BaseballBear1108 said:
Thee University said:
EvilTroyAndAbed said:
Thee University said:
I believe any player this selfish and willing to leave his teammates on an island when they obviously were a major reason a team even makes a bowl should have to pay back his final year on campus tuition, fees, etc. His future NFL contract will not suffer as this will be a pittance.
Any player who does this demonstrates for the world to see their true dedication to our alma mater, their teammates, their coaches and alumni footing the bill. This is just another continuation of the downfall of college athletics,
The colleges use unpaid labor (players) to bring in millions of dollars every year, but the players are "selfish" because they want to protect their bodies and skills for when they are actually valued, because they certainly aren't when they are in college.
As much as I like to rep my alma mater, you calling this the downfall of college athletics might actually be a good thing. Let's take the sports that make major money for athletes (football, basketball, baseball) out of college and place them where they should have been all along in a farm system. Then colleges can get back to doing what they are supposed to be doing, educating students,
The players are "paid" in the form of an education. 95+% of the kids on scholarship don't go to the NFL. They SHOULD be gaining an education and life skills. What is a Baylor education worth today? $250K? $300K? Invaluable? They SHOULD be concerned primarily staying eligible (easy to do today) and learning something that they can use when they finish up their 4 or 5 years on campus.
As to your last paragraph, we are either headed that direction or the non blueblood schools are going to start severely cutting back on the athletics and do what they originally were intended to do.
That is 100% true. I completely agree that having a 4 year degree is huge for future athletes but that's not how players think. In college, I would have taken a pack of gum and left before getting my degree to have the slightest change of getting the opportunity to play at the next level. So I would say good luck convincing athletes who are right on the brink of possibly going pro. You have to create an incentive to play that's more than playing for "pride."
As a Will Grier, why risk millions for a degree you could go back and get in 3 years? I'm not asking if bowl games are meaningful to fan bases and alums. I'm asking about the players, and how stop this trend of "meaningless" games.
Honestly there may not be a way, at least in terms of players that are destined to be high round draft picks. You have said it yourself, why risk millions? What could a school honestly do to offset that?
Obviously the coaches can try to convince them otherwise, but if their mind is made up I won't begrudge them the right to consider their own future livelihood.
As has already been stated in this thread, the true value in bowl games is exposure and extra practice time. I'm sorry Jalen Hurd won't be able to play due to injury and I think he is the type that would have if he was healthy as he could still benefit from exposure at the WR position. But if you want to look for a positive note the staff can spend all those extra practices and reps on receivers that will be here next year.
The incentive for other seniors is either something personal as far as feeling a connection to the team, wanting to play one last time, etc. or looking for an opportunity to shine one last time so that maybe they will have an opportunity to play at the next level or raise their draft stock.
But for someone who is virtually guaranteed at a certain draft position no matter the outcome of the bowl game, the name Willis McGahee is undoubtedly in the back of their mind and honestly mentioned by family and "advisors".