Teams skipping bowls

In the old days, coaches liked bowl games for the extra practice. Players got to travel and get their swag gifts from the bowls. I guess since everyone is getting paid now that it all matters less.

The pursuit of the almighty dollar continues to ruin the college football we grew up with and loved. Perhaps I’m in the minority these days, but I love bowl games. I remember when opting out of bowl games wasn’t even a thing anyone had thought about.

Some of these teams were 5-7 and assumed their season was over, so they shut it down. Ramping it back up wouldn't be very easy, so they aren't playing.

I think many teams have the example of FSU in their minds. They missed the CFP and a bunch of their players opted out but the team still went and played in a meaningless bowl game, only to be destroyed so badly that it basically killed their program. No one wants that to happen to them.

The real story is these players don’t care about these bowls and are using it as an excuse to focus on the portal and NIL.

They’re like exhibition games in the NFL and you don’t see many starters chomping at the bit to play those games.

Bottom line most of these “high value” NIL guys just don’t want to play and being an independent ND is just using this as a media relations narrative for something they already wanted to avoid.

It’s also a major red flag from a culture standpoint for their coach though that he’d let their team just opt out because they didn’t get into the CFP after losing head to head against the other final at large team.

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I just don't get it.

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It’s the next step to the end of college football for all but a few.

NIL, unrestricted transfers, and now a 105 scholarship roster mean the elite talent will concentrate at power programs.

The 12 team playoff will expand to at least 16, making it playoffs or bust for that same group. Bowls full of G5 teams won’t draw TV audiences or crowds so they’ll go away.

Money will dry up for all but those handful of programs so they’ll drop back to D3 or just drop football entirely. Initially the elites will say that’s fine, but over time it will impact them too. Once teams start being eliminated from the playoffs, it’ll be like an NFL or MLB stadium when the team is bad and they won’t be able to afford it either.

I still watch bowl games, but I wonder if we will see bowl games become just a G5 thing. Seems a lot of P4 teams don't care to play in them since it means they didn't make the playoffs.

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Perhaps I’m in the minority these days, but I love bowl games. I remember when opting out of bowl games wasn’t even a thing anyone had thought about.

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Now that there's 40 of them and they're filled with 5-7 teams, I'm sure you can understand why it feels so diluted now. Cut the number of bowls in half and that would at least help the public interest part of it.