Permit an old man to rant about this. I think skipping the bowl game is terrible - it says to teammates, coaches, fans, the bowls - I could not care less about anything other than myself and my future. If this is a meaningless exhibition where we should be willing to excuse these athletes, why should we make any of the athletes play? Aren't they all at risk? Couldn't every participant in a bowl game potentially suffer a career ending knee injury or a debilitating concussion? Except for the four schools in the playoffs, perhaps we could excuse all of the scholarship athletes from playing in the bowls and enjoy the spectacle of volunteer walk-ons playing.
I get it, that these guys risk pro futures and therefore risk significant income. They do this every time they play, not just when they play in a bowl game. The NFL will expect a bunch of them to risk that potential income in much more meaningless all star games in January where they will be evaluated.Once we knew Stanford and LSU were not going to the national championship playoff they should have just quit. Once they reach the NFL and start really getting paid and once their team is out of the playoff picture they risk losing an enormous sum of money every time they play a "meaningless" game.
Let's let football players sign out of high school. Let's have a developmental league. And, let's play college football with kids that might consider it a privilege to play one last time for their school and coaches and with their teammates in a season ending bowl game. If not, do away with all the bowls. Let the season end except for the teams in the playoff. I hate to think of just how cruel we are to expect our Georgia Tech players to risk their futures by playing such a meaningless game against Kentucky in the Jacksonville bowl game.
Respectfully, old man, that's B.S.
It's no more selfish than you or I leaving a company for higher pay somewhere else, or for a better working/living situation for you and your family. It's even less selfish considering if you stay a few extra weeks at your current job you arent risking a career ending injury ruining the chance of you ever working again. These players are. The risk vs reward ratio of an already banged up 1st rounder playing in a mid-tier bowl makes it a pretty logical choice.
Everything you just said is from the comfortable position of a casual fan that has nothing to lose and just wants to be entertained. For many of these guys, the NFL is their only real shot at a successful future. It's easy to say "you should be getting an education, not worrying about the NFL" when you happen to be an intelligent person with the capacity for school and a good career after, but the reality is many of these kids wouldnt sniff college if they werent good athletes, and outside of sports, the best they can hope for even with their football-earned degree is a $12/hr job assistant managing an Applebees. Many won't even do that well.
Those all star games in January are for players that are trying to work their way into getting drafted. They have nothing to lose. They have to play for the exposure or they wont even have an NFL career to worry about risking.
For all but a handful of players each year, the chance to play another game is a valuable chance to increase their draft stock. There aren't many guys that are locks for the 1st round that are going to start sitting out games, but for those few, I think it's understandable to protect your biggest asset and best chance at financial success, even if a few grumpy fans with no skin in the game dont like it.
Letting kids sign out of high school is a different debate, but you wont convince me that it would be a better option for any players. Currently players are able to leverage the huge fan bases and infrastructure of college football to develop their skills while also being valuable enough to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of housing, meals, training, and scholarships afforded by the large draw of college ball. Start a developmental league and you are looking at essentially minor league baseball and the players might get paid $15k a year for one or 2 years before they are cut or injured if they are lucky and then they are left with nothing. Minor league football will never have the same draw as college, even if all the 5 stars go straight out of high school. The crowds follow the colleges, not the players. NFL teams are also probably not going to drop huge signing bonuses on 18 year old football players like they do baseball players. It's too risky with the high chance of injury and short careers and the fact is, 99.9 percent of kids are not physically ready for the NFL until they are 19-20. College football is a win for all parties involved, even if half a dozen players a year decide not to play in the bowl game.
