- This year, college football will have new rules regarding timeouts and player injuries. The rules were adopted to prevent teams from faking injuries to slow down an opponent.
- Several major college teams are choosing to skip their annual spring football games in favor of a fan appreciation day or other activities.
- The spring transfer portal has disrupted rosters as some big-time players decide to change teams.
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Power Four conference football teams have started a new trend in 2025. Many are skipping their annual spring football games in favor of a fan appreciation day or other activities.
Why are schools deciding to forego their spring game?
The reasons for skipping a spring game vary, but allowing rival teams to get a look at the talent coaches have developed is a big factor. With the transfer portal movement and skyrocketing NIL payments, other teams poaching players is a big concern. That’s the reason Nebraska coach Matt Rhule dropped the Huskers’ very popular spring showcase. Despite those concerns, schools like Michigan, Texas A&M, Washington, Colorado and others will stand on tradition this weekend for now.
Quarterback movement is drawing all the headlines in this spring portal. The latest news is that former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava is reportedly close to a deal with UCLA, but not for the $4 million per year he wanted from the Vols.
Who are some of the big-time players moving on?
Elsewhere, quarterback Gio Lopez is leaving South Alabama to play for Bill Belichick at North Carolina. Star running back Jaydn Ott is leaving the Cal Bears for Oklahoma, and the top backup quarterback at Notre Dame, Steve Angeli, has decided to transfer.
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was in Washington, D.C., on April 9 to lobby Congress on NIL legislation. He hopes lawmakers can put guardrails in place to prevent something like the Iamaleava dispute from happening again. He also lost one of his star linemen to the portal on Friday, April 18.
“This is what we’ve created. We’ve created this environment; this was gonna come to a head at some point,” Sarkisian said. “It was just a matter of which school was it going to happen with first. So why were we in D.C. this week? This is a prime example to try to minimize some of these situations that just occurred.”
What are some of the new timeout rules?
On Thursday, April 17, the NCAA handed down some on-field rule changes. To eliminate the growing problem of players faking injuries to either slow down an opponent or earn an extra time out, the rulebook now states, “If medical personnel enter the field to evaluate an injured player after the ball is spotted by officials for the next play, that player’s team will be charged a timeout. If the team doesn’t have any timeouts remaining, a 5-yard delay-of-game penalty will be assessed.”
There’s also a new rule regarding overtime timeouts. To avoid multiple stoppages and speed up the game, each team will have just one timeout during the third overtime and beyond until the game ends.
