Syracuse coach pokes fun at NCAA after Colorado spring game falls through

After the NCAA nixed the idea of Colorado and Syracuse playing a joint spring practice and game, the Orange head coach suggested it would've been approved if someone else had it.

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Colorado and Syracuse had their idea for a joint spring football practice and game turned down by the NCAA, and Orange coach Fran Brown thinks it may have had something to do with the people who had the idea in the first place.

Maybe if someone else brought it up, the NCAA would have been more amenable to the proposal.

“We should’ve just told Coach Belichick and Bill O’Brien to come up with it and then they would’ve let them do it,” Brown told reporters.

“And then it would’ve all went, right? We shouldn’t have been the first two dudes to say it. You know damn well they wasn’t about to let Coach Primetime and Fran Brown be the first to do it. Over their dead bodies.”

He then added: “I’m just messing with you, NCAA. Don’t get all mad and call up my AD and try to find me. I’m literally joking.”

The NCAA cited competitive and academic concerns for why it denied the waiver filed by Colorado and Syracuse, but Brown doesn’t think there would have been a problem.

“They were heading in the right direction, right? They had all the right reasons,” he said. 

“It wouldn’t have given everybody the same opportunity, right? It would’ve been a little advantage. I wasn’t about us being able to practice, because us practicing together would’ve only limited the amount of people on the field.”

Deion Sanders brought forward the idea of playing a competitive spring practice and exhibition game in the same way NFL teams prepare against each other in the preseason.

“You really can’t tell the level of your guys because, you know, it’s the same old, same old,” Sanders said of his proposal.

“Everybody kind of knows each other towards the end. I would like to style it like the pros. I would like to practice against someone for a few days, then you have the spring game. And I think the public will be satisfied with that tremendously.”

Sanders’ idea comes as several high-profile college football programs have decided to radically alter if not outright cancel their spring games amid concerns around tampering and late transfers.

“This spring ball thing, everyone’s trying to fade away from it, they don’t want you to see it,” Brown said.

“We’re trying to bring some light to it. This would’ve been a huge event. This would’ve been a huge fight. You would’ve been able to see us April 18, playing them in Colorado? That thing would’ve sold out.”

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