Big Ten Football Coach Creates Unique Opportunity For Players

As a true lover of college sports, it’s hard to see where the state of college sports has gotten to these days. I’m not one who opposes players being compensated but I’m also not in favor of letting them transfer multiple times the way they can now.  

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There have been a lot of changes that we’re all trying to keep up with, including how many players can be on a roster for football. In my years of broadcasting college football, I’ve seen as many as 115 to 125 players, counting the walk-ons, you know those players who aren’t getting a scholarship let alone NIL money. 

The college football spring season is coming to an end. That’s the period of 16 practices over 31 days that normally culminates in a spring football intra-squad scrimmage game. 

A lot of teams say they’re not holding their annual spring game because of tampering that is currently going on in the sport. The University of Nebraska was one of those schools, but yesterday their head coach, Matt Rhule, announced that next Saturday they will hold a spring event with competitions that aren’t offense versus defense.  

But he also announced that there will be some live football, and that will involve guys that are trying to earn their position on 105-man roster. Now you may say that’s what spring is for, right.  

Why This Matters

Coach Rhule said that one reason there will be live action, is to allow those players who will not make the 105-man roster to get some of their play on video so it can be sent to other schools to try and help those players find another school to play for.  

Plus, Coach Rhule stressed it was important for the guys who will be moving on to have one final memory of playing inside Memorial Stadium.

Not every coach cares about the walk-ons because most of them will not ever play in a game. But for Coach Rhule to want to try and help these players out is a pretty cool gesture.  

But at least these players at Nebraska will have completed a strenuous spring format and hopefully for them they’ll have some quality game tape to get them to another opportunity.