Spring Football Overview 2000
by Jeff "Stats-Man" Brown

Most people will say that Spring football is dull. Hell, you'll get no argument from me. Not only is it dull, it's confusing. Who do you root for? Every broken tackle is also a missed one and a forced fumble is still a fumble. But you know what? The Spring breeds dull sports. The NBA and major league baseball are two prime examples. The NBA playoffs begin in April and end in June. Their season starts in October and runs nearly six months until their playoffs even begin. Someone would put a stake in them, but after half a year, nobody cares! Baseball is just as bad. For months and months and months it goes on. Sure it's nice to be sitting out on a summer's day watching what used to be the national pastime, but baseball in April is a temperature in the forties and six dollar beers.

As far as I'm concerned, this time of the year is a sports wasteland. March Madness is history, the NFL playoffs are in the past and bowl season is just a faint memory. Sure the Spring game is a bore, but for the first time in five months I'm able to tailgate with friends, listen to a marching band play my school's fight song and for just one afternoon pretend like it's an Autumn Saturday.

A few years back I started wondering not only who goes to Spring games but how schools are promoting these scrimmages (Let's not kid ourselves, that's all they really are). The internet is a wonderful way to find this information. It's also a frustrating way. Some schools make a big deal about the Spring game and it's easy to find the figures I need. On their official websites, both Texas and Notre Dame kept a running clock counting down the minutes until the game. Other schools barely mentioned the event, much less give its attendance.

This year I broke down and actually called various athletic departments asking for an attendance figure. The reaction I received was mixed. At some schools the receptionist in the sports information office was able to tell me the number. At others, it was like I asked for a detailed breakdown of the specifications of the space shuttle's heat shields. They were shocked that someone would want information on spring football attendance.

The bottom line is this, I found out that there are a lot of folks who go to these games. Let's take a look at just how many folks attended the 2000 Spring Game:

WYOMING: Zero. The scrimmage was scheduled to be played at the University's War Memorial Stadium, but due to a blizzard that hit the morning of the game, they moved it to their practice field. Their website said they feared the poor weather would damage the stadium's turf.

I love college football and I love tailgating. But you know what? I'd be pretty hard pressed to tailgate in Laramie, in April, during a blizzard, before Wyoming's Spring game.

GEORGIA: Zero. Actually this year's G-Day game was cancelled. Why? The field stinks. There's some kind of sewer problem at Sanford Stadium and it's causing an awful smell. The field is torn apart and the university is working on solving the situation before the season's first game. This is what they get for allowing a dog on the field.

GEORGIA TECH: 1,500. The past few years they've held the game at the Rose Bowl (No, not THE Rose Bowl, Rose Bowl Field which is on Tech's campus). This year they moved it to the home of Yellow Jacket football, Grant Field. The move attracted 700 fewer people to this year's scrimmage compared to 1999's.

STANFORD: The Cardinal gave away free hotdogs, chips and sodas to anyone coming out for the game. 2,500 took them up on their offer.

LOUISVILLE: 2,500.

NORTH CAROLINA: 3,000. The game was halted after only 28 plays due to heavy rains.

MARYLAND: 3,000 people showed up for the game which was played on a Friday night.

ARKANSAS: 3,200.

KENTUCKY: 5,200. Hal Mumme has an odd way of staging the Wildcat's Blue and White game. The first quarter is a touch football game played between former UK football players. The real scrimmage starts at the beginning of the second quarter. After the first 15 minutes of play the score was 7-0 in favor of the Blue squad. The final score? (For those betting the over/under of 65) Blue 45 White 21.

FLORIDA STATE: The defending national champions (God, it burns my fingers to type that) drew 7,500. It would've been more, but that same weekend Dillards was holding their semi-annual "Buy One - Get 24 Free" sale.

ILLINOIS: 7,500.

OREGON STATE: The Beavers' game consisted of four 12 minute quarters. 8,000 witnessed it.

PURDUE: A school record crowd of 9,460 came out for the game. This figure nearly quadrupled last year's attendance.

LSU: 10,054 showed up on a Saturday night in Baton Rouge.

TENNESSEE: The Orange and White game drew a crowd of 12,715

KANSAS STATE: 13,742.

NOTRE DAME: 14,135. You'd think in a game where the final tally was 39-31, there'd be more than one touchdown scored, but that's what happened. For the scrimmage, head coach Bob Davie came up with a new scoring method that awards points for yardage.

TEXAS TECH: 15,383.

OLE MISS: The Rebs bill their Spring game as the Grove Bowl (The Grove is the area where the serious Ole Miss tailgating takes place). Before the game some band named Dr. Zarr's Amazing Funk Monster performed. Despite that fact, 16,800 stuck around for the scrimmage. This is the largest Spring game crowd in Oxford in over 20 years.

CLEMSON: 18,000.

WISCONSIN: 20,000. The Badgers Spring game is sandwiched between two annual events. In the morning the 19th Crazyleg Classic was run (named for former UW great Elroy "Crazylegs" Hirsch). After the game Butch's Bologna Bash was held. I was intrigued by the notion of a bologna bash, so I went to the bash's official website to find out more on the event. After surfing their site for five minutes, I still had no idea just what the it was. I did figure out that drinking beer and eating meat were involved (Hell, that sounds like a typical Saturday afternoon for me)

OKLAHOMA: 20,450 came out to see the White squad defeat the Red 31-13.

VIRGINIA TECH: 21,000. The Hokies shattered their Spring game attendance record by nearly 10,000.

OHIO STATE: 21,897. The Buckeyes raised their attendance by 21,897 this year. In the spring of 1999, work began on enlarging Ohio Stadium forcing the cancellation of that year's Spring game. A scrimmage was held in private at their practice facility in front of no crowd (though it was on live radio and TV in the Columbus area). Stadium expansion continues this off season, so OSU held the game at Crew Stadium, the home of major league soccer's Columbus Crew. All proceeds from the game's ticket sales went to the family of Garey Humphrey. Mr. Humphrey is an employee of the university whose house burned down last month. He lost his two daughters in the fire and due to injuries suffered in the blaze had to have both of his hands amputated.

TEXAS: 22,000. A school record crowd.

NEBRASKA: 22,415 Husker fans were on hand to see the first tie in a Husker Spring game in 50 years.

FLORIDA: 22,500. Due to injuries on the Gator offensive line, Steve Spurrier held a 9 on 9 scrimmage.

AUBURN: 31,000. Pretty damn impressive considering the game was played over Easter weekend.

PENN STATE: Let it be known that I hate Penn State, but I've got to give them credit, 50,000 Nittany Lion fans were in Happy Valley for their Spring game. For the second straight year PSU wins the Spring game attendance contest.

Tell JoPa the trophy is in the mail.

Jeff "The Stats-man" Brown
"Just sitting here waiting for football season"