Bowl news: Snooze, you lose
My advice to players, coaches and assistant coaches is pretty simple this time of year.
Don’t overthink the next step or how to handle difficult decisions. You have one thing to accomplish and only one thing to accomplish.
Get money. All of the money. Whether you can declare for the NFL draft early and skip your bowl game, leave your post as a defensive coordinator for a bigger job with a bigger salary, or leave a potential College Football Playoff contender for a massive new deal, I encourage everyone to maximize their worth. (I encourage everyone else to mind their business when it comes to these decisions, something Mike Leach should take note of.)
Oh, and go ahead and transfer. Now that there are more player-friendly rules in place, the portal is poppin’.
Don’t like the way your current situation is brewing? Go ahead and throw your name in the ol’ portal. It’s there for a reason, and players are flocking to it en masse.
All of this is largely wonderful. People can move as they please and look out for themselves. At least that’s the idea. But for the gamblers? It’s a bit of madness. When it comes to bowl games, this information is crucial. Pittsburgh quarterback and Heisman finalist Kenny Pickett is likely to opt out of the Peach Bowl. We’ll likely find out one way or another this week.
The spread, which has swung now in Michigan State’s favor, suggests that the decision has already been made.
Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles turned a magical season at Oklahoma State into a huge pay raise at Ohio State. The architect of one of the sport’s best defenses will not coach the Pokes when they take on Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. The Irish, of course, will also be breaking in a new head coach as well.
Change is the only constant, and the impact isn’t just on the immediate. NFL draft opt-outs are likely to stay a theme throughout this bowl season and beyond, although the spectacular movement within the sport is going to generate a ton of offseason momentum.
It’s also going to be a bear to keep up with. And, as we transition into offseason scouting in a matter of weeks, we must prepare ourselves for chaos.
That said, I love the challenge. I also love chaos. The sport seems destined to generate as much of it as possible these days, and the impact will be significant.
It will be felt on players soon to be getting massive guarantees from agents. It will be felt from coaches enjoying massive salary bumps in a booming market.
And it’ll be felt by the rest of us along for the ride, trying to keep up.
Bryce Young deserved to win the Heisman, and he was a solid cash for those who bought in early. In the preseason, the Alabama QB could’ve been bet somewhere between 6/1 and 9/1. And while I thought C.J. Stroud might have locked up the award against Michigan State, Young’s performance against Georgia was superb. I love that a defensive player finished second. Michigan’s Aidan Hutchinson deserved it.
The fact that Alabama superstar Will Anderson didn’t get to New York as a finalist with 31.5 tackles for loss — 9.5 more than any player in the sport — is pretty shocking. I still think we have a long way to go before a defensive player wins the award, although I hope I’m wrong.
Adam Kramer analyzes college football for Point Spread Weekly, VSiN’s digital magazine for sports bettors.