Posted on 01/02/2022 5:56:38 AM PST by DIRTYSECRET
Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard sparked a firestorm of criticism on Saturday for their public lamentations about some college football players choosing not to play in bowl games that have no consequence to the pursuit of a national championship. The pushback that they received for their antiquated thinking shows how far the mainstream attitudes have come when it comes to players with NFL prospects preserving their ability to finally get paid for their talents, abilities, and sacrifices.
What will happen to the bowl season? Fewer sponsors. Less money will lead to fewer of them. Who wants to watch the freshman QB who may have been a top recruit but not ready?
Perfect storm I say. It’s covid, CRT, Jan. 6, and Trump all coming together. People are getting fed up all across the nation over many issues not yet discovered.
Can we all just get along? I say no.
Owe nothing? You’re kidding me. They get a top quality education for free and now get paid for it. If they play well, their families are set for life. Without the Universities most of these guys and their families would remain in the ghetto and in poverty for generations
Depending on Matt Corral’s medicals, it might accelerate. A projected first-round pick looking at guaranteed millions, he never considered sitting the bowl game for a moment and ended up on crutches with a less certain future.
For the most part, I have no issue with players making their choices, as long as they have to live with the consequences. I really had a problem with the team that took their NFL-bound QB to the bowl and put him in the press box with the coaches (Pickett, IIRC). If the player says he needs to get ready for the NFL, then he needs to be anywhere but the bowl game so he can push iron, run sprints, throw routes, etc. The bowl game is a reward for the PLAYERS, not the straphangers.
“Top quality” education is debatable in most cases. They get a free education on a very inflated cost product. College should cost between $10-$20k/yr. So they get $40-$80k over 4 years while the universities make in some cases nearly a billion in that time period. And without the universities, we’d develop a system like what they use in Europe for soccer and basketball - where universities have almost no influence on sports. The pro teams support farm teams and lower division teams to field talent.
Free labor is slavery. Education? Let the other students pay for it. I would agree with you 100% back in the 80’s but in 30 years time the tables have turned-no equal transaction here. There’s the 1% who make it as pros. 25 scholarships/yr I believe. NFL gets a free minor league system out of it. 18 year olds unable to make a living in the free world. It leads to the draft-a showcase of black athletes with their crying mamas showing they have family values stability. WE could go on.
“They get a top quality education for free and now get paid for it.”
Uh, it would appear that a good majority of them still spell it “kollege”.
And, given the “woke” idiocy at top management and some of the players, my concern for the whole bunch existeth not.
It’s all coming to a head. This is now 2022. Can’t wait for November.
And now with the transfer portal, we basically now just root for laundry instead of players.
Except they DON’T get a top quality education. They get pushed to the “for athletes” courses that are basically high school freshman versions of the same topic. They’re only set for life if they wind up in the NFL, more importantly into the second contract. A low enough percentage of them do that they almost have a better chance of winning the lottery. And the ones that ARE looking like they’re going to get drafted are choosing not to get hurt in a bowl game. If the goal is set for life, then skipping the bowl game is the right decision.
I don’t really care about what is best for the players’ future careers. I’m a fan, so I care about the games being played. So just as the players have the right to not play in games they believe lack importance, I have the right to not watch those same “unimportant” games.
If the schools, bowl games, or NCAA want the players to play, perhaps they should pay for insurance policies based on their perceived draft status and significance of injury. I’m sure the insurance companies can figure out the cost of such policies.
What will happen to the bowl season?
8 teams and another round of games.
Man, I need more coffee.
Players are the customer, the one paying the universities. That’s Mr./Ms. Player to the University, and the customer is always right. And BTW: scholarships are merely purchase discounts offered by the seller/universities; nothing owed by the customer is accepting an offered discount.
Major League Baseball has better control over its minor league system than the NFL and NBA do. And the baseball players in the minors are willing to accept compensation and conditions that the typical minor league NFL or NBA prospect would be livid about.
‘Without the Universities most of these guys and their families would remain in the ghetto and in poverty for generations’
and yet the bulk of freepers want to see the colleges dump sports...
These guys and their families is a drop in the bucket. Too many dreamers in the group.
College players are never there for more than four years of active participation. So, for most teams and positions, it has always been more about the laundry than the players.
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