Christian McCaffrey opts out of bowl game

I can almost guarantee they had their HC's blessing. I'm a huge CFB fan, my initial reaction questioned their decision, but after about a minute of thought I couldn't help to agree with their decision.

Lets be honest here. 80% of these bowls have no right to be called a "post season" game. If they were in the CFB playoff or the Rose Bowl then I wouldn't agree with their decision. If they were playing in the playoffs I am pretty confident that they'd be playing.

I don't like it because I like to see the best play, but I understand from their perspective.

I love college football, but with the exception of the CFP, these bowl games are exhibitions. I have a hard time arguing with their decision to opt out of an exhibition game with the NFL millions on the line. Now, for a major bowl like the Rose Bowl or a playoff, that to me is different. As for comparing to HS, I think it's different because the post season for HS is a single elimination playoff and not an exhibition.

The ramifications are going to be interesting to keep an eye on. It is doubtful the NFL will alter their draft grade on either guy because they didn't play in the bowl game. Even if NFL teams don't like it, both McCaffrey and Fournette are too high profile and talented to slip very far in the draft. No negative outcome from the NFL will open the door for other college players to sit out of bowl games.

That puts the ball in the NCAA's court and specifically in the hands of the teams in the Power 5 conferences. TV deals and Bowl tie-ins represent millions of dollars per school. If the bowls have fewer high profile players actually playing there is less money to be made and smaller pay outs to the schools.

Does the power 5 push for an expanded playoff? If a team is still playing for a possible National Title, a player won't sit for the draft. If that was the context and a player did sit out, I think the NFL teams would view that behavior as very unfavorable.

Do teams put bowl game participation language in a National Letter of Intent? You are signing on to play the season and post-season contests.

Do teams invest in bowl insurance policies for players? If the player is hurt, the university will be providing this sizable insurance coverage on you. Players have taken out these policies for themselves in the past.

Conferences collect all the bowl money for every team in the conference and split it equally. Do we see a change where teams that have high profile players sit out get punished by their league. LSU for example would get a smaller bowl cut because Fournette didn't play. The money that LSU gives up would be split up into slightly bigger shares for the other teams in the SEC. Again probably unlikely but who knows. If teams think a school is messing with their revenue stream who knows how they will respond.

No matter what happens, teams will not let the cash cow that is the bowl season die. Now that guys like McCaffrey and Fournette have sat out others will follow suit. Teams will be too late to deal with the issue this bowl season but they will address it going forward. With millions of dollars on the line teams will find a way to get their top talent to play.  

An expanded playoff would make sense. Personally, it would be sensible to cut the regular season back to 11 games, then do a 4 round playoff with the conference champions all getting admitted, but the rest of the bowls won't like that, either.

Even if players skip the playoff, the ramifications from the NFL might not be that severe because, as was mentioned, these guys are just too talented and too good to slip too far.

There is the possibility both these guys fall to the late first round due to being RBs, a disposable commodity in today's NFL--just look at how DeMarco Murray's now with his 3rd team in 3 years after leading the league in rushing 2 years ago (and McCaffrey is not the prototypical NFL RB, anyway). Both had some injury concerns this year, too. If it's said that skipping their bowl game hurt them in the draft and cost them a few hundred thousand dollars or even millions, that could help stem the tide.

There's not really a whole lot the NCAA can do here to stop this, though. These guys may call it "opting out" but what they really did was quit their team to prepare for the NFL draft. That's it in a nutshell. The bowl system is stupid, and it's understandable why they'd want to preserve their bodies, but in the end, that's what they did. The NCAA can't stop kids from quitting when there's that much money at stake.  They could discourage it by maybe changing the rules to make them repay their scholarships or altering their rules to start paying athletes at the end of the season, but if a kid quits, he quits.

I hold nothing against the players for making this decision, but I think this should be somewhat of an indictment on the combine and pro day system itself (assuming they are doing this more to prep for the draft and less to remain safe).

Consider that they have spent the last few months watching film, practicing football, and for the most part replicating what they will be doing in the NFL (though on a protracted level). What they were producing at that time, what they were putting on film, that should be the best example of what we could expect of them as NFL players. However, to prepare to show their wares to NFL scouts they will prepare in a way different than how they prepared during an actual football season. They will practice running the drills (L-Drill, pro shuttle, 40 get offs) in an attempt to game the system almost. I used to work with a guy who works with college players preparing for the draft, and have seen what they do. Whereas we like to think these drills help prepare players for games, or show how good in the game they can be; players instead learn tricks to be better at the drill itself (cart before the horse). If doing what they are doing now makes them a better 'Football Player' then why wouldn't they be doing it during the season??

Once again, this is not a slight on the players, they are doing what is in their best interest, rather a slight against a system which evaluates players in such a way.

I don't blame them. Watch some bowl today where they might have been 2500 people in attendance. Let's face it some of these bowls are just a way for coaches to get a few extra practices in for next year. Sadly it's all about the money these days, sure these guys aren't willing to risk millions to hold up the Sun Bowl trophy. Weren't they both banged up this year too?

Also I would bet it has less to do with training for the combine than don't wanna blow my knee out like the guy from ND in some chit bag bowl.   I mean what this gives them a whole extra week to get ready for the combine now...

I think this possible trend is a perfect justification for an expanded play-off like the other divisions. You could call the play-off games bowl games. Just my opinion. I guess I understand their decision but I am disappointed. I like college ball better anyway, but HS is the best.

Coulda woulda shoulda?? But it did happen in a bowl game and he did lose millions. That's not coulda woulda shoulda, that's reality. That's the exact reason these 2 are sitting the game out.

The market will take care of that. 

NFL teams won't be too concerned with these guys opting out of meaningless bowl games, but if a guy quits mid-season or during a championship run, that is a red flag to NFL organizations and will greatly affect a prospect's draft status.

It's out of my pay grade to define where the line is, but I would think there is a big difference in a "meaningless" REGULAR season game and a "meaningless" POST season game.

If nothing else, it is common practice for coaching movement during bowl season, which would make a player's decision to move on more justifiable during this time.

But, it's still the player's call. Like I said originally, the repercussions the player experiences should come from NFL organizations in the form of draft evaluation, not the NCAA.

What would the NCAA be able to do anyway?