re: Saban: CFB Playoff is why players are skipping bowl games

Again, Fournette would not play much at all even if he asked to. He's injured and looked terrible last time he suited up.

4 teams instead of 2 playing for a title did not make the citrus bowl any less important.

The insane number of bowls is what makes bowls less important.

Critiquing Fournette is not cool. Young men at his age often limit themselves out of fear, which is why good coaching is so important in success. LF7's major mistake was joining that Sunbelt conference team that plays in the SEC.

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I think Saban is just angry that he has to play 2 games instead of 1 at the end of the year.

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he's the best overall coach in the nation
he's the best recruiter in the nation
he has the best roster in the nation
his team is more consistent than any other in the nation
he's the best program 'CEO' in the nation

the more games played, the more likely it is that a true competitor to saban will lose to an inferior team, making the next matchup with bama even more favorable to bama; whereas such upsets are far less likely for bama.

the more layers you add to the playoff system, the more advantageous it is for saban.

john wooden won 10 titles in 12 years at ucla. geno auriemma is the only other coach to match the number of titles won by wooden. women's sports suffer from a lack of parity and the field is much, much easier in women's sports once a program has become dominant. john wooden was twice the coach auriemma is. saban is better than both. turn the playoff into a 16 team format and saban would likely break wooden's record of 10 in 12 years.

he is so far inside everyone's head, even when he gives an honest opinion, people think he's scheming them. saban is correct here.

JMO but the 4 team playoff is a good idea but the semifinals need to have been played this past Saturday, roughly two weeks after the CCGs at the home site of #1 and #2. That way the losers can enter the conventional bowl matchups and the winners wait for the title game in early January - which would be a 'bowl game' the same as it was in the BCS era. It also puts a premium on making it to #1 or #2, making the regular season more important. This would restore some more importance to the bowls, and would guarantee each playoff team two more games as well as keeping the regular season records extremely important and mitigate situations where the committee drops a conference champ and rewards a team that doesn't win its division like this year with PennSt and OSU, who would now have to travel to Clemson.

Most GM's do not base a decision off of one game when it comes to drafting a player. It's easy to say as saban did about playing the bowl game when you're already worth millions.

Now put yourself in LF's shoes. If he plays and plays well he may increase his stock 5%-10% in the eyes of GM's (I get those numbers based off how much higher he may get picked IF his stock goes up). So the upside is minimal but the downside is infinite. He could have a catastrophic injury that ruins his career. Now if I'm poor as shite and only weeks away from a life changing event even without playing one more game, I'm going to sit out.

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Saban doesn't care if he runs his players into the dirt before the NFL. Just win is all that matters.

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Don't forget 'muh popular vote' while you're crying.

Yeah playoffs are horrible

I would wager you would not take this stand with LF7 if your team was in the playoffs. I could see it now he holds a press conference about the upcoming draft and how he came from nothing and now wants to ensure his family is taking care of and decides to skip the playoffs. LSU fans would cause the state of LA to come under martial law. Your fan base is so delusional.

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Let's see the comparison if someone criticizes LSU's prized child, Fournette.

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Gumps are experts on starting Fournette threads.

Fournette has a good reason to sit out the bowl game though - he's not healthy.

I agree about Guice and he should be fun to watch next year. If the OL can control the trenches kid will be in the Heisman talk until the end.