One of the great annual springtime traditions in this country is college football spring games. Every year, typically sometime in April, thousands of Americans head to the stadium in the middle of the offseason to watch their favorite team put on an instrasquad exhibitition contest for their fans. Given the current landscape of college football, however, that may be changing. On Wednesday, Antonio Morales of The Athletic reported that USC will be the latest school not to hold a spring game in 2025 due to concerns over the transfer portal.
In today’s wild west world of college football, players are essentially free agents who can leave for another school at any time. Hence, the concern that Lincoln Riley and other head coaches have had is that other programs will notice their spring game standouts and try to convince them to enter the transfer portal, with the promise of more NIL money than they are currently receiving.
Earlier this month, Nebraska became the first program to cancel their 2025 spring game due to these concerns. Several other schools have followed suit, including defending national champion Ohio State.
While it may serve in USC’s best competitive interest not to have a spring game, it is a tough break for fans. With practices not open to the public, the spring game is one real opportunity that fans would have had to see the team in-person between the Las Vegas Bowl back in December and the start of the 2025 season in August.
According to Morales, the Trojans instead “will host a fan appreciation event during fall camp in addition to Salute to Troy.” He also added that they plan to have “an event in the spring welcoming former USC football players back to campus,” something that typically coincides with the spring game.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC follows other programs, scraps spring football game in 2025
