re: Peter Burns accurately sums up the Orange Bowl this morning on X...

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Nobody lost respect for that FSU team.

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This is objectively not true. I at least lost respect for the contingent that bailed.

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100% and the FSU attitude is unfortunately prevailing throughout society as a whole.

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Unfortunately, with the middle class getting squeezed, people aren't mentally conditioned to accept some of these "long game" approaches to extracting cheap labor that were mostly built during the peak of American prosperity in the mid-20th century. Using your athletic ability to get a piece of paper that assures you will casually waltz into the middle class at worst or become an professional athletic superstar at best...that was a good deal when the floor (going pro in something other than football) was basically guaranteed. That is simply not the case anymore. It worked out for my wife and I but we know plenty of friends who are not thriving a decade out from getting their degree.

For a lot of these guys, their best pay day in their entire life is available while playing football for a top college football program. Increasingly, the talent is realizing it. Those who stand to benefit will use this pressure to create a new, more marketized "solution" that hands out some of the money to the talent to keep the racket going.

Nobody wants to talk politics or economics but I really believe the amateur model to college football and men's basketball is just not viable in the modern US conditions. The system produces too much money and the talent is self-aware enough they're taking a bad bargain by giving their body for a piece of paper. Especially when staying in good graces with your staff will likely mean not getting a particularly valued degree to boot. I don't think many athletes are going to be able to juggle an engineering school midterms gauntlet right around when their first big October conference game happens. People think most of these young men are stupid when looking at their major but often it is simply managing workload. I took classes with some starters when I was at UA and they were actually not all the dumb even though they were majoring in something like "General Business Administration."

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This is objectively not true. I at least lost respect for the contingent that bailed.

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I was talking about the team out there.

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As a matter of fact, they could have boycotted that game altogether, and I would be fine if they declared themselves champions.

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Wow... Sounds a lil aTm'ish...

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I think it’s a testament to their coach that he was even able to get some players on to the field, I sure as frick would not have played

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You are mentally defective and I hate the fact that we share the same planet

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Disagree, this isn’t about culture but about getting fricked about as hard as a player could get fricked in life.

Regardless of your culture, if you went undefeated, won your championship game in what is supposed to be a major conference, beat 2 teams in the most difficult conference and then told you don’t even get a chance because your QB got hurt… even though Alabama won the damn thing just a couple years ago with a backup QB?

Ya, as a player I would be like frick all that bullshite too and not give a frick about the bowl game. I think it’s a testament to their coach that he was even able to get some players on to the field, I sure as frick would not have played.

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Five responses in and I've found the dumbest, most narrow minded take in the thread.

"Supposed" is right. The ACC is a power five conference in name only and FSU played a glorified group of five schedule. The FSU SOS is somewhere around 55. The Alabama SOS is 6. FSU's best win is LSU. That's Alabama's 3rd best win.

Alabama won "the damn thing" because Tua was better and the starter was pulled. Not because of an injury in a previous game and where in subsequent games the back up proved he wasn't up to it. And you know how we've confirmed FSU's backup quarterback wasn't up to it? He's gone now, that's how we've confirmed it.

"frick all that" is not a champions mentality and it's for this very reason Georgia beat this tantrum throwing team, coach and fanbase by 60 points. Now Georgia would've beaten FSU by two touchdowns, even if they had a full roster but a 60 point victory, even with a depleted roster signals quit from the get go.

No, it's obvious you wouldn't have played.

you forgot 63-3, FSU is not undefeated anymore. Don't even try the lame "they opted out" excuse. FACT, that was FSU that was humiliated by a far superior SEC power. The UGA 2nd team played the entire 2nd half and the reserves BEAT your starters 21-0. FSU diid not deserve to be in the playoffs any more than Liberty who Actually is still undefeated but hasn't wasted their time whining about it. Bama is there as Kirk Herbstriet says because "THEY ARE BETTER THAN YOU"

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Regardless of your culture, if you went undefeated, won your championship game in what is supposed to be a major conference, beat 2 teams in the most difficult conference and then told you don’t even get a chance because your QB got hurt… even though Alabama won the damn thing just a couple years ago with a backup QB?

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Disagree, this isn’t about culture but about getting fricked about as hard as a player could get fricked in life.

Regardless of your culture, if you went undefeated, won your championship game in what is supposed to be a major conference, beat 2 teams in the most difficult conference and then told you don’t even get a chance because your QB got hurt… even though Alabama won the damn thing just a couple years ago with a backup QB?

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Culture and character are what you do when adversity hits. If they stayed together and beat the 2 time champs they would have received 1st place votes in the AP and Coaches polls and a lot of support as a championship team. Instead, when things didn't go their way they quit.

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UGA has zero complaints about not being a playoff team while FSU did. Why is this so difficult to grasp.

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The situations weren’t as different as you want them to be.