Michigan State football announces spring “game” date, format

Michigan State football announced the date for its spring game on Wednesday as well as the format for the scrimmage.

Michigan State football made a big announcement on Wednesday regarding its upcoming schedule this spring. Spartan fans have always looked forward to the spring football game and the excitement it brings for next season.

On Wednesday, MSU football announced the date of their upcoming spring “game”.

mark your calendars!

🏈 | Spring Showcase
📅 | April 20, 2024
📍 | Spartan Stadium pic.twitter.com/u2T3f6vc2A

— Michigan State Football (@MSU_Football) January 31, 2024

Spring Showcase on April 20

Michigan State’s spring “game” this season, the first under Jonathan Smith, will be played on April 20. You might be wondering why I keep putting “game” in quotation marks, and that’s because it once again sounds like it won’t be an actual game.

With the new name “Spring Showcase” it’s sounding like this won’t be an actual game like most other programs do. Justin Thind with 247Sports provided some insight as to what we should expect in Michigan State’s Spring Showcase.

The second half of Tucker’s spring “practice” was a scrimmage exactly like that.

Smith did the same thing. Half of it being a team practice w/ drills, then the second half of it being the clips you posted.

FSU did so as well (and admitted it was because they didn’t want their…

— Justin Thind (@JustinThind) January 31, 2024

Thind did some digging to see what Jonathan Smith’s spring games were like at Oregon State. And it sounds like it will be much of the same that we became accustomed to under Mel Tucker. The first half of the Spring Showcase likely will be a glorified practice where the team will go through a lot of drills. The second half will then consist of a scrimmage between the offense and defense with some specific two-minute and situational game scenarios.

Why are team’s using a new structure?

Thind later went on to talk about why teams are beginning to structure their spring games in this manner. Long story short, it has all to do with the transfer portal. The transfer portal has reshaped the landscape of college football forever as it gives athletes a chance to transfer to a new school during specific times of the year. To help prevent their players from hearing from other schools, programs are moving away from a spring game to a spring practice/showcase.

Their goal in doing this is to prevent other programs from seeing their star players play in a spring game. If those other teams liked what they saw in the spring game, they could reach out and recruit other schools’ players. This then could cause players to transfer before the season even begins. So this is just a way for coaches to keep their rosters intact.

Whether this is good or bad for college football, I’m not so sure. I know fans love the old version of the spring game, but if this helps keep MSU’s roster intact, I’m fine with it. The transfer portal is likely what needs fixed, not the format of teams’ spring games. So maybe if the portal is adjusted then we can get back to a more traditional spring game.