Finally, it appears something good may come from the transfer portal.

The wheels are already in motion. True, there is much work to be done. There will be differences of opinion along the way.

Some traditionalists will want to hold on to the past just because that’s the way it’s always been done and it was good enough for grandpa.

It’s not really important enough for another presidential decree or even some feeble attempt by the NCAA to pass an actual rule.

It might just happen organically. Write your congressperson anyway.

In the meantime, encourage the brave souls willing to take a stand and lead the way, no matter the consequences.

But I’ve teased you long enough so, without further ado …

We just may be seeing the beginning of the end for — yes! — for the sham of college spring football games.

Hallelujah and Godspeed. Also, long overdue.

They’ve been a blight on the athletic greensward for too long.

Never mind that the welcome demise may be for all the wrong reasons, varied though they seem to be.

Don’t argue with the results.

John “Bluto” Belushi was technically wrong when he  suggested the “Germans bombed Pearl Harbor” but he was right when he implored the Delta House, “Nothing is over until we decide it is.”

Same deal here with spring games.

And, granted, it’s far from a done deal.

Best I can tell, only four schools thus far have cancelled spring games for this year — Nebraska, Florida State, Southern Cal and Texas.

Not exactly a quorum.

But that’s four pretty highfalutin brand names right there, so maybe this is the start of a groundswell to opt out of spring games.

Just say no.

Mind you, they will still have spring practice — all 15 sessions worth. So the important stuff will get done. They just won’t bore the rest of us with a convoluted  game at the end.

Reasons?

Who cares?

Southern Cal says it’s not having a meaningless game because, well, because it doesn’t want to — and also because it’s afraid of injuries.

OK.

Texas says it is tired. That might be more Longhorn hubris at work, just another excuse to remind everyone, as head coach Steve Sarkisian did on a radio show this week, “Over the last two years we’ve played 30 games. That’s a lot for college football.” Subtle reminder: Texas has been making deep playoff runs.

Florida State says it can’t have a spring game because Doak Walker Stadium is being fixed or renovated or somesuch.

Whatever.

It’s Nebraska that gets the visionary tag here.

The Cornhuskers are the only ones to put the blame — credit? — directly on your friendly, neighborhood transfer portal.

At its core, college football is in the entertainment business, of course, yet Nebraska head coach Matt Ruhle is forsaking his spring game because — and I’m not making this up — he’s afraid too many people might be watching.

Yes, they even put these football farces on TV and, worse, some gullible fans watch.

Ruhle coaches at a major state university with a long and proud football history (OK, not so much lately), and he’s thinking he may have some really remarkable talent that nobody would know about if they weren’t watching the game on the tube.

In other words, the portal poachers would also be watching the game, taking notes. They’d be poised to swoop into Lincoln, ply some unknown youngster with NIL gravy and kidnap him.

“Last year we were one of the more televised spring games,” Ruhle explained. “I dealt with a lot of people offering our players a lot of opportunities after that.

“To go out and bring in a bunch of new players and showcase them for all the other schools to watch, that doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.”

Yo, coach, you don’t have to explain yourself.

If it hastens the end of the spring football plague, that means never having to say you’re sorry.

Truth be told, I’m guessing most coaches view the actual games as a nuisance and would just as soon do away with the silly exercises to cap the real work.

They aren’t real football games any more than the NFL Pro Bowl foolishness.

The coaches aren’t going to learn anything they didn’t already know from the first 14 practices. And they’d probably rather have that 15th practice behind closed doors where they can still yell and scream and belittle at will.

If the coaches really want to rid the nation of this blight on a great sport, it’s up to them.

Scooter Hobbs covers LSU athletics for the American Press. You can can email him at scooter.hobbs@americanpress.com