Player opt outs in the BCS era vs CFP playoff era?
Dec 31, 2020, 8:43 AM
A popular talking point among the yapping head crowd is that players did not opt out during the BCS era because the bowl games "meant something". This logic makes absolutely no sense to me.
In the BCS era there were only two teams (versus 4 teams in the CFP era) chosen at the end of the regular season that played for the national title. Outside of the actual BCS National Championship Game, all other bowl games of that era had the same importance/meaning that bowl games outside the CFP games have today. In the BCS era, any team not in the BCS Championship Game was just playing a bowl game for bragging rights/fun as winning a regular bowl game had no affect on who was crowned National Champion. The same applies today to the much better CFP system - if a team is not in the top 4 they are just playing for bragging rights and fun.
Re: Player opt outs in the BCS era vs CFP playoff era?
Dec 31, 2020, 11:21 AM
NFL stopped caring, or stopped pretending to care, and they watched Jaylon Smith lose millions with his injury in a bowl game. They’ve also had the media harping on how meaningless everything that isn’t the playoff is and then complaining when the players view those games as meaningless.