Alabama head coach Nick Saban says we can’t blame Leonard Fournette, Christian McCaffrey or any other college football player for sitting out bowl games because the College Football Playoff has minimized the value of all the bowl games and give kids no incentive to play.
Alabama coach Nick Saban weighed in on players skipping bowls during interview with #ESPN pic.twitter.com/X70nRLUIkG
— Mark Schlabach (@Mark_Schlabach) December 21, 2016
Saban is right that we all just think about the Playoff and if you’re not playing in the playoff then you feel like what you’re playing in is meaningless, except the BCS Title game did the same thing.
Bowl games have been irrelevant for a long time and it’s not just because of the Playoff. You can see both sides of this. The players inclusion in NCAA athletics is voluntary and they can sit out if they so choose, but I understand coaches and teammates that feel hurt by the decisions.