[JohnR34231]

The problem I have with this  line of thinking that it is OK for a player to skip a game if he decides it is in "his best interest" is what if someone decides it is in his best interest to skip games during the regular season? Is that OK too? Is this game any more "meaningless", than, say, the OSU or UCLA games? Were the people who played in those games playing "against the odds" also?

I mean, Nick Bosa basically did that, and OSU had a shot at the playoffs!

Frankly, I think what we're seeing is the problem with using college football as the de facto NFL minor league. There's this weird mix of people (including players/coaches/etc) who don't really care that that's what it is, and those would prefer it was like, oh, you know, basically every other college sport. This is just going to keep getting worse and worse now that it's been normalized, and I honestly wonder if the charade is sustainable. I guess MBB has been like this for a while now and it's still chugging along...

Yeah, I think the idea that, at least for the better players, college football has become merely a training ground/minor league for the NFL is very unfortunate. I think it would be great if there were really a minor league for players who are only interested in getting to the NFL, so that the people who do play college football are really student-athletes.

[JohnR34231]

The problem I have with this  line of thinking that it is OK for a player to skip a game if he decides it is in "his best interest" is what if someone decides it is in his best interest to skip games during the regular season? Is that OK too? Is this game any more "meaningless", than, say, the OSU or UCLA games? Were the people who played in those games playing "against the odds" also?

I mean, Nick Bosa basically did that, and OSU had a shot at the playoffs!

Frankly, I think what we're seeing is the problem with using college football as the de facto NFL minor league. There's this weird mix of people (including players/coaches/etc) who don't really care that that's what it is, and those would prefer it was like, oh, you know, basically every other college sport. This is just going to keep getting worse and worse now that it's been normalized, and I honestly wonder if the charade is sustainable. I guess MBB has been like this for a while now and it's still chugging along...

Yeah, I think the idea that, at least for the better players, college football has become merely a training ground/minor league for the NFL is very unfortunate. I think it would be great if there were really a minor league for players who are only interested in getting to the NFL, so that the people who do play college football are really student-athletes.