In the world of college football, fans are a little more rabid.  Or perhaps a little more ridiculous.

The spring game is a tradition that has been growing in popularity over the past few years for top college football programs.  The spring game is merely college football’s version of an intra-squad spring training game…. but to Honk’s in these sleepy college towns, it is clearly much more.

A few weeks ago, over 90,000 people attended the spring game in Tuscaloosa to watch their beloved Alabama Crimson Tide play… themselves.

A glorified practice drew 91,312 fans.

What are they putting in the water in Alabama?  Whatever it is, it must be contagious because Alabama isn’t the only school to go over the top with this silly tradition.

Nebraska and Ohio State, two teams that haven’t been relevant outside there respective states in years, both had over 65,000 people attend their spring game.  Tickets for these games range in price (That’s right… it costs money to watch these practices!) from $5 to $10, but according to an ESPN article, a $5 ticket in Lincoln to watch the Huskers was being sold by scalpers for almost $100!  ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS!

Coach Urban Meyer thinks the tradition is preposterous as well.  Florida’s spring game typically welcomes between 50 and 60 thousand people.  When asked about the robust crowd gathering in Gainesville every April, Meyer said “What are you people doing… Go play golf or something!”.

While Meyer may be spot on with his assessment of these simpletons, he should consider holding his tongue.  The spring games are a direct revenue stream for the athletic departments and the bigger programs bring in more than $500,000 in a single day!

P.T. Barnum was famously quoted as saying that “There’s a sucker born every minute”.

Apparently they have all relocated to Tuscaloosa, Lincoln and Columbus.

His debut consisted of 3 strikeouts which included 26 pitches thrown, 15 of them for strikes. And according to scouts in attendance, Chapman did reach 100 mph on at least one pitch. The Reds radar clocked him as high as 99 mph.

This is great news for a player whose only down-side has been a reputation of not having the best control. With the Reds 5th spot in the rotation being up for grabs, I would say we could be seeing a lot more of Chapman in a Reds uniform, regardless of how premature it might be.

We do have to take this with a grain of salt, however. They were playing the Royals. And it is only spring training. And it was only 2 innings.

But f**k it, I’m excited!