My first inclination was to be a Grinch about this college football bowl season.
So much celebration over so little substance.
But, in the spirit of the holidays, I decided to accept it all as just another sign of our times.
Think of it as diversity, equity and inclusion for the sporting world, the sort of thing that gives us sanctimonious Harvard presidents who plagiarized their way to the top.
Football teams are famous for copying the work of others. But this state of the bowls is more a case of the everybody’s-a-winner mentality; trophies for all.
It’s only fitting that this concept should work its way to the top of college football, giving us mediocre teams battling for trophies, in bowls whose names you don’t know, and often in undesirable locales.
Where once bowl games were considered rewards for good seasons, now they have been reduced to rewarding teams still possessing a pulse at season’s end.
The college football playoff system is the curious opposite of all this. That playoff setup annually manages to exclude worthy teams, a lowlight being this year when UNBEATEN ACC CHAMPION FLORIDA STATE, was left on the outside looking in at the lucky four.
There is a fallout of the college playoff system, and that is to further minimize the import of all those other bowl games.
This has produced yet another trend that produces bowl mediocrity.
We often are sold the propaganda of football teams as bands of brothers, with individuals caring as much about teammates as themselves, willing to sacrifice massively for the greater good.
And this is true to a certain extent. But the star players, those aspiring to the more overt play-for-pay ranks, suddenly fear injury and so ‘opt out” of bowl games not part of the title playoff. That is to say they just don’t play in them, but sometimes do deign to show up for cameo sideline appearances.
For every player like the Kansas State red-shirt senior offensive lineman who played despite the “risk” and was giddy in the postgame victory celebration, there are plenty of teams gutted by this phenomenon.
Ohio State, which put on an embarrassing performance against Missouri in the Cotton Bowl, got a double whammy of this.
First off, superstar wide receiver Marvin Harrison, Jr. sat out, avoiding injury and all that despite the junior having yet to declare for the NFL draft.
Also, the Buckeyes were hit by the transfer portal phenomenon — free agency for college players. Think of this the next time you are fed the BS about student-athletes playing for Old State U!
Formerly, transferring players had to sit out a season, which cooled their ardor for pursuit of greener pastures. Now, there is almost tacit NCAA encouragement, the better to fire up offseason publicity for the product and see it contribute to more television bucks and greater public attention.
This meant Ohio State’s starting quarterback was contemplating life at Syracuse instead of playing. His backup started and soon was injured, to be replaced by the third-stringer.
Not surprisingly, Ohio State managed but a field goal, ending a streak of 88 games scoring a touchdown, dating, ironically, to the 2016 Fiesta Bowl.
Missouri won, 14-3, in the video equivalent of Sominex that ensued.
At least we’re finally reaching the point of bowl season where the games have legitimate participants. We just had to suffer through a lot of everybody’s-a-winner preliminaries to get here.
Sam Ross Jr's site 