Alabama football announced new details for A-Day 2025 on Wednesday, and notably left the word “game” fully out of the news release. On Thursday, Crimson Tide head coach Kalen DeBoer confirmed the event won’t feature a scrimmage.

Instead, UA will conduct one of those on April 11, one day before A-Day. DeBoer explained what fans can expect to see on April 12.

“We’ll have just more of a practice,” DeBoer said. “A full practice like we’d have any day. Again, just kind of allows us, kind of what I referred to earlier, kind of have a controlled setting. Control of, just the reps that certain guys get. We understand the significance and love. Everyone loves football here, so we want to give that day and make it available and show off our guys, and our guys go do their thing.”

The demise of spring games has been a trend across the sport this offseason. Some schools have cited transfer portal concerns, and not wanting to put players on tape before the spring window opens.

DeBoer said that’s not high on his list of reasons for not holding a traditional game.

“It’s really, to me, not even about the portal concern that I know everyone makes it out to be,” DeBoer said. “It’s just that we’re really out there. We ran a lot of reps (Thursday), but we were very specific and sometimes you almost had to stop things to get the right groups of people, matchups and things like that, to have a quality rep for all 22 guys that are on the football field. That practice-type environment is something that I think best accomplishes both things for the fans that we want to do with the A-Day, and also for our football team to utilize a practice.”

A-Day is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. CT on April 12 at Bryant-Denny Stadium. The event is free but will include a post-practice autograph session for members of Alabama’s NIL collective.

DeBoer stressed that A-Day remains a priority, even without a traditional game played.

“I think it’s really important for our guys to get in front of fans,” DeBoer said. “I remember a year ago when we came out, you know this year we got 18 new freshmen and then we also have some transfers and this is their first time in Bryant-Denny with people, so I think that’s a huge benefit for us. I remember seeing some guys a little bit like ‘Wow,’ you know, eyes wide open, so that’s a huge benefit for us.”