Alabama should abandon its spring football game in the future, the mayor of Tuscaloosa has said. Gary Cosby-Imagn Images

Alabama should drop spring football game, Tuscaloosa mayor says amid concerns

Originally posted on CFB-HQ on SI | By James Parks | Last updated Jul 4, 2025 3:37 PM ET

College football spring games are in danger of becoming ancient history after more than two-dozen programs called off their preseason scrimmages amid concerns over player workload and transfer portal tampering.

Alabama held its annual A-Day event in 2025, but ditched the game format in favor of drills and controlled situations, but the mayor of Tuscaloosa thinks the entire event should be canceled completely in the years to come.

The concern, he says, arises from logistical and security concerns the city has to pay for.

“From the city standpoint, I can’t believe it. Twenty years ago, if you would have asked me, ‘Would you want to have A-Day?’ I’d say ‘Yes,’” Mayor Walt Maddox said to The Tuscaloosa News.

“Today, I would say with all the things that come now surrounding it, I think it’s better for us not to have A-Day and focus on the UA-generated events that don’t require so much security personnel and other logistical support.”

The financial and personnel investment that comes with an event the size of A-Day may not be worth the city’s investment, especially given as few as 10,000 fans are said to have attended this year, a marked drop from an estimated 72,000 spectators last spring.

The move to abandon the traditional spring game format intensified this offseason when Nebraska seemed to kick off the trend.

Cornhuskers head coach Matt Rhule cited concerns over effectively giving other schools what amounts to a free tryout to watch their players and then poach them in the transfer portal.

Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian followed suit, favoring an NFL-style OTA period after raising concerns about the longer season following the expansion of the playoff.

Big-name schools like USC, Florida State, and LSU followed the trend while others hosted spring scrimmages that weren’t televised.

Michigan played a spring event that was broadcast on television, but only agreed to have it air the next weekend after the spring transfer portal window had already closed.

“It’ll be interesting to see the evolution of A-Day,” Maddox said.

“I don’t know any information, but I don’t think A-Day will ever exist again, at least over the next 10 to 20 years the way it has in the past.”