Spring games are usually not exotic ventures. It's a glorified practice. Maybe we'll get the game jerseys out, maybe we won't. Maybe we'll play it in the stadium and let fans in, and maybe we won't. Either way, the only real victory is that everyone escapes without getting hurt.
And then there's Princeton's spring game, which is the complete opposite of that.
Instead of walking out to the stadium, the Tigers will travel halfway cross the world (a 16 hour, 25 minute flight according to Google Maps) to Nagai, Osaka, in Japan to face the Kwansei Gakuin University Fighters. It's called the Legacy Bowl and sponsored by Under Armour.
KG FIGHTERS - the Japanese college football champions - will be challenging PRINCETON UNIVERSITY TIGERS – a team that represents the best and proudest traditions of American College Football," the website reads. "This challenge will therefore serve to demonstrate the true level of Japanese college football and Kwansei Gakuin hopes that through this game we shall be able to contribute to the development of football in Japan."
The Fighters have won the Japanese Collegiate Championship a record 27 times, while Princeton finished fourth in the Ivy League last season. The two squads have met once previously, a 27-25 Princeton win in March of 2001. (Interestingly, the Fighters traveled to Southern Oregon for a game in 1986, a trip that sparked a now 27-year-old series between an Oregon high school and Japan's high school all-star team.)
No television or Internet stream is available, so those interested in some real, live football in March will have to get themselves to Osaka before the 1 p.m. local time kick on Saturday.