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Rex Brown

Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden said he is open to the idea of his Tigers facing other competition than just themselves during spring practice.

CLEMSON — High schools have done it for decades, and the NFL even charges admissions for their’s, but college football teams have to play themselves throughout the spring and summer workouts.

What is it? Scrimmages of course.

Earlier this week, Clemson coach Tommy Bowden said he would be in favor of playing a glorified scrimmage against an opponent in the same region and not on the upcoming schedule.

“It makes too much sense not to do it,” the Clemson coach told reporters.

The NCAA currently doesn’t allow a school to scrimmage another one during spring practice or summer camps. Basically, the only thing a school can do is go at it with its own players during spring practice and summer workouts. High school leagues allow their members to scrimmage against each other in the summer, including jamborees, while NFL teams scrimmage against one another from the first week of summer camp, while also playing in glorified scrimmages know as preseason games in which they charge admission.

Bowden, who would like to play a Tennessee or Georgia in a spring scrimmage, would like to see the NCAA maybe go to a format similar to the NFL’s.

“Give the money to, I don’t know, Title IX or the Olympic sports. Give it to somebody or charity or a certain percentage. Whatever,” he said. “I think it would be a great money making scheme. It really would. I don’t know why they don’t do it. We are going to have one anyway.”

But Bowden would even do it for free. He just likes the idea of getting his players into a real game-type environment.

“It would be a huge benefit. It is as close as you can get to a game-type environment for your players,” he said. “Take our young offensive linemen and have them go play in Georgia’s arena and next year they would come up here. But take those guys and go play in that arena.

“You would have 90,000 (people). You can let them play in that kind of game-type environment. That would be great. It would be great.”

And as for people who would argue it might increase the chance of injury for star players, Bowden says that’s no different than what they do now.

“He (a player) could do that in this game,” Bowden said in reference to this Saturday’s Orange and White game at Death Valley. “He could have done that today. That’s not a factor. You play the game the same way. I might not play some of my top line guys very much in this scrimmage, and I would not in that scrimmage either.”