Bit of a difference between an actual regular season game and a meaningless bowl game.
Sydney Brown, Devon Witherspoon will not play in bowl game
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Absolutely. The regular season games matter to get the team into a better bowl game, therefore these guys played. The bowl games results don’t really matter for the future success of the team, so it doesn’t matter if these guys play. If these guys get hurt in this game it could cost them draft position and literally millions of dollars. They’ve proved everything need to at this point. I can guarantee that the majority of the team has no problem with it and want to see these guys get paid.
I agree and this idea probably came from a greedy agent or family member the 1st time it came about. Now its probably the 1st thing an agent brings up to a kid. Another angle where $$$ has ruined sports. What about the fans that bought tickets to the bowl game and took time off work to go down there?
If people bought tickets just to see these guys and didn't give any thought to the fact that they might sit out then
.blackdog
- Champaign
The entire rest of the team will be playing and we can still support them. I'm going to the game for the experience and to celebrate the team having a great season. I really couldn't care less about the results.
As for why players skip its because there are several high profile examples of players getting hurt in bowl games causing their draft stock to drop and losing MILLIONS of dollars as a result. Yes MILLIONS of dollars. That's not being greedy or selfish to sit out. I would honestly think it's too risky a gamble to take to even play in the game if you are a guaranteed draft pick.
Congrats to Devon and Syd on great Illini careers! Go raise the profile of the program and go get your money!
So wait, should we go back to the days of having teachers moonlight as coaches for very little pay, stop spending money on facilities, and just play on an open field and let spectators bring in their own folding chairs and refreshments like youth sports? Or are you just against $ in sports when it comes to the players?
For all the ills money has brought to sports, it's also brought a lot of good too. Intelligent people go into coaching and bring Innovation to the game because it can be a lucrative career. Athletes compete through countless levels increasingly intense competition because of possibility of life-changing renumeration. If there was no money in sports, sports would be worse. Yes, the excitement of sports made sports luvrative. But the increasing lucrativeness of sports also then made sports more exciting. A virtuous cycle, for the most part.
Yeah, gigantic difference.
Bowl games anymore are just a reward and recognition of accomplishment for a team, and an opportunity for fans to celebrate said accomplishment. They're far more like the Pro Bowl than any regular season or playoff NFL game. Would you get upset with a player for skipping the Pro Bowl?
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
What I support is that the DIA from Whitman on down is unflinchingly, fearlessly and unapologetically embracing the future as change roils its way through college sports. That's what hailing and giving a media platform to these players making these decisions indicates.
You get players by being a program that embraces doing the best by players. You fall behind by having a curmudgeonly attitude about emerging realities you're powerless to change.
Now, as you all know, I sincerely believe college football is destroying itself, and this is very much a part of that. But Illinois Football is not in a position to swim against that tide, so Illinois Football is doing what it takes to succeed in the new reality.
Interesting that you didn't answer the question.
I also want them to embrace the future. But what if "doing the best by players" means they sit for every "meaningless" game, what does that involve? Does anyone with a possible NFL future sit anytime we get to 7 losses?
No one is drawing any lines or defining many terms of this future that you want to embrace.
Bryce Young is looks to be actually playing in his bowl game, but to hear some on here he should have sat out the Auburn game which was essentially meaningless by the definitions set by some here.
Well, I don't consider the bowl game meaningless. And if someone considers a regular season game meaningless, what then? If Sydney Brown decides that the Northwestern game is meaningless, are you going to be the one to tell him it isn't? And what is your distinction between the two?
I'd say a bowl game is closer to a regular season game than the Pro Bowl
Just imagine the recruits getting that pitch. Rough, rough take.
Pro Bowl doesn't figure into final rankings, final record, or stats. So totally different. Pro Bowl is more comparable to Senior Bowl.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
It's gonna get worse until people find ways to connect NIL money to actually playing.
It's bad for the sport that Witherspoon and Brown aren't playing, let me be absolutely clear. So I don't "support" it at all in that sense.
But doing anything other than applauding them and doing whatever the program can do advance their NFL ambitions would be a net negative to our future ambitions on the field.
Then why should I as a fan care then? Seems to me like “bowl eligible” now means “able to play in a game that the players may or may not give a crap about.”
There is no exact parallel for these non-playoff Bowl games but here's where I'm coming from:
1. Awards have already been given out.
2. The atmosphere is overall more celebratory than of intense competition.
3. Nothing you do in this game can elevate you to a chance at a conference or national title, no matter what your record going in.
4. Coaches regularly change teams before this game and you often see temporary one game solutions for these Bowl games.
5. No matter how badly a team gets blown out in one of these games nobody is losing their job over it.
There's just a low stakes feeling to the whole thing that is closer to the Pro Bowl than any other example I could come up with.
Because the bowl game validates the success of the season. It's a celebration of the preceeding season's success.
I'm pretty much in your camp, although I'm not figuring that applause from me is going to change the mind of a four star recruit.
I don't particularly begrudge these guys. I understand it. But like you, it's disappointing.
And yes, NIL will be part of the answer on this. Guys on the Bears who are in line for a nice free agent contract in the off season aren't sitting out the last three truly meaningless games.
I hope we have multiple players in a position to opt out every year for the rest of my life.
I get it. In the past I hated it when players walked away from his teammates. It's a new world. New values. New ideas. I adjusted. *sigh
Oh yeah, good luck guys. Thanks for being a part of Illini Nation.
Thats a little extreme there buddy. But the average joe would agree that 300$ a seat NFL tickets has made the experience almost impossible for a lot of folks. 20$ beer and 50$ parking is all because of the inflated salaries and all that. Then all the influence Vegas has had on sports and tampering. Id say $$$ has a huge negative effect as well.
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