re: The new “opt out” bowls

quote:

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Safe to assume a bowl is meaningful for many players now and then, but if championships matter, a bowl for a 7-4 team is not quite as meaningful as a playoff game or a game with playoff implications.

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It has nothing to do with championships. It has to do with what agents can get away with. Agents could not get away with telling players not to play. The NFL knows they can get away with devaluing most bowls because people will watch them at about the same frequency. Whoever watches the Alamo Bowl watches it because it is on or they have an interest in the team. They won’t turn it off because a few players are not playing. Yet, everyone knows that if you start messing with the Championship games, you cross a line. They have not crossed that line... yet.
Draft prep is a big business and agents are out brokering for them and fronting the money. It is all part of the sales pitch. Agents have very little to lose in the current format. It is a numbers game for them.

Also, note that ESPN owns 1/3 of the Bowl games out there. They also have rights to the College Football Playoffs. Sadly, it will be them who will have to put their foot down on the NFL when kids start opting out of Playoff games. Which most certainly will devalue those games. I mean, why should kids risk getting hurt in playoff games, when they could be spending their time at EXOS getting better? an extra 6 weeks at EXOS could be worth millions if you have a good combine.