Georgia legend Vince Dooley once proposed playing another school in spring game

It turns out Syracuse coach Fran Brown had been discussing the same idea with Kirby Smart while Brown was an assistant at Georgia, and he quickly responded to Sanders’ idea on social media.

“I love the idea in theory,” Smart said. “Fran and I used to talk about that when he was here, of what could generate a new revenue stream.

“In the world we’re in now, for the athletics department, especially a guy in Josh Brooks’ seat as the AD.”

Brooks, who was part of the series of interviews that radio station The Fan hosted at Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall on Tuesday, also serves on the Division I Council and is the vice chair of the football oversight committee that fielded the concept.

“One of the things we talked about is we’re open to that concept, (but) we can’t throw it in at the last minute because other schools don’t have a chance to do it, as well,” Brooks said.

“As we look at everything in the big picture, the 30,000-foot view, we’ve got to look at how the college football offseason goes,” Brooks said. “A lot of it is disjointed, and even (with) the spring game we have to be open to new ideas.”

Smart shared his idea for how a spring sports game might look.

“I would prefer … go a day, (have) a couple scrimmages, like they do in the NFL,” Smart said, “and say, ‘We’re going to have this, this and this,’ and then the last day go play.”

Brooks, once a graduate assistant coach at Louisiana-Monroe and director of football operations for Mark Richt at UGA, agreed there are things to be learned from the NFL.

“You look at how the NFL model has worked, and it makes so much sense in how their offseason goes from free agency, to the draft, to rookie minicamp and to OTAs as it builds into the offseason,” Brooks said. “We (college football) have to look at new ways to make it flow, to where it may make sense to get these guys acclimated better as we lead into the season.”

Preferably, Brooks added, without a second transfer-portal window.

“Spring games right now, you are going against your own team,” Brooks told DawgNation. “Playing a different opponent could create excitement and energy for players and fans.”

Brooks pointed out that, as things stand with a second portal window, spring games might also create interest for programs looking to pilfer developing talent.

“Do you want to put a game out there for other people just to evaluate your players right before the portal opens?” Brooks said. “The fact we have two portals, a lot of it doesn’t make sense right now. There’s a lot of potential for improvements.”