{"id":1191350,"date":"2022-01-05T15:49:38","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T20:49:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1191350"},"modified":"2022-01-05T15:49:42","modified_gmt":"2022-01-05T20:49:42","slug":"the-opt-out-debate-both-sides-have-a-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-opt-out-debate-both-sides-have-a-point\/","title":{"rendered":"The Opt-Out Debate: Both Sides Have A Point"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-opt-out-debate-both-sides-have-a-point%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1191350&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>To play or not to play? That is the question.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>As college football bowl season comes to an end, the topic of the week has been centered around college players choosing to forgo their team\u2019s bowl game \u2014 the final game of their careers \u2014 as they look toward the NFL Draft. It\u2019s not exactly a new phenomenon, but the number of players deciding to opt-out of the bowl games has certainly increased over the years.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Heisman trophy finalist and projected first-round draft pick Kenny Pickett didn\u2019t play in Pittsburgh\u2019s Peach Bowl loss to Michigan State, while Ohio State star wide receivers Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson both opted out of the Rose Bowl. On Tuesday night, LSU was down to just 39 scholarship players due to opt-outs, COVID-19, and players entering the transfer portal. The trend has sapped much of the energy from the college bowl season, making bowl games which hold an immense amount of tradition, significantly less interesting.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The opt-outs are tied in with the emergence of the College Football Playoff system, making every other bowl game outside of the two semifinal games obsolete.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On the Saturday morning addition of \u201cCollege Gameday,\u201d analysts Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard waded into the opt-out waters, and their thoughts on the topic lit the social media world on fire.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s the difference for a player to say these games are meaningless? Des, we played in \u2018meaningless games.\u2019\u2026I just don\u2019t understand. If you don\u2019t make it to the Playoff, how is it meaningless to play football and compete?\u201d Herbstreit <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bubbaprog\/status\/1477298436445818880?s=20\">said<\/a>. \u201cIsn\u2019t that what we do as football players? We compete. I don\u2019t know if changing it, expanding it [the CFP] is going to change anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just think this era of player just doesn\u2019t love football.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Howard, the 1991 Heisman winner, agreed and took it a step further than Herbstreit.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s what I was about to say,\u201d Howard <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bubbaprog\/status\/1477298436445818880?s=20\">responded<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re dealing with a totally different mentality, we\u2019re dealing with these student-athletes nowadays, especially football players. I mean, their whole mentality right now is about the championship, the Playoff\u2026.Because of that, they don\u2019t value the bowl games. Now, when we were coming up \u2014 Herbstreit and myself \u2014 to go to a bowl game was a huge reward for a fantastic season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, kids don\u2019t really care about that,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey have a sense of entitlement and it\u2019s like, if we\u2019re not going to the one that matters, it just doesn\u2019t have as much value to them as it did to us growing up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Not surprisingly, the two were hammered for their thoughts, but it\u2019s easy to understand where they\u2019re coming from.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Herbstreit and Howard are \u201cfootball guys\u201d&nbsp; to the core. Not only did they play \u2014 and at a high level \u2014 but they\u2019ve made covering the game their careers following the end of their playing days. They\u2019ve watched as the game has changed in front of their eyes. It upsets them to watch the game they so love change, in their opinion, for the worse. While it may be the \u201cget off my lawn\u201d take, it\u2019s not like they don\u2019t have a point.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Bowl season has been greatly impacted as the game of college football has evolved. No longer do we spend the days in between Christmas and New Years closely watching each bowl game to see who will be selected as the best team in the land. With nothing on the line, players are choosing not to risk injury which could drastically impact their draft stock. It\u2019s a serious bummer for those of us who grew up counting the days to the start of bowl season.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And while I understand Howard and Herbstreit\u2019s&nbsp;frustration, I also understand why players would choose to sit out.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The bowl season as it is currently constructed does little for the players, but does a great deal for the universities and those who stand to profit off of them. With the introduction of the Name, Image and Likeness era, gone are the days when a gift card and a free trip to Boca Raton are enough to entice players to put their health on the line. Especially those that are set to make millions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral is the perfect cautionary story.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Corral is a projected first-round draft pick, ranked as the 23rd overall prospect by ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. He went against the grain, choosing to play in the Rebels Sugar Bowl matchup against the Baylor Bears.<\/p>\n<p>In December, Corral was asked whether he intended to opt-out of the game, and his response to reporters was one that fans of football everywhere could appreciate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI definitely wouldn\u2019t have been in this position if it wasn\u2019t for them,\u201d Corral <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JonSokoloff\/status\/1470515817322274821?s=20\">said<\/a> when asked about opting out. \u201cI\u2019m not just going to leave. Ya, I know what\u2019s on the other side. I know what\u2019s ahead, but God\u2019s got me. I\u2019m<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To play or not to play? That is the question.\u00a0 As college football bowl season comes to an end, the topic of the week has been centered around college players choosing to forgo their team\u2019s bowl game \u2014 the final game of their careers \u2014 as they look toward the NFL Draft. It\u2019s not exactly &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1191350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1191350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1191350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1191350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1191350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}