Michigan Football: 3 Biggest issues with a spring season

The NFL draft process will be a mess

Despite the fact that the Big Ten isn’t going to play in the fall of 2020, Michigan football wide receiver Nico Collins still found his way into the first round of Todd McShay’s 2021 mock draft.

McShay had Collins going to the Packers and that brings up another big issue with spring football, which is the NFL draft.

Roger Goodell has the ability to push the draft back to June, but that’s pretty much it. That means the combine and workouts, all that evaluation stuff would be going on about the same time as a spring season, even if those draft events were delayed.

So really, Collins, Aidan Hutchinson, Kwity Paye, Ambry Thomas, Jalen Mayfield and others probably won’t come back for this very reason.

Imagine if they did and played into April or May, even June? Are they supposed to turn around a month or two later and be at training camp? How could they be effective? Especially when their peers are well-rested.

That could certainly hurt the draft stock, so likely, you will see many players opt-out of a spring season. Some seniors might even redshirt until the next fall or transfer to get a chance to show what they can do.

But the guys who are already good enough to go the NFL, don’t have much reason to stick around, which will drastically water down any product.

No one wants the Big Ten season to start looking like a JV league compared to the rest of the country, even if it’s only for a semester.