(05-01-2017 09:56 AM)Gamecock Wrote:  Ehh, this is being overblown by pundits and media. Two top-ten RBs sitting out a bowl game is a very unique situation and hardly indicative of a trend. Are some elite prospects gonna start sitting out - probably. But this doesn't exactly signal the end of the bowl system.

I think the bowl structure is dying, but not because of this. The playoff, even as small as it is, made the bowl structure irrelevant. The NY6 are just high money bowls...the playoffs are the only thing that matter, really. Especially given how many bowls have been created and tap into sub-.500 programs. It's being systematically debased.

I think sitting out is a symptom of the above issue.

There's no going back. The only way to "make bowls great again", to make nearly all CFB fans care about nearly every bowl game, would be to get rid of the playoff and go back to the 1970s when there were about a dozen bowl games. That isn't going to happen.

Expanding the playoff won't stop first-round talent from skipping non-playoff bowl games; it will only expand the number of teams whose players are almost certain to not skip from 4 to 8 or however many playoff teams there are.

I don't blame the kids. I am asking, "Where do you draw the line?" What if, after game 6 you realize you are not going to the CCG or a bowl game? Don't the rest of the games become meaningless? What about those early season FCS games that most schools like to schedule? Aren't they meaningless? What about spring training? What about passing league? What about August two-a-days in 95 degree heat?

I get why they do it, this most likely wont affect my school cause prospects from UConn will still be proving themselves by the time bowl season comes around. But for the bigger schools with players that are guaranteed lottery picks, these players not playing in these games could be the difference between Winning or losing a bowl game, that must get annoying

(04-30-2017 10:15 AM)BigEastHomer Wrote:  This whole debate is absurd.

Players should stop working out and practicing then. Singling out that final game for its danger is a reach.

It may be absurd from a statistical standpoint, but the reality is that people do respond to recent events. E.g., in Baton Rouge, last August we suffered what the climatologists called a 1 in 1,000 year flood. So statistically, it makes no sense to really do anything to prepare for the next one, because the next one likely won't happen for centuries. But nevertheless, sales of flood insurance have spiked in the months since the flood.

The big impacter this year, what Fournette and the other guy were responding to, was what happened to Notre Dame LB Jaylon Smith last year. He lost at least $20 million in fallen draft position due to his bad knee injury suffered in the 2016/2017 Fiesta Bowl.

That will scare some guys even if rationally/logically it can happen in any game or practice, not just the bowl game.

(05-03-2017 08:44 AM)Wolfman Wrote:  I don't blame the kids. I am asking, "Where do you draw the line?" What if, after game 6 you realize you are not going to the CCG or a bowl game? Don't the rest of the games become meaningless? What about those early season FCS games that most schools like to schedule? Aren't they meaningless? What about spring training? What about passing league? What about August two-a-days in 95 degree heat?

I know, but, when it comes to the bowls, most of these are done during the semester break. This is extra. And schools have the ability to not participate (ahem, Notre Dame) when the options aren't ideal, taking choice away from student athletes who might want to participate.

It's kind of the same with college basketball post-season participation outside of the NCAA tournament (and more recently, the NIT). With the bowls, though, it's in that personal time, the holiday break...nobody is ever really expecting to play at that time. Or, well, it didn't used to be an expectation.

It goes both ways.

But, yeah, I wonder if it ever gets to the regular season at all. I don't believe it will; the pros will tear those prospects that do into shreds. That's the assessment period of sorts...if you aren't putting in, teams aren't going to want you on their sidelines.

(05-01-2017 11:59 AM)Wedge Wrote:  There's no going back. The only way to "make bowls great again", to make nearly all CFB fans care about nearly every bowl game, would be to get rid of the playoff and go back to the 1970s when there were about a dozen bowl games. That isn't going to happen.

More is the pity there.


Expanding the playoff won't stop first-round talent from skipping non-playoff bowl games; it will only expand the number of teams whose players are almost certain to not skip from 4 to 8 or however many playoff teams there are.

Jaylon Smith says that he doesn't regret playing in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State, even with his horrible injury.

That is noble, but it was just an exhibition game. He would have been better off sitting out, but didn't have a crystal ball at the time.

(05-03-2017 08:44 AM)Wolfman Wrote:  I don't blame the kids. I am asking, "Where do you draw the line?" What if, after game 6 you realize you are not going to the CCG or a bowl game? Don't the rest of the games become meaningless? What about those early season FCS games that most schools like to schedule? Aren't they meaningless?

The players better be careful.

As my friend TC says, if they have the right to sit out games when they are otherwise healthy and ready to play, then they can't be employees.