The playoffs are a tournament to declare a champion in major college sports. College football and college basketball have bowl seasons. Both were more prestigious decades ago, but no one is talking about the NIT anymore. College football's bowl season is different.
The number of bowls has doubled over the last 25 years if the NCAA hadn't put a three-year moratorium on the creation of new ones. Jimmy has a bowl game.
The players are seeing the naked greed of those who want to make a living playing football, and those who want to focus on their future careers are not playing in these exhibitions.
It makes sense. There is no reason for players to risk their futures by playing in a meaningless game if they are not on a team that has a chance at a national championship. There are still people waving a fist in the air and shouting about the tradition of bowls not being respected by the modern college football player. KirkHerbstreit is a person.
He believes that there is no such thing as a meaningless college football game. During a talk with the media on Monday,Herbstreit said that the era of player just doesn't love football.
You don't get a pass on this. As soon as he said football, you said, "That's what I was about to say."
After Howard finished, Rece Davis gave Herbstreit an opportunity to walk back what he said because Davis is good at his job and knows that people shouldn't make sweeping indictments like that. On camera, he said that he meant that some players don't love football.
This take was bad because he took out an entire generation of football players, but also because he is still holding on to this feeling of traditional college football as a pure crispy autumn afternoon with children drinking Dr. Pepper and rooting for the team.
College sports have been a thing for decades. The administrators, the people who run the bowl games, and the television executives are in this for the money. A good number of people will always watch football and that will bring in money for advertisers, even in a world where it is harder to get people to watch live television.
Tradition is not a good reason to justify anything, but what about the host of a late night talk show trying to get more people to eat Duke's on their turkey sandwich, or the coach trying to get more people to eat mayonnaise on their turkey sandwich?
The players see all of this, and if Ohio State wide receiver Chris Olave slides in the draft to play in the Rose Bowl, he could potentially cost himself millions of dollars.
All that would be done by playing in that game is to help other teams. He has put a lot of tape on himself to show that he is one of the best players in the draft, but he can't do anything to improve that in a meaningless game.
The season is supposed to declare a champion. The major bowls did that when he was a player. College football has been lining its pockets with exhibitions for decades and will continue to do so. The players have the choice to not let their bodies be used for a cash grab, special presentation.
