In professional sports, the preseason is often just an afterthought and tease for what’s to come when the games are for real. For the NFL and MLB, it’s much more about getting different players reps and seeing what they could bring to the table for their respective team. Actually winning the games are pretty much the least of team’s worries. Of course in both of those sports, they play multiple games. With college football, it’s quite a bit different.
Teams only play one game and it’s not even against another team, they scrimmage themselves. In theory though, the concept is similar to the NFL and MLB in that the idea is to get players reps to see what they can do for the team. Of course, given the fact it’s an inner-team scrimmage, it’d be weird as hell if a team was out there to win. But the fact that there’s only one game obviously contributes to making it more significant. It’s the only chance for fans to get a look at their team prior to the start of the season.
There’s not only that to consider, but also with college football the rosters constantly changing it makes getting a chance to see players get reps that much more important as well. This is especially true when there’s a position battle. For example, the one we should be seeing at the quarterback position for Alabama between Jalen Hurts and Tua Tagovailo.Also, in the case of teams like Nebraska or UCLA who have brought in new coaches over the offseason, it’s a prime opportunity for them to put their own schemes to work. As for the players, they get a chance to get more comfortable with those new schemes. None the less, the teams do still have an entire summer of practice to improve and get better. Therefore, a teams spring game is like a measuring stick for improvement going into the season.