San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Playoff expansion will help starless bowl games
Christian McCaffrey once skipped a bowl game when he was perfectly healthy, a real heartbreaker for Stanford fans and their collective “wait a minute — we’re not done watching him.”
It was a very big deal in 2016, when McCaffrey sat out the Cardinal’s late-December bowl game against North Carolina to “begin my draft prep immediately.”
That was the first year a handful of top collegiate players, including LSU’s Leonard Fournette, began prioritizing their NFL future against loyalty to a school.
Now it’s a miracle if any of the show-stopping collegiate types bother to show up.
Between strict opt-outs and the transfer portal, it’s a veritable catalogue of missing persons.
So far at the quarterback position this week, we aren’t seeing Oklahoma’s Dillon Gabriel, Oregon State’s DJ Uiagalelei and Aidan Chiles, Notre Dame’s Sam Hartman, North Carolina’s Drake Maye and USC’s Caleb Williams, a drafteligible junior who is likely to enter the NFL draft but hasn’t made a final decision. And Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels has opted out of LSU’s ReliaQuest game against Wisconsin.
Meanwhile, with USC fans expecting some transfer-portal star to take over the quarterback position next year, longtime backup Miller Moss started Wednesday night’s Holiday Bowl against Louisville and threw six touchdown passes with his quick release and impressive arm. Did he suddenly win next year’s job with that performance?
USC was also missing its top wide receiver, two stellar defensive backs and 17 other players either opting out or injured.
Florida State went into Saturday night’s Orange Bowl without 19 regulars, and there were 15 missing from Notre Dame against Oregon State. What a blight on continuity and team spirit.
Oregon isn’t thrilled about its
Fiesta Bowl matchup Monday afternoon against Liberty, a zero-appeal Group of Five school that played the weakest schedule in the country, but at least Bo Nix will be the Ducks’ quarterback. They’ll be going all-out, as will be the case for Alabama, Michigan, Texas and Washington in the playoff semifinal games.
There might be a bit of hope for next season, when (finally) 12 teams will engage in the playoffs. Transfers could be in play, but no healthy player — assuming he has a conscience — sits out a playoff game with a national title at stake.
This works better
• Florida State has every reason to be furious about earning so little reward for its unbeaten Power Five season, but with Alabama getting that playoff spot, the television audience wins big. The decimated Seminoles have nothing to compare with Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe, who threw that miraculous touchdown pass on 4th-and-31 to beat Auburn on Thanksgiving weekend. Milroe is a high-character guy who accounted for 13 touchdowns with only one turnover in Alabama’s past four games, and he combines a titanic arm with spectacular running ability. Georgia coach Kirby Smart compares him to Lamar Jackson — “just a bigger, more physical version.”
• It was such good news that Oregon State and Washington State prevailed in litigation to control the remains of the Pac-12 Conference. They will control future assets and revenue, and the departing 10 schools can take a hike (which they’ve actually done). They deserve nothing, and in fact should be paying their way out.
• As for the Pac-2, things are bleak right now, but it’s important for OSU and WSU to preserve the conference under that name. They have a two-year grace period to build a legitimate league, and they’re heavily tied to the Mountain West Conference to fill out their football schedules. But things can change over the years. Perhaps some of the departing Pac-12 schools will realize the absurdity of their reckless decisions and make an effort to return.
• Meanwhile, Oregon State’s schedule includes Oregon (the Civil War is now the opener), Purdue, Cal, San Diego State, Air Force, Boise State and Washington State, with seven of its 12 games at home. Washington State gets Texas Tech, among others, and an agreement (much like the Civil War) that locks in the Apple Cup against Washington for several years. All things considered, nice work for both.
• More awkwardness in the Pac-12’s inexcusable demise: On the women’s side, as the conference plays out its final basketball season, five teams are ranked among the top 12 nationally: UCLA, USC, Colorado, Stanford and Utah.
• Whenever Draymond Green returns to court for the Warriors, we’ll know he’s changed if he walks away from a technical foul with just a few words. He has to realize it’s not personal; every star in the NBA draws technicals these days, almost always for a really dumb reason. But if Green can’t let it go, badgering the official to the point of tedium, he’ll get that second technical, and an ejection, and he will have learned nothing.
• How about we all back off on Green’s “legacy”? That’s for the end of one’s career, when the whole thing can be put in perspective. If he can avoid all the nonsense and the Warriors win another title with him on board, he’ll have a very smooth trip into the Hall of Fame.
• “There’s a lot to unpack” has become a very tired phrase, unless you’re actually talking about luggage. It definitely works for Seth Curry, who does nothing but unpack. Now back for a third stint in Dallas, Steph’s brother has played on eight NBA teams since breaking into the league in 2013.
• San Francisco’s Bianca Valenti was among the few surfers who braved the 40- to 50-foot drops at Mavericks on Thursday, and she caught two of the biggest waves of her life. Interesting, too, as Valenti becomes one of the six women invited to the prestigious Eddie Aikau contest at Waimea Bay (North Shore of Oahu). Some of the best big-wave surfers in the world — Annie Reickert, Izzi Gomez, Skylar Lickle and Moana Jones — made only the alternate list.
• Check this quote posted Wednesday on the Giants’ page at mlb.com: “We’ve talked about wanting to be motivated to improve our team,” president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said earlier this month. “Certainly, making acquisitions that get our fans excited is really important. But making acquisitions that excite people in the moment but then wind up not panning out, that’s not going to be good business, either. We’re just going to continue to rely heavily on our evaluations and players that we think can really move the needle for us.”
Definitely a late entry for the least inspiring message of the year.