roster raids, which tend to be those with large rosters of highly rated backups. Programs that depend on the spring game for recruiting, fundraising or local goodwill have kept it. The likely result is a split: a public event at some schools, a closed practice at others, and less uniformity than the sport has had for decades.

Scrimmaging someone else: the 2025 joint scrimmage request

In 2025, two programs asked the NCAA for permission to hold a joint spring scrimmage, practicing against each other rather than against themselves. The argument was straightforward: a team that only scrimmages itself never sees an unfamiliar scheme until the fall, and a joint session would give both teams better evaluations and a better event for fans.

The request ran into the rule that spring practice is limited to a team's own players. An NCAA committee considered it and did not allow it to go ahead. The ruling rested on the rule as written rather than on any judgment of the idea. The worry heard around the decision was easy to follow: one approved joint scrimmage would invite dozens of requests, and a spring of interschool scrimmages would start to look like an exhibition season, with recruiting, travel and competitive-balance questions the out-of-season rules were never written to answer.

The NFL comparison

NFL teams do hold joint practices with other teams in the summer, and coaches who have seen those sessions have been among the loudest advocates for allowing something similar in college. The professional and college games have very different rules on practice time and contact; our guide to college football vs NFL rules covers the in-game differences. The joint scrimmage question is likely to return, especially if the two-period model reshapes the out-of-season calendar.

What you can and cannot learn from a spring game

Less than the crowd thinks, and more than the coaches admit.

The things a spring game hides are many. Coaches run vanilla schemes, avoiding anything they want to save for opponents. Starters often play only briefly. Injured players and those coming back from surgery sit out entirely. The no-contact jersey changes how the quarterback plays and how the pass rush works. And because the team is facing itself, every matchup is a starter against a backup or a starter against a starter who knows every call.

What it can show is narrower and still useful. The physical development of a player who has been in the strength program for a year. The basic footwork of an early enrollee. Whether a new offensive coordinator's tempo or formations look different from the old one's. Who is on the field with the first team at the start, which is often the closest thing to a public depth chart.

Reading the first snap

The most reliable information in a spring game arrives before the first whistle. Which quarterback trots out with the first-team offense, which tackle lines up on the left side, which safety calls the coverage: those are choices the staff made deliberately, and they are rarely accidents. A position battle that the coaches describe as "wide open" in their press conference is sometimes less open than they say, and the opening series is where that shows.

Rotation matters too. If two quarterbacks split series evenly with the first team, the competition is probably real. If one plays two series and sits while the other plays the entire second half with backups, the staff is protecting a starter and getting reps for a reserve. Fans who watch the substitution pattern instead of the scoreboard tend to leave knowing more.

Spring stars who disappeared in the fall

Every program has them: a backup receiver who caught three touchdowns in the spring game and was barely heard from in September, or a third-string running back who ran for 150 yards against the second-team defense. The pattern is predictable. The spring game puts backups against backups, in a game with no pass rush, against a defense running a simplified scheme. Those conditions flatter certain players, and the fall exposes the gap.

How spring football began

Spring practice predates the spring game by decades. Programs in the early 1900s began holding off-season drills in the spring, when the weather allowed, to work on fundamentals and to see new players before the fall. As football grew more complex, those drills became longer and more organized, and by the middle of the century spring practice was a fixture at most major programs.

The public scrimmage followed naturally. Programs held intrasquad games at the end of spring drills, often as fundraisers or alumni events, and some of the names still in use date back to that period. The games were small affairs, played in front of a few thousand people at most.

Varsity against the alumni

For a long stretch of the 20th century, a common spring format pitted the current varsity against a team of former players. Alumni who had graduated a year or two earlier came back to campus, and the game gave the varsity an opponent that did not know its new plays and gave the alumni a reunion. The format faded as rules on practice and eligibility tightened and as the gap in conditioning between a current team and a group of former players grew too wide to make it safe or competitive. Its traces survive in the flag football games and halftime introductions that some programs still stage on spring game day.

Freshmen once had their own place in the spring too. Before freshmen became eligible for varsity play in college football in 1972, spring was the first time many first-year players practiced with the varsity, and the spring game was where fans got a look at the class that would play the following fall. The role early enrollees and transfers fill today, as the new faces of April, is an echo of that.

The modern limits

The NCAA began to regulate spring practice more tightly in the second half of the century, as concerns grew about the amount of time athletes spent on football outside the season. The modern 15-session limit, the window in which it must be held and the contact rules are the products of that history, revised over several decades. The figures used today are lower than in earlier periods, when programs held more sessions.

Television and the spring game as an event

Television turned the spring game into what it became. Once the conference networks and national cable channels began carrying spring scrimmages, programs had a reason to make the day bigger, and fans in other states could watch. The crowds followed. For a while, attendance became a recruiting talking point, and programs competed to break their own spring records. The canceled games of the 2025 spring were the first real reversal of that trend, and what replaced them differed from program to program rather than settling into a single new practice. The rest of the college game, from recruiting to the bowls, is gathered on our American football hub.