Once revered as college football showcases, bowl games are becoming meaningless.
Last year Florida State went 13-0 in the regular season, but then hordes of their players opted for the “portal” and FSU was embarrassed by Georgia in their bowl game 63-3.
Several bowl games were impacted by this last year and many expected the NCAA to move the portal entry date to mid-January to counter this fiasco, but, inexplicably, they didn’t?
This year, the same free agency jockeying has multiple school rosters decimated by pre-bowl game portal-mania. Bowl games used to be a reward and source of pride. Now, many bowl games are just meaningless exhibition contests with second-, third- and fourth-stringers taking the field. This farce is brought to you by clueless NCAA and college athletic administrators who have severely damaged the enjoyment and credibility of college football.
Tom Trumpler
Camarillo
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So college coaches such as Brian Kelly, Mike Gundy and Mike Norvell are paying into their school’s NIL in order to save their jobs.
Hunch here is, some USC athletes will be seeing bigger checks very, very soon.
Collegiate sports have been ruined by the NCAA.
Fred Wallin
Westlake Village
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I have a great idea for USC coach Lincoln Riley: renegotiate your contract. You make $10 million a year. Ask for $7.5 million. Take $2.5 million and use it to try to save your defections. Pay them out of your pocket if you have to.
Didn’t Tom Brady take a pay cut to win a Super Bowl title or two?
Jeff Hawley
San Clemente
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I’m a fan of the USC tradition to not put the players’ names on the back of their football jerseys, but until the NCAA figures out this NIL and transfer portal disaster the Trojans might need to put the names on the jerseys just to know who’s still there!
Ted Bartscherer
Pasadena