During this year’s college football bowl season, the spotlight turned away from the actual games and towards conversations surrounding star players skipping bowl games. LSU running back, Leonard Fournette and Stanford running back, Christian McCaffrey both decided to skip the final game of their collegiate career in fear of injuring themselves prior to the NFL draft- a highly controversial move that makes sense. While these players receive an incredible athletic and academic experience playing college football, there’s one goal on these players’ minds: the league. Players are willing to put their body on the line while these universities are making millions of dollars off them just for the chance to a part of the 1.6% of college football players to be drafted by an NFL team. These players dream of the NFL for several reasons, whether it’s the love of the game, competitive drive, or simply support their family. However, what they all have in common is their talent is worth a substantial amount of money. After 10 plus years of playing the game, it’s time to cash in. When it comes to the NFL draft, it’s not about getting drafted, but when you are drafted. There’s an enormous difference in the salaries of a top ten pick, a late first rounder, or a third round pick. For example, 2016 quarterback Jared Goff was drafted number one overall by the Los Angeles Rams and signed a $27.9 million four-year contract with an $18.6 million signing bonus. Later in the first round, quarterback Paxton Lynch was selected with the 25th pick by the Denver Broncos and signed a $9.476 million four-year deal with a $5.09 million signing bonus.
I’m not saying every player should skip bowls, especially the playoffs or the New Year’s Six, but when a projected first round draft pick is playing in a meaningless bowl game where the stadium isn’t even sold out, why should he risk the chance of a fluke injury, costing him millions of dollars. When Alabama’s head coach, Nick Saban was asked about players skipping bowl games, he blamed the new college football playoff format. He said, “But when we all started [implementing a playoff system], however many years ago, it was, I said you’re going to diminish the importance of other bowl games in college football, alright?” He then added, “So you can’t really blame the players. We created this, OK? We created this.” Saban reasons that emphasizing the playoffs has taken away the importance of other bowls and teams that fall short of the College Football Playoffs or New Year’s Six feel as though the final bowl game is just an exhibition game. If players were skipping regular season games or championship games, I would have a completely different opinion. But let’s face it, the majority of these bowl games are a complete joke. A 6-6 team is guaranteed to play in one and I find it hard to believe that is considered a successful season. Commitment should remain at the pinnacle of a football player’s values, but when it comes to a meaningless exhibition game meant to suck more free money out of these players, it’s not worth the potential injury. The talent of the top prospects is worth a great deal of money and they have every right to protect it. Let’s not question the commitment of players who have a bright future in front of them, such as Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey, but instead, celebrate their contribution to college football and wish them the best as they take the next step in their careers.
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August KlattSenior at the University of Michigan studying Economics and Applied Statistics CategoriesArchives |