Auburn head football coach Hugh Freeze made drastic changes to A-Day, taking away the annual intrasquad scrimmage and replacing it with a fan-fest on Pat Dye Field. One beat reporter on the ground liked the changes.
The Auburn Observer's Justin Ferguson labeled the previous scrimmage format as "decreasing value for everyone involved."
"(I'm) sincerely glad we decided to get rid of scrimmages of decreasing value for everyone involved that fans had to pay to go to for this," Ferguson tweeted. "(The) open practice, let people come hang out and get autographs afterwards, everybody goes home happy."
There will still be a semblance of a game, as Freeze explained. It just won't be the starters participating.
“We’re going to end with what we call red zone lockout, which will be a live period,” Freeze said. “First one to 18 wins. Offense gets the ball on the 25, you score a touchdown with an extra point, that’s seven. The defense stops you and you kick a field goal, that’s three points for the offense and four points for the defense.
“Miss the field goal, the defense gets seven or a stop somehow or turnover, they get seven. The first one to 18 wins.”
Some would argue that seeing a college football score bug is a serotonin hit worth the experience in practically any circumstance, even if the game has changed in recent years.
Then again, in 2025, you have players like Nico Iamaleava holding out on a program like Tennessee for more NIL money and to avoid a spring game appearance.
It's understandable to want changes to the system just as it is wanting things to stay the same.
Change is inevitable, though, and it's hit both Auburn and Alabama's A-Day events in 2025. At Jordan-Hare Stadium at least, it appears to be a success.