8 ideas to fix bowl season after FSU's Orange Bowl debacle – Tampa Bay Times

The Orange Bowl was a lemon, and college football continues to grimace at the bitter aftertaste.

Instead, a historic bowl game that showcased college football served as a damning indictment of what is wrong with this incarnation of the sport. Only the ethically colorblind couldn't see the red flag raised by Georgia's 63-3 disgrace at Florida State, with more than a dozen key players missing who had either opted out of that non-playoff game or were in the transfer portal .

“People need to see what happened tonight and they need to fix it,” Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart said immediately after the carnage.

So what is the solution? The solutions range from subtle to bold. No single optimization will do the trick; This requires extensive modifications. Here are our ideas, from the most feasible to the most radical:

Insurance policies

Seven years before most of the NFL-bound Seminoles dropped out, Michigan's Jake Butt tore his ACL in the Orange Bowl against FSU. He called his insurance payout “significant,” but not enough to cover what he would have earned without the injury. So give every draft-eligible player a comprehensive, actionable insurance policy to mitigate the risk of injury and minimize a reason for withdrawal.

NIL packages

Is there a way for bowl sponsors like Cheez-It to encourage players to attend their games? [ STEPHEN M. DOWELL | Orlando Sentinel ]

At bowl games, players were already compensated with free equipment such as headphones and watches before the name, image, and likeness (NIL) era. We can expand on this idea. What if Orange Bowl sponsor Capital One offered name, likeness and likeness packages for top players? Capital One gets more exposure because more people see a better game and players have an incentive to play. The payday may not be enough for a future top-five pick like USC's Caleb Williams, but it could make an impact on a midfield talent.

Move non-playoff ball to spring…

If bowl games are supposed to be glorified exhibitions, then let's use them as a substitute for another glorified exhibition, the spring game. Distribute them in April after March Madness ends and use them as a springboard for the next season. Attendance might suffer, but bowls long ago transitioned from tourist offerings to television properties.

…or week zero

Radical as it may seem, this measure would likely eliminate the opt-out problem and make the world's Mayo, Military and Myrtle Beach Bowls more relevant than ever. Non-playoff games would be based on teams' results from the previous year. All games would be considered non-conference contests and would almost certainly draw a far larger audience than we see at lower tier bowls. Additionally, the bowl committees were still able to provide their extras to each team, making it a unique experience. With higher ratings and higher relevance, everyone wins.

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Customize the transfer portal calendar

Marvin Jones Jr. didn't play for Georgia in the Orange Bowl because he's transferring to Florida State. [ HYOSUB SHIN / AJC | The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ]

The opening of the transfer portal window coincides with bowl selection (this year it opened on December 4th). As a result, many bowl-eligible teams like FSU are shorthanded, which is an unintended showcase of second- and third-string quarterbacks. Open the portal window on January 1st and the bowl rosters may remain mostly intact. Critics say a postponed portal calendar won't work because college semesters begin in early January (USF, for example, begins Jan. 8). We say that a child who enters the portal on January 1st and selects a new school on January 12th can catch up on their first class work. This is why God created academic advisors. Coaches and transfers would find themselves making hasty decisions with this schedule. Is it worth it for a better Fiesta Bowl?

Division of revenue

Coaches and administrators often receive bonuses for bowls. Is it time for players to get them too? One option — promoted by USF's Fowler Ave Collective director Corey Staniscia — is revenue sharing, in which players receive a share of bowl money. This leads from the steep path of name, image and likeness deals to a pay-for-play model. But the payouts could persuade some athletes to stay if that's the goal.

Give players contracts

When academics trump the transfer calendar, contracts are another way to slow down the portal. When a player signs with a school, he stays there for a fixed, mutually agreed upon period of time; The school can't fire him (as long as he stays out of trouble) and he can't transfer (unless the coach leaves). However, this creates its own legal issues and complexities in the relationship between player and school, leading to…

Eliminate the college part

Before the Orange Bowl, Smart said sports “need to decide whether or not they're going to be student-athletes.” This is because name, image and likeness agreements and the portal often come into conflict with scientists. The most radical solution is to reduce or eliminate the “student” part. If the athletes are employees or independent contractors, opting out is not an issue and the portal timeline can be moved easily. This proposal eliminates decades of tradition and the “college” part of college football. But if the goal is to preserve the sanctity of bowl season, this is the only idea that can address everything — while raising new problems of its own.

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