This is why you don't play in meaningless bowl games if you are going to be a high draft pick.
Matt Corral
- Thread starter Zak57
- Start date
What if that happened the last game of the regular season? Should guys opt out the final week or two?
Nope they should finish the regular season. But playing in a bowl game that means nothing to your future is crazy Espically if your an NFL worthy draft pick
yes. Guys should not play any games in college.
They should go to the NFL after 4yrs of opting out of games in college. That's the preferred method.
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I would hope players that project to the next level and will get drafted into the league would protect themselves if they plan on playing in a bowl game with a very good insurance policy if that’s allowed in case something happens , I’d hate to see anyone not be able to follow there dreams due to a freak injury or accident.
I don’t have a negative view of those who don’t play in bowl games, but it is a very subjective and debatable point of what is a ”meaningless“ game. If you are a potential high draft pick and the team starts the year at say 1-3, are the rest of the regular season games meaningless? To illustrate how things have changed, if Peyton Manning had gone into the NFL draft after his Jr. season in 1996, he would have been the #1 draft pick in the 1997 NFL draft. He decided to come back for his Sr. season at Tenn and played the entire 1997 season including the bowl game.
Corral said before the game that he was playing because he couldn't desert his teammates.
Heartbreaking to see him on crutches. Hopefully his draft status will only be affected in a positive way from today's game.
It won't affect his draft status in any way. Look at Tua Tagovailoa ... if they had amputed his throwing arm, he couldn't have had a worse injury. Nobody cared. He went #5 overall, second QB drafted - just as expected. That's the entire point.
I do. At a bare minimum, it's about keeping your commitments.
One thing I've learned in following college football is that "commitment" doesn't mean at all what I thought it did.
Pedro Sosa
Got a knee hurt in 2007 near end of season - came back too early for Pitt game and got hurt again
He rushed to go to a senior bowl and got hurt again - missed the combine
Tried walking on at Miami as a FA and it didn't work out
Scouts had him higher than Zuttah before he got hurt
I don't blame anybody for missing a game if they have a good shot for a check
Schools, coaches - everybody is chasing ducats but if a player protects himself he's a bum
Got a knee hurt in 2007 near end of season - came back too early for Pitt game and got hurt again
He rushed to go to a senior bowl and got hurt again - missed the combine
Tried walking on at Miami as a FA and it didn't work out
Scouts had him higher than Zuttah before he got hurt
I don't blame anybody for missing a game if they have a good shot for a check
Schools, coaches - everybody is chasing ducats but if a player protects himself he's a bum
No one should rush back from an injury. If injured and can’t play they shouldn’t.
But the debate is if healthy, should they play.
they are being coached by a bunch of people that don’t understand the word.
As opposed to the past, today's overall value orientations for both players and coaches seem to place much more emphasis on "ME" rather than "WE".... It's evident in many aspects of our society now too... Bummer. 😢
I look at it this way.
If coaches can cut and run for better pay elsewhere like Kelly of Notre Dame and Riley of Oklahoma did before their program's bowl games, players preparing for the draft shouldn't be called out for looking out for themselves and making sure a bowl game injury doesn't derail their draft status.
Corral's injury has shown how playing in a bowl game has a possible effect on the earnings a college player might lose because it might hurt his draft status by moving him to a later round then the one he could expect to be taken in.
If serious enough, could keep him from going to the combine to show what he would bring to a NFL team that was thinking he could help them.
Until free agency oppertunities open up for the player or the team decides , even thoiugh the player played well, that the player needs to take a pay cut or be released.
Understood... But why is representing his team in a bowl game different from the same athlete competing in a regular season game for the same team that's been giving him a free education, stipend, and various other perks to play football?
The school or the bowl should buy the policy
Don't forget the player has been putting his body on the line for those perks.
You might say he earned them by playing and practicing all through his college career.
It's funny that the same people railing about players keeping their commitments most likely don't say anything when coaches move on before bowl games. It's like the players are serfs and only here to entertain their overlords.
Okay.. But does bailing out on his school for their final nationally televised game of the season, 4 months before the NFL draft, really change his odds that much, when it definitely decreases his team's chance to succeed in their final game?
Do coaches who leave their teams prior to Bowl games out of self interest keep their commitments? What is worse is that it is the coaches who are always preaching commitment, trust, loyalty, etc. The players should not be held to a higher standard when they make decisions based on their self interest. I don’t particularly care for all the opting out but I’m not going be critical of the players who decide that.
The NCAA .
The “League” at the next level is the dream of these players and CFB has been the pipeline.
With more and more high profile players { and not so high profile players but important to their Teams} continue to opt out and skip the Bowls games the Product is tarnished. In the end the Bowls will lose more appeal/ interest to the fans { and TV audience} and the NCAA is on the losing end.
Ever since the term "non-commitable offer" entered the college football lexicon, all notions of commitment went out the window.
Ironically, Chris Ash was ripped on this board precisely because he kept his commitment to OSU., coaching in a "meaningless" bowl game.
I could be wrong, but I'll bet that the majority of people who don't think that it's admirable for players to skip their team's bowl game also don't think that it's admirable for coaches to bolt for a new team prior to their team's bowl game.
If this board is reflective of the overall population, you are most certainly wrong.
See my prior post. Go back to when Chris Ash left OSU for RU. Was their any outcry on this board about his lack of commitment to OSU? No, it was the opposite. This board was up in arms because, over the short term at least, he KEPT his commitment to OSU.
Show me the threads ripping these coaches....I'll wait a few years.
Yep, total double standard. Fans equate coaches moving as career opportunities but don't recognize it's no different for the player.
Good point you raised. Schools have pulled offers from kids that are injured in high school. Guess kids are getting smarter and understand commitment is a 2 way street.
But the school usually gets a huge buyout for the coach leaving, and I'm not sure, but the coach might also lose a portion of his salary for leaving prior to the bowl game... In contrast, the school and team gets nothing when a player opts out, except for a greater chance to be unsuccessful in front of their loyal fans, future potential recruits, and a national audience during their bowl game.
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Schools occasionally get a big buyout if a coach leaves and that's even getting more rare. That's also usually in the early part of a contract. Often it drops quickly. You know Jimbo Fisher doesn't have to pay a dime if he ever left on his big 75M, now 90M, dollar deal. That's from day 1. Theoretically, he could leave tomorrow for another job and he'd owe A&M nothing. OTOH if A&M fired him they owe him every penny. Tucker's deal somewhat similar IIRC and if anything has a very minimal buyout if he leaves and they owe him everything if they fire him. That's more of a trend lately.
I like to see players play but have no issue if they want to protect themselves. It is what it is. Wonder how much you'd see it in basketball for the NCAA tourney though. I never say never but the probability of injury is less there plus the tourney is an actual playoff with more meaning vs the bowl games. So I think it's always possible in basketball but I don't that it would get to the extent you see in football.
Why don't you go over to the Oklahoma board and see how much they like Lincoln Riley leaving before their bowl game. Or just leaving in general. I don't think the word funny describes their emotions.
