The bowls get announced later today. I'm on a group text with a group of friends who mostly talk college football and are spread all over the country. A couple of them go to a school we may be matched up with. And they sound like us. Players are opting out. With the transfer portal, they jokingly question if they'll have enough players at certain positions etc.
The non-CFP bowl games have slowly devolved the last few years. At first it was top players opting out to prep for the draft. Understandable. Jaylon Smith lost a LOT of money getting hurt in the Fiesta Bowl. Then players who just thought they would be drafted started opting out. Now you have players who are joining the portal a lot of teams are going to look nothing like this or next season.
It's an opportunity for 15 more practices, the team to play a final game (which means a lot to guys who will truly be playing their last game), a trip and some swag. (BTW, it sounds like the bowl games can pay NIL money to the players. That's WAY better than getting a swag bag with $550 of miscellaneous stuff.
It's more college football to watch, always a good thing. But I feel like non CFP and (some) NY6 bowls are going to feel like a weird mix of spring/exhibition game with about as much to glean out of it as an NFL pre-season game. (and good luck betting these things if gambling is your jam.)
All that to say, I'm not really worried about who we end up playing or the result. It's not like last year. We were desperate to show college football we would be just fine without Riley. (And even then it ended up being fool's gold as we saw what this team offense could have potentially been with Caleb.)
The non-CFP bowl games have slowly devolved the last few years. At first it was top players opting out to prep for the draft. Understandable. Jaylon Smith lost a LOT of money getting hurt in the Fiesta Bowl. Then players who just thought they would be drafted started opting out. Now you have players who are joining the portal a lot of teams are going to look nothing like this or next season.
It's an opportunity for 15 more practices, the team to play a final game (which means a lot to guys who will truly be playing their last game), a trip and some swag. (BTW, it sounds like the bowl games can pay NIL money to the players. That's WAY better than getting a swag bag with $550 of miscellaneous stuff.
It's more college football to watch, always a good thing. But I feel like non CFP and (some) NY6 bowls are going to feel like a weird mix of spring/exhibition game with about as much to glean out of it as an NFL pre-season game. (and good luck betting these things if gambling is your jam.)
All that to say, I'm not really worried about who we end up playing or the result. It's not like last year. We were desperate to show college football we would be just fine without Riley. (And even then it ended up being fool's gold as we saw what this team offense could have potentially been with Caleb.)
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