If this is what A-Day is going to be, there's no point in Alabama continuing it

Alabama football's A-Day game used to be a spectacle. The most famous example of that was the 2007 A-Day game that drew a capacity crowd for Nick Saban's first spring in Tuscaloosa. Fans were turned away at the gate.

While excitement never reached that fever pitch again, you could still rely on tens of thousands of Alabama fans descending on Tuscaloosa to witness the annual spring game in person.

This year, however, mass paranoia took over across college football. Coaches began canceling spring games due to fear of the Transfer Portal and tampering. If a player showed out too much in a televised spring game, particularly one who was planned as more of a depth piece instead of a featured one, coaches now fear that player would enter the portal and find a spot they could play a bigger role in.

Never mind the logical fallacy of that argument. If a player has had a big spring, that news is going to get out. That's the job of beat reporters across the country. They report what they see and the hype of certain players get out.

Like Lotzeir Brooks and Rico Scott for Alabama this spring. Two players who aren't likely to be in the starting group for the Crimson Tide but who have had tremendous springs and would likely be featured players everywhere. That "secret" is out, and Alabama didn't even have a traditional spring game.

Instead of the traditional A-Day game that was treated as an actual game with steaks and beanie weenies on the line, Kalen DeBoer and the Crimson Tide decided to scrap the format and turn Saturday into an open practice instead. It wasn't televised for the first time in nearly 20 years, and fan apathy reached an all-time high for spring football. Attendance was minimal, providing a stark contrast between DeBoer's first A-Day a year ago and 2025:

The paltry attendance was to be expected. There was limited advertising by the University for the event. The autograph session held on the field afterward was just for members of Alabama's NIL collective, Yea-Alabama. That led to confusion from several people I spoke to who thought the entire A-Day was just for Yea-Alabama members.

To put it bluntly, the new format was a big swing and a miss by Alabama. If this is what A-Day is going to look like going forward, then hopefully the 2025 version was the last one. Because the attendance numbers are already being used by rival fans and the national media that has prayed for the Crimson Tide's downfall for nearly two decades as proof that Alabama isn't Alabama anymore.

The fan apathy for the format change makes it look like apathy has taken over for the program in general under DeBoer's direction. That's obviously not aided by a disappointing 9-4 season last year, the first time in 17 years Alabama failed to win 10 games.

It's been a good spring in Tuscaloosa. There was plenty of excitement building with improved depth and talent at multiple positions and an intriguing QB competition. That excitement fizzled at the end due to a disappointing A-Day, where the majority of fans weren't able to see the team play, and those that did were treated to a practice and an exclusive autograph session.

All the changes in college football have been made to the detriment of the fan experience. Alabama's A-Day changes are just another example of that. Spring football looks like another casualty of this era of the sport.