[fullmetal]

So he was a fool to play against Rice? Clearly a meaningless game in your paradigm. And ןɐɔ, Oregon, OSU... Which games was he smart to play in this year?

No, it was not clearly a meaningless game (such a dramatic characterization!).  The Rice game was played with two more weekends left in the season before bowl selections were announced.  Any number of situations could have happened to where Stanford could have been selected to a better bowl.  Until bowl selection, no one knew what was going to happen to the bowl matchups.  But I think CMac would have left for anything short of a NY6 bowl.

Did I mention that the Sun Bowl is a fifth-tier bowl vs. UNC this year?  That's not a meaningful game in that a win does not result in a tangibly better outcome than a loss.  And I think CMac knows that Stanford is equipped to handle UNC without him--if Stanford plays like we know they're capable of playing.  I don't think he's completely leaving the team out to dry, but he is making their job a bit harder.

[fullmetal]

So he was a fool to play against Rice? Clearly a meaningless game in your paradigm. And ןɐɔ, Oregon, OSU... Which games was he smart to play in this year?

No, it was not clearly a meaningless game (such a dramatic characterization!).  The Rice game was played with two more weekends left in the season before bowl selections were announced.  Any number of situations could have happened to where Stanford could have been selected to a better bowl.  Until bowl selection, no one knew what was going to happen to the bowl matchups.  But I think CMac would have left for anything short of a NY6 bowl.

Did I mention that the Sun Bowl is a fifth-tier bowl vs. UNC this year?  That's not a meaningful game in that a win does not result in a tangibly better outcome than a loss.  And I think CMac knows that Stanford is equipped to handle UNC without him--if Stanford plays like we know they're capable of playing.  I don't think he's completely leaving the team out to dry, but he is making their job a bit harder.