In short: A-Day is football in April. What more can you ask for?

Spring Saturdays in Tuscaloosa can be boring. Without football, students are more likely to go home for weekends and set their school spirit aside for a semester.

Then there’s A-Day.

Tomorrow’s football game is not exactly the Iron Bowl. There are no championships or bragging rights on the line. This won’t show up in the final win-loss record. All that matters is the development of young players and, of course, that there’s football being played.

Football in April. It’s music to the ears.

Of course, there are storylines running through the game. How will the young defense perform, and will they be able to live up to the monstrous expectations set by last year’s defense? How well will the offensive unit perform, especially with all of those returning starters? Will Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram be even better this year than he was last year?

For A-Day a few months after a BCS National Championship, there are a lot of questions being tossed around to make Tide fans nervous.

This isn’t a time for nervousness. What happens on the field Saturday is not an indication of how the season will end. It won’t predict whether or not Coach Nick Saban’s statue will commemorate one title or two straight. It’s a glorified practice in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans.

But at least it’s football.

Saturday’s scrimmage is a great way to recapture the spirit of football season and unify the campus. Spring semester is typically dominated by SGA elections and the myriad of sports that get the privilege of not competing with football in the fall. Saturdays without football lack the spirit that brings everyone on campus together to cheer the Tide to victory.

Last year, over 84,000 fans attended the A-Day game, and Nick Saban has never seen a small crowd at Bryant-Denny in April. In 2007, Tide fans famously filled the stadium to capacity just to see Saban’s first A-Day. To say this game means a lot to the University and its fans is the definition of understatement.

A-Day is more than just a practice. It’s a chance for thousands of people clad in crimson and white to roll into Tuscaloosa to cheer on players who won a crystal football the last time they played. If that doesn’t get you excited, nothing will.

Our View is the consensus of The Crimson White’s editorial board.