On Saturday night, after a 60-point win that was more fitting for early September than late December, Georgia coach Kirby Smart used his pulpit to point out the obvious. Due to absences and injuries, Florida State was missing most of its offensive and defensive production. And the game was so ugly, even embarrassing, for a sport that celebrated all aspects of the postseason.
“People need to see what happened tonight and they need to fix it,” Smart said. “It has to get repaired. It's very unfortunate that they, who have a good football team and a good football program, are in the position they're in. Anyone can say it's their fault and not our problem. You can say we had our boys and they didn't have their boys. I can listen to it all. But college football has to decide what it wants.
GO DEEPER
In the painful Orange Bowl, both UGA and FSU CFP showed why a change was needed
“I know things are changing and some things are going to change next year (with the 12-team College Football Playoff). Additionally, there will still be bowl games. People have to decide what they want and what they want to get out of it. Because it's really unfortunate for the kids on the sidelines who had to take part in this game that didn't have their full arsenal. And it affected the game 100 percent.”
Smart identified a problem but did not suggest solutions. So I'll do this for him. Here are five ways to improve college football's bowl season and prevent mass opt-outs.
1. More silliness! If we learned anything from the very first Pop-Tart Bowl, it's that people have an insatiable desire to watch a goofy-looking mascot dance around a field – with security guards, police officers and officials alike – before it happily falls to his death in a giant toaster. I really liked everything, and so did you all. This game averaged 4.31 million viewers on ESPN through December 29, the largest viewership for a bowl game. And it was fun! We watched for the shenanigans and the genuine excitement of the Kansas State players to eat the giant “edible” mascot when it was all over. (I streamed the ceremony after the game to make sure I didn't miss anything.)
Bowl games that are not part of the College Football Playoff apparatus should continue to indulge in this silliness because it is what separates these games from the regular season. Bowl games are supposed to be fun. They're meant to be a reward for players at the end of the year, and what's better than eating a giant Pop-Tart? Or watch your head coach get mayonnaise poured all over him? Food sponsors certainly get a great return on investment — the Pop-Tarts Bowl generated $12,098,187 in earned media, according to Apex Marketing — and the weirder the better. I had a cousin who knew nothing about sports and texted me Pop Tart mascot memes. I hope she keeps sending them.
2. Allow bowls to pay players directly to play. Now, I understand that the NCAA would have to change its rules to allow direct pay for play in these circumstances, but the national governing body is already moving in the direction of allowing schools to sign their own athletes to NIL contracts isn't too far-fetched. Additionally, we already know that NIL collectives combined with the transfer portal have essentially created pay-for-play games anyway. They could also ask collectives to include bowl clauses in their contracts with players. Either way, this won't eliminate all opt-outs for potential first- and second-round draft picks in the NFL Draft, but it could help incentivize participation for mid-/final-round players and/or those who are still undecided whether they want to change.
While it doesn't make a huge difference, it's at least consistent with coaches triggering bonuses by making and winning bowl games. This means the players could be paid for their participation, just like their coaches.
3. Avoid conference affiliations so that bowling teams can organize matchups that make the most sense. Some won't like the idea of forgoing direct conference ties, but converting the system to a free-for-all is an easy way to appeal to different motivation levels heading into the non-CFP portion of the postseason . If they eliminate grading based on record, they encourage teams to finish the season on a strong note to become more bowl-attractive. Some bowlers would rather have a team that is perhaps 7-5 but has won three conference games in a row to reach a win total not seen in years than a team that is 9-3 or 8-4, but line limped to the finish.
I would also suggest that we allow teams that do not wish to participate to decline bids. We've seen teams do this before (and certainly during the COVID-19 affected 2020 season), but for a team like Florida State, it wasn't a real option this season, even though everyone knew the team wasn't interested Interested in facing Georgia in the Orange Bowl after being left out of the four-team CFP. The Seminoles owed nothing to the Orange Bowl, and I think both sides would have preferred Georgia to play a team that wanted to prepare them and play them.
4. Get rid of the early signing period. They cannot move the transfer portal window back because athletes must be able to enroll at their new schools at the start of the semester in January. The CFP is expanding, so December next year will be even busier, with first-round games on campus and an additional quarterfinal round. The only realistic option for what can move is the early signing phase. It creates absolute chaos for coaches who have to simultaneously deal with bowl preparation, the portal, personnel changes and also recruiting.
After Auburn lost 31-13 to Maryland in the Music City Bowl, Tigers head coach Freeze was asked to evaluate the team's game plan. “Well, obviously I don’t feel like it was effective,” Freeze told reporters. “Due to recruiting, I haven’t looked into it too much for most of the time until this week and really wanted to evaluate everything about our program.”
Essentially, Freeze said he opted out of game prep but showed up to stand on the sideline. If we take the early signing period out of December and reduce the pressure and immediacy of recruiting, we can move the signing period to February where it can be celebrated and not buried in the middle of December's other important events. The NSD in February used to be synonymous with a national holiday. Let's bring that back and really move some of the sport's offseason into the offseason.
5. Rethink the way we talk about college football and celebrate the sport in the 12-team CFP era. This must be a collaborative effort – from experts to fans to coaches and administrators. We need to stop portraying everything as a national championship or defeat. That's how you get Ohio State players to opt out of the Rose Bowl or Florida State players to skip the Orange Bowl, all because they're not playing for the chance to win a national championship. We used to celebrate rebuilding teams reaching benchmarks like bowl eligibility or a non-blue blood reaching the 10-win mark.
Ole Miss just won 11 games for the first time in program history, and we should take the time to celebrate those accomplishments and not ignore teams once they lose a game or two and are eliminated from CFP contention. Some of the best stories in the sport this year occurred in places like Columbia, Missouri, and Tucson, Arizona. But if you look at college football only through the lens of national championship contenders, you'll miss out on truly great moments of joy and true team building. And these are the things that got us into this sport in the first place and that should keep us here now.
We shouldn’t worry about bowl season being “canceled.” We don't have to worry about the feelings of bowl and TV executives. We can and should enjoy what non-CFP bowl games have become – exhibitions – for what they are, because we won't have college football in eight months. Sometimes it's better to just appreciate what we have, even if it's not perfect. And that's okay.
(Photo: Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)