Stephen Lew-Imagn Images
A number of notable college football programs have elected to stop hosting a spring game due to concerns linked to the transfer portal. Alabama is one of the schools that’s opted to switch things up, and it sure sounds like the mayor of Tuscaloosa wants those changes to stay in place while making it very clear he’s not a huge fan of the tradition known as “A-Day.”
The University of Alabama boasts one of the most storied teams that college football has to offer, and when you consider the state doesn’t really have much going for it as far as professional sports are concerned, it’s easy to understand why the Crimson Tide have become a borderline religion within its borders.
That devotion means the team’s annual spring game is a huge draw for the many fans who’ve historically made the pilgrimage to Tuscaloosa midway through April for “A-Day” (formerly known as the “Red and White Game”), an event that saw more than 72,000 people back into Bryant-Denny Stadium to get their first real look at what the Crimson Tide was working with ahead of the 2024 season.
That marked the first year Kalen DeBoer abandoned the traditional spring game in favor of what essentially amounted to an offensive and defensive showcase featuring a unique scoring system as opposed to an actual scoreboard.
The head coach cited injuries and experience to justify his decision to once again forgo a spring game in 2025, which led to a dramatic dropoff in attendance for an event that only drew an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 spectators.
According to The Tuscaloosa News, Walt Maddox, the mayor of the city the university calls home, seems very pleased with the development and appears to think the decision to abandon the A-Day spring game will be a permanent one for the foreseeable future, saying:
“Twenty years ago, if you would have asked me, ‘Would you want to have A-Day?’ I’d say, ‘Yes,’
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…
It’ll be interesting to see the evolution of A-Day. 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.”
It’s pretty easy to understand why he feels this way due to the crowd control issues the college town has repeatedly encountered due to unruly fans who’ve had trouble behaving themselves while partaking in the festivities.
With that said, it seems a bit hard to believe Maddow doesn’t actually “know any information” when you consider Tuscaloosa revolves around a learning institution that injected over $2 billion into the local economy during the academic year that began in 2019; at the risk of sounding like I’m typing this with a tinfoil hat on, it’s a bit hard to believe he’d draw a line in the sand against the spring game if he and the program weren’t on the same page.
All signs subsequently point to Alabama sticking with the new formula next year, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.