[stupac2]

What I failed to anticipate was all the players skipping the bowl games.

This is almost certainly actually a result of the NFL's new bargaining agreement, which makes it much more important to get to the second contract sooner if you want to cash out of playing football. It's also likely one of those things that needed some players to break the dam for it to start, previously no one did it because no one did it. I doubt that the playoff really changed anything about the bowls, if anything the explosion in the number of them did that (which the playoff did nothing to affect).

I also don't think the playoff really affected the recruiting landscape at all. The last time we had a first-time champion was Florida in 1996!

[stupac2]

What I failed to anticipate was all the players skipping the bowl games.

This is almost certainly actually a result of the NFL's new bargaining agreement, which makes it much more important to get to the second contract sooner if you want to cash out of playing football. It's also likely one of those things that needed some players to break the dam for it to start, previously no one did it because no one did it. I doubt that the playoff really changed anything about the bowls, if anything the explosion in the number of them did that (which the playoff did nothing to affect).

I also don't think the playoff really affected the recruiting landscape at all. The last time we had a first-time champion was Florida in 1996!