Players skipping bowls to continue?
When West Virginia quarterback Will Grier announced on Saturday that he would not play in the Camping World Bowl on Dec. 28, he joined several other prospective top picks in the 2019 NFL Draft.
The list of players skipping bowl games has grown up to 12 players as of Tuesday, and look for more players to announce their intention to not play as the bowl games get closer.
Granted, most teams do not have to worry about this issue as less than half the bowls feature players who will consider the move.
But for those who do, how do the coaches and teammates of said players react, and how do fans of those programs act?
Let鈥檚 look at it from any of the respective player鈥檚 perspective first.
We will use Grier as an example.
NFL draft experts do not have Grier listed as a first round pick, but he is expected to be drafted in the early rounds.
From Grier鈥檚 perspective, being picked early would net him a decent deal, but if he were to get hurt against Syracuse, he would drop several rounds and possibly not be drafted at all.
So not only is it a financial situation for Grier and the other players, it could literally mean the difference between guaranteed money in the seven-figure range to having to earn a rookie free agent deal.
Players skipping the bowl games turned into a trend two years ago when Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey, a pair of running backs who were drafted in the top eight picks of the 2017 draft, pulled out of their respective teams bowl games.
Several more players will pull out of this year鈥檚 bowl games to protect their bodies and limit their chance of injury.
Teammates and coaches understand that the players have to treat their bodies as a business investment and truly get it, which is completely reasonable.
Most fans, on the other hand, look at it through tinted glasses with their favorite team鈥檚 logo on them, and I understand that perspective as well.
Fans will be upset or disappointed that the players walked away.
Looking at the big picture, what, if anything, can be done to entice players to play in the bowl games?
Charleroi Athletic Director Brady Barbaro offer a suggestion how to deal with the issue.
鈥淚f the NCAA has an issue with players not playing and wants them to play, an easy remedy would be to expand the College Football Playoff (CFP) to eight teams,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat would double the amount of teams who have a chance at winning the national championship and the players would want to have that chance.鈥�
Barbaro makes a great point.
None of the players over the last two years, including those that have announced from this bowl season thus far, have skipped playing in the four-team playoff.
If the CFP would expand to eight teams, would the players from all eight teams refrain from the thought of skipping the bowl game as they would be in contention to win a national championship?
The teams like Alabama, who has played in all five CFPs, and Clemson, who has played in the last four, have not had players skip out. Realistically, even if they did, the Alabama鈥檚 and Clemson鈥檚 have the depth to make up for it.
But for teams that are less talented overall, having players skip the bowl games is the best move for the players, but hurts the teams on the field.
The trend of players skipping bowl games that are meaningless to them is here to stay, and if we were in the shoes of the players skipping the games to protect their investment in themselves, most of us would make the same choice.