Will the transfer portal help to bring back spring games?
Bevoeatsbrains on the Inside Texas Members Only board brought up a good transfer-portal related question: “Now that there isn’t a spring transfer portal window, have you heard anything about Texas bringing back the spring game?”
No, not as of yet. There are stages to the offseason, and the Longhorns haven’t even started winter conditioning in earnest. After all, yesterday was the first day of school.
But this question does bring up a good point: the elimination of the spring transfer portal probably gives coaches license to put on a spring game.
Coaches became afraid of spring games with a spring portal window because no coach wanted to give his players a platform for other programs to poach from. “Oh, that player logged six catches for 87 yards against the Texas defense? He’s a second-stringer? Let’s figure out how to get him starting here!”
Without a spring portal, any player who shines in a spring game has to wait nine months to enter the transfer portal. By that time, a season of more relevant data will be available to those teams. Did the player start? Did he even play? Was he good or was that spring game performance a blip?
It’s also worth remembering that Texas had a closed-door scrimmage for its 15th spring practice before embarking on fan day in 2025. So while there wasn’t a public spring game, Texas still wanted that scrimmage action.
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The practices may still look different. Texas had “OTA style” spring drills last year. That was done in order to limit some of the hits on players who had played 30 games in the previous two seasons, or 16 games in the most recent campaign.
If the final spring practice was and remains a scrimmage, then it’s probably a good idea to put it in front of the fans.
You get that easy fan buy-in, you satisfy curiosity in transfer portal additions, and you also get the chance to put your team together and run out of the tunnel in front of however-many decide to show up in Austin. Texas likes marketing that weekend for all its sports, but everyone knows a spring game as the centerpiece is what makes those weekends pop.
It would come as no shock if schools from around the country put on more public spring games not only because of the elimination of the spring window, but also because it would allow fans to become familiar with roster additions. It would allow those roster additions to become familiar with what it’s actually like playing for their new school.
Like all spring games, that’s a case where everyone wins.
