re: The Future of Bowl Games

Nicole Auerbach has an interesting piece in The Athletic about this with some decent suggestions, most notably:

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2. Allow bowls to directly pay players to play. Now, I understand you’d need the NCAA to change its rules to allow direct pay-for-play in this circumstance, but the national governing body is already moving in the direction of allowing schools to sign their own athletes to NIL deals, so this isn’t too far of a stretch. Plus, we already know that NIL collectives combined with the transfer portal have created what is essentially pay-for-play, anyway. You could also have collectives include bowl clauses in their contracts with players. Either way, this won’t stop all opt-outs for potential first- and second-round NFL Draft picks, but it might help incentivize participation for mid/late-round guys and/or those on the fence about transferring.

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and

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4. Get rid of the early signing period. You can’t move the transfer portal window back because athletes need to be able to enroll in their new schools at the start of the semester in January. The CFP is expanding, so December will be even busier next year with first-round games on campus and then an additional quarterfinal round. The only realistic option of what can move is the early signing period. It’s creating absolute chaos for coaches, who have to manage bowl prep, the portal, staffing changes and also recruiting all at once.

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her other suggestions are of questionable merit, but implementing these two would definitely have a positive impact