I personally don’t agree with football in the spring permanently. I think the exposure and all that might make sense to people but majority of these games are on espn+ not even the flagship espn, espn2, espnu etc. so people are not willing to pay to going espn+ to watch football they just won’t support it now me I have plus because I love football. The southern/Bama state game was in espn 3. I think it’s hard in athletic departments to play spring football. There is a reason it was created to be fall only. What about draftable kids that are planning on going pro do they play next spring season or not if they decided to do spring next season. Coaches would put programs in tough situations when it come down to jobs etc.
These games weren’t apart of the Spring lineup for those main networks and channel. If the FCS moves football to the Spring, the SWAC, (who sells tickets better than every FCS conference), would find more success on main channels. Ratings would be better, and the SWAC Championship Game would be a bigger deal.
Planning for a Spring Season immediately after this Spring Season could lead to ESPN, ESPN 2, FOX Sports airing games like:
Jackson State vs Southern
Alcorn vs Grambling
FAMU vs Southern
Bethune Cookman vs Grambling
Texas Southern vs PVAMU
PVAMU vs Grambling
Jackson State vs Alcorn
Who knows, we might see ABC, NBC and CBS finding games like the following on their schedule as well.
Grambling vs Southern
Bethune Cookman vs FAMU
Alabama State vs Alabama A&M
SWAC Championship Game
Celebration Bowl (Already on ABC)
Other SWAC conferences games would definitely been seen on the ESPN 2 or 3 networks. It sounds crazy to some, but this can definitely happen. We will see more television coverage if football was played in the Spring. We might not like missing the fall smell of football, but I think it would be better exposure for the conference in the Spring.
