How much money did Oklahoma miss out on without a real spring football game?

Every silver spot at Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium not covered by crimson was another $10 that could have been for the Oklahoma football program.

Overall, it seemed the Sooners' new Crimson Combine that debuted Saturday in replace of a traditional spring game was a fail, especially attendance-wise. OU announced that the attendance was 16,316, but that was probably mighty generous considering what the crowd looked like.

Attendance low at Crimson Combine compared to Sooners' past spring games

The Sooners followed the college football trend of canceling spring games in fear of injuries and roster poaching during the spring transfer portal window that starts Wednesday. But at what cost? After such a poor turnout, it's worth asking if not having a spring game cost the Sooners more than having it ever could have.

Tickets for the Crimson Combine were $10. Even using OU's generous 16,316 attendance number, that, theoretically, without costs, raised $163,160. Obviously that full amount isn't going straight into the Sooners' pockets. Even if it did, that amount today probably buys a college football program a backup.

Since Brent Venables took over the OU football program before the 2022 season, the Sooners' attendance numbers at the last three spring games were 45,861; 54,409 and a record-breaking 75,360 in 2022. That average would be about 53,543.

This year, a spring game would have given Sooner Nation its first real look at a new OU offense under offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle with new quarterback John Mateer. It's fair to assume that would have drawn at least an average crowd for a traditional spring game.

If OU charged the $10 it did for the Crimson Combine, which it also did for last year's spring game, 53,543 fans would have netted the Sooners $535,430, a $372,270 difference. That's over double the amount of money and a 228.163% increase. And that's not counting the extra profit from concessions.

The truth is, the Sooners will still lose talent to the transfer portal in the next few days. That would have happened with or without the spring game. Tennessee hosted a spring game and still lost quarterback Nico Iamaleava the morning before it even started.

But in a time where money moves the needle in college football, that's what was left on the table without a spring game. That's what's needed to replace the talent a program inevitably loses whether it has a spring game or not.

And most of that money to make the program go around comes from fans and boosters. And that's who were hurt the most by a sorry excuse for a spring football game replacement. The more fans college football programs turn off, the more they lose of their most valuable resource.