Except for rare occasions, I gave up watching NFL games years ago. It's another rant that I won't get into right now.
I have always been a bigger fan of college ball. Having said that, I'm a little perplexed and put off of recent seasons by players who for various reasons choose to opt out of their team's bowl games. The transfer portal thing adds to it. Again, another rant.
Congrats to Mizou for beating Ohio State. But did they beat "Ohio State" or did they merely win an exhibition scrimmage against the remnants of what was a really good team in 2023?
With the sit-outs and transfers, many of the post season games become non-events between the B-teams of the participating schools. Football junkies like myself historically gather around the TV sets and watch contests between the also-rans who usually play with a great deal of team pride and personal satisfaction in knowing that they brought their A-game.
Case in point - one of the teams that I follow is Auburn. Seeing the matchup between them and Maryland seemed like can't miss TV. Then in was announced that Maryland QB, Taulia Tagovailoa would be taking the day off - presumably to preserve himself for the NFL draft. Not to be outdone, Auburn has announced that (at least) three players from their own squad will be watching the game in civies.
I have been anticipating what (I thought) should be a very intense game between Florida State (who in my mind, got robbed - even if at the benefit of my own Crimson Tide) and the one-loss, twice championed University of Georgia. Now I read that a good portion of the FSU players will not be participating. What chaps my @ss here is that should Georgia beat FSU - the latter can say, "they only won because we didn't field our best ...". Should they lose to Georgia, this sense of attitude and excuses will be a slap in the face to the team who defeated them. I always think of that scene at the beginning of "Rocky II" where Balboa hobbles into Creed's hospital room and asks, "did you give me your best?"
And, hey Tulia! By all means, protect yourself! But your older brother was an NCAA heavyweight - playing in intense competition even while injured! He's doing alright in the pros - where they do, indeed hit with strength and velocity on every play! Great gesture to your teammates who backed you all season long!
Just my bowl season whine and opinion.
Obviously Kirby gets what I mean:
If I was some surly offensive guard who took a beating for a few years protecting a QB then decides in one of the biggest games of the year to sit out. Him and I would have a serious conversation and it would not be pleasant.
Everyone has a plan, till you get punched in the face,
Am not a fan so don’t know, but have had a long-held bitch with, & would also have that same conversation with, athletes who sit out while able to play, esp in these key bowl games
still recall the Dallas Mavericks sitting out their finale last year, W/A Playoff Berth On The Line -
good thing $, politic$ & agent$ don’t rule $port$ or anything
I've been checked out on college football for years. Money and bloated TV contracts soured it long ago for me. People will complain about tax money going to food stamps but not millions of dollars towards a former college head coach.
I think it's funny that no matter how much they try to legitimize the champ, there's still people whining about the selections every year. Even though Alabama lost, at least it wasn't by 60 points like FSU did. If FSU thought they deserved to be in the playoff their players should have shown up. Evidence that bowl games no longer mean what they used to. I thought it was sad that Gov DeSantis was ready to allocate money to sue college football committee even though he's waged a war on the FL state college system.
As for college players sitting out of bowl games, head coaches have been doing that for decades after they take a better job. What do you expect students to do based on that example?
@porkchopbob My opinions of sympathy with FSU went away the moment that 23 players decided to opt out of the bowl game against Georgia. Georgia came out to make a statement - that they were, indeed among the top 4 programs. FSU should've been prepared and willing to make a similar statement. Had they defeated UGA - their cause would've been accepted by more people. Those 23 who sat the game out should've been made to stand in the tunnel and look every player who participated in the eye. I know - it's just football, but these players' actions were tantamount to deserting ones army during combat.
The whole thing with NIL and the Transfer Portal has gotten out of hand - and I'm not sure that this is only my opinion. The NFL has long used the NCAA as a farm team system without paying the coaches, paying for stadiums or even taking care of the players when they get injured. I know that's two sets of problems, but it's how I feel.
By they way - congratulations to Michigan in their defeat of my Tide. BAMA regressed to the problems and issues that plagued them early in the season. Michigan, on the other hand looked dominant and awesome.
This is the first year that I removed myself from major college football and also the bowls. I did watch some bowls in their entirety, parts of some and none of many. I am just annoyed by so much of what this division of the sport and it's promoters and commentators have turned it into.
It is the progression of things, selfishness, kind of a reflection of our society I suppose. Coaches jump ship to a different job at the sacrifice of their current staff and players, players transfer to a different team for perceived better opportunities. Some players do not want to risk the potential of draft day NFL contracts with an injury at the end of the season. I don't know about this year, but I went back last year and looked at a lot of the 2021 opt outs and it is surprising how many guys who opt out to "prepare for the draft" do not even get drafted. Some agent blowing smoke up their ass about their pro-potential when some of those guys are undrafted free agents. There are hundreds and hundreds of players who enter the transfer portal because they think the grass is greener on the other side, they forfeit a college scholarship and they don't come out of the portal and they do not get another scholarship. Just because you enter the portal, doesn't mean that some other coach or team is going to value your skills or think they can use you. We hear about the success stories of the transfer portal, the good players find homes, but the ones we don't hear about, the guys who are in all seriousness a reserve second-string player and they leave school in hopes of landing somewhere better and they don't get picked up.
Everyone is chasing money. Athletic departments, coaches, players, TV networks
If you really want college football, authentic college football, check the division ll and division lll schools in your area. I have started following FCS September - November with the similar passion and spirit I used to have for major college football. Some of the same problems are present at the FCS level, but it is a lesser magnitude. If or when it gets bad enough there, I can follow Dll or Dlll
There were 42 bowl games played this year I think. I did a quick run down; 27 were decided by double digits, 15 were decided by 9 pts or less. I don't know how this compares to a regular Saturday of regular season football. I do know that when you have one or two games a night and some the games are unwatchably bad for one reason or another it brings the whole sport down. You have blowouts on a regular season Saturday they just blend and the good games move to the front of our minds. These end of season games don't have that luxury. And when variables are at hand that make the games more likely to be noncompetitive it is a black eye for the entire sport.
Some think expanding the playoff will help. Some think the transfer portal is giving us better teams and better games. Expanding the playoff to 12 teams, instead of just 4. 42 bowl games means there are 84 teams playing in those bowl games. How does a 12 team playoff make the bowls better for the other 72 teams? The transfer portal does help some teams, it helps some teams a lot. But those players come from somewhere and the teams they leave behind are often lower Power 5 and mid-major Group of 5 teams - you take a really good RB off of Wyoming and he transfers to Arizona State or a LB off Nevada and he transfer to Washington State - good for Arizona State and Washington State, bad for Wyoming and Nevada. Those teams are at a disadvantage now. Wyoming and Nevada discovers the under-recruited and overlooked talent, they develop the player and just when the player is at their best, they jump to another team and the teams they came from are worse off. Not everyone that transfers is Joe Burrow who was a backup at Ohio State and becomes a sensation at LSU. There are teams that are measurably worse because they lose their talent to bigger schools. But nobody cares about that aspect of the transfer portal, because screw Indiana - they aren't any good, they don't deserve a player like Michael Penix anyway. Or the guys who lose a scholarship never to attend college again. Sports Illustrated said that almost half the players who enter the portal don't find new schools or have to walk-on without a scholarship at their new school.
Major college football I think sucks. Are there good and entertaining games still? Sure there are. There are probably good and entertaining Cricket matches too. Following Cricket is not what I want and major college football is no longer what I want and increasingly I see others feel the same. The core of the sport is rotten and we all see it. Everything runs it's course I suppose until greed and over-saturation morph it into something different than what it used to be. What's the expression, too much of a good thing... It was good, but it is not what it was. There is just too much, I hate the way the sport is marketed. We're told every player is "one of the best in the nation" every player "will have NFL scouts drooling" - always with the exaggerations and hype and the celebrity and shiny objects.
You won't change it. I won't change it. All we are left to do is focus our attention and efforts on something we love and don't be afraid to turn your back on the things that suck.
I was just on a trip through South Carolina, stopped at Furman University and Clemson to see both campuses and football stadiums. Some might love the cathedral of Tiger Stadium and Death Valley and all that. I honestly would not want to be there for a game and no longer want to watch those players. Furman's small campus, amateur looking stadium appeals to me. Because I associate that much closer to what college football should be.
Good post nebish, esp the paragraph about D-II & III games - who needs all the hoopla/steep prices/politics of major league college football - the NCAA has gotten a$ bad a$ pro $ports$ - as you said, everyone is chasing money
nothing tops the atmosphere of an end of year small-college rivalry game where fans, marching bands etc can be heard, not drowned out
The smaller colleges are an acquired taste. You don't just go from loving the Iron Bowl to all of a sudden being stoked for Furman-Samford. Major college football and even the mid majors in FBS are very easy to consume and follow because it is all over network and cable/paid TV channels in the fall - it is constantly shoved right in front of us. It takes some time and some work to want to follow the lower division. But there were some really great stories this year, good games, fan bases who supported poor teams. Sure some stadiums are empty, some teams lack the fan support, but you get that in certain bigger schools as well to a different degree. My favorite team this year was Lafayette out of the Patriot League. Absolutely loved that team! Bummer for them their starting QB got injured in the first round playoff game at Delaware, Lafayette would've won that game. And Albany, what a great year they had. Really some good teams and good games out of the Patriot, the So Con, the Big Sky, Missouri Valley Conference. HBCU football, historically black colleges and universities, it's not always the best product on the field, but in terms of an atmosphere in the stands, the SWAC and MEAC have really strong support and it makes their biggest games and rivalries fun to watch. I am already looking forward to next season, really this summer, ramping up and preparing for another season of FCS football. It revitalized my college football interest, which had really kind of gotten stale and I had turned bitter towards the power teams and just bitched about a lot of shit in general. Now I've found my home in the FCS and could not be happier. Not a big fan of their post season, but honestly for me, by the time post season comes around, by mid-November I've about burned myself out and I need to start coming down and getting back to real life anyway. September, October and November - I still love those Saturdays just as much - it's just different, but still fantastic.
