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Georgia played to prove they deserved to be in the playoffs, FSU didn't play because they thought they deserved to be in the playoffs

The Pop-Tart bowl was NOT symbolic…it was a MASTERPIECE

100 percent right. Before the playoffs, some bowl games were more prestigious than others, but each school was playing for team pride, ideally at a warm weather destination where alumni and fans could enjoy new year's together. Now, there's a strict demarcation that identifies which bowl games matter and which ones don't.

I have a solution.... The transfer portal should not be open until after the last bowl game is played. Opting out should not be an option unless declaring for NFL..Period.

I think having over 40 bowl games is a major problem

Bowl games are slowly becoming the college version of the Pro Bowl

You're right, they did get snubbed, but there is a larger problem here. Players not playing in bowl games completely removes the importance of the game. Unless things change, bowl games will just be a second string scrimmage. Also there are too many of them, no one cares about or really even wants to participate in the Tostito's bowl.

The disparity between UGA's and FSU's culture ws very apparent

One of the big turning points in the relative importance of bowl games to the players, imo, had to be the 2016 Fiesta Bowl - Jaylon Smith getting his knee annihilated by Taylor Decker is what catalyzed the opt-out frenzy of the last several years. His drop from a virtually guaranteed first rounder to a mid-2nd changed the perspective quite a bit, had college athletes reevaluate whether playing in these games was worth it or not. And now, especially with the CFP committee being the circus it is, it sucks the life out of the non-playoff NY6 games.

Bowl games are pointless to top 20 teams, but a team that hasn't been to a bowl in 10-15 years, it's huge to finally get in and makes them feel proud.

Some say there are too many bowl games and they’ve become meaningless. It may just really depend on the logistics. I went to Texas State and we just had our first bowl game ever. They played it in Dallas so most fans who care to go can realistically make it. If it was put somewhere across the country then yes, it may have looked pointless as many other bowl games have looked. Just go look at the end of the game and what it meant to all the fans, for teams like Texas State, this past bowl game was peak football whether others value it or not.

8:13 Georgia didn’t have opt outs. But the team was NOWHERE near “full strength”. 11 injuries and 20 transfers. And Georgia was missing a few of the best offensive players in the country.

An extreme scenario, but what's to stop an entire team of opting out of a bowl in the future?

I'm just amazed that a team carried a back up punter

there's some thick irony with all of this. Before they created the 4 game playoff that pretty much everyone was begging for, the argument for the status quo at the time was "Every Bowl game is a Playoff/Championship" now it seems that has been proven right

As a clemson fan, i absolutely did not have the narritive that our offense would go out and win the game in the clutch going in, but now that absolutely is a big part of my narrative for the team. Sometimes the game can change your mind on things, sometimes fans are too emotionally dug in to even properly experience the game(FSU). Go tigers 🧡💜

As a fan of a smaller school that's never going to be competetive enough for the CFP and often isn't even ranked, especially with NIL and the portal making the gaps between schools larger, I feel bowl games do still have some purpose. When getting 6 wins is an accomplishment, earning that bowl is awesome. For our school it's a chance for the players, band, and cheer squad to play one more game and to get a cool experience against teams from other conferences we'd never usually play. But I totally see how it would feel pointless for teams who weren't ranked quite high enough - feels like you missed out on something better, instead of earning what you did get.

this is one of the 3 games that killed bowl games. The first one was baylor vs ole miss in 2021 because matt coral who was one of the best qb prospects of the 2022 draft (granted it was a weak QB class) decided to play in the bowl game in which it got him hurt and ultimately tarnished his NFL career. This amplified the surge for draft prospects to sit bowl games so they don’t get injured. The other two are TCU vs Georgia and FSU vs georgia which go hand and hand because (imo at least) TCUs blowout loss led to a ripple effect leading to more reason for FSU’s snub which is when i feel bowl games officially died.

Georgia had control of their destiny and lost to what appears to be now a relatively weak bama squad (at least by bama standards). FSU did everything within their power, even when adversity struck, and won out but got rejected by the powers that be outside of their control. Georgia came in swinging because their pride had been wounded fair and square and they needed to prove they were top-dog (which i think they actually are) and distract people from realizing their failure to succeed in the most critical moment allowed this mess to play out. FSU was understandably apathetic because they were basically given a pat on the head, told they had a great season, and were instructed to go play the actual best team in the country (who could have avoided this mess for both of them) for no more than "bragging rights" instead of the real goal they had fought all year for. UGA had something to prove or at least remind people of while FSU felt they had proven themselves but were denied anyway.

People forget that a lot of FSUs seniors, most prominently Jared Verse, were expected to go the draft after the 2022 season. They already put millions of potential NFL dollars on hold. Then they get told those games dont matter because some random administrators didn't think they'd win.

Ironically, UGA did the same thing way back in the Matthew Stafford days against an undefeated Hawaii who legitimately had people arguing they should be in the National Chamionship. UGA players were seen dancing on the sideline by half way through the 3rd quarter.

The difference was that Georgia lost their conference championship, the last game of the season before the bowls, and ended with a one-loss record. Georgia felt like they had something to prove, that the loss was merely a fluke and they still should've made the playoffs. But on the other hand, FSU ended the regular season undefeated at 13-0 and won their conference championship despite being down to their third-string QB, showing their strength through adversity, but were still snubbed despite all of that. The first time ever in playoff history that an undefeated power-5 conference champion was left out of the playoffs. It obviously felt deflating for FSU, because by winning out and going undefeated was already proof enough that they deserved to be there but not to the committee's eyes. It also didn't help that these same "experts" have been ragging on them all year long saying they didn't deserve to be there despite all their accomplishments. The committee showed FSU that going undefeated didn't matter to them, so why even bother playing in another "meaningless" game at all, let alone play the whole season? Even if FSU beat Georgia and stayed undefeated, they still wouldn't have been national champions, since they were snubbed from the playoffs. The most they could've done is title themselves national champions like what UCF did when they went undefeated, but that would've felt like a hollow victory at best. The hypocrisy of all this is when the committee and ESPN considered FSU a "completely different team" without Jordan Travis, yet when the roster opted out vs Georgia and FSU played nothing but third-stringers and true freshmen (who never played a single snap in college up to this point), they point and say "See, this is why we snubbed them from the playoffs!" as if it was the same team that played during the regular season. Also when they pick the top 4 teams, they themselves say they pick the "best" and not the "most deserving." If that was the case, then why was Georgia not in the top 4? Even with their loss, they were still arguably the best team in the nation. If it's only "the best" teams according to a room of totally unbiased "experts", then what's stopping them from just putting in the same 4 schools they want in every year like Alabama? Both Georgia and FSU got screwed, but for different reasons.

I feel like one critique I’d have is this: FSU fans were not upset with what happened in the Orange Bowl. That game absolutely meant nothing to us, and we had nothing to prove. Going into it we have any hype or desire to prove ourselves, and it was a glorified scrimmage to us with the chance to see our young guys practice. Nothing else. And apparently we managed to make everyone else in CFB angry, so… bonus?

My favorite thing about the entire FSU collapse, is that they blamed the ACC for not being chosen. Not the fact that they were on their 3rd string QB and also barely beat a mediocre Louisville team.

There are other contributing reasons why bowl games are dying. The transfer portal is the first that comes to mind. Immediately after the snub Fsu had bench players declare they were planning to transfer so they didn't play in the bowl or risk injury. And with NiL there is a financial incentive to not playing in the bowl which supercedes any gifts and boons the bowl might provide. Not to mention the very real trend of draft eligible players getting injured in bowl games. 2020 and 2021 also showed that if a talented player opts out of a season and exclusively focuses on drafts NFL teams will still draft them. Skipping the bowl to have a less dangerous way to prepare for the combine also makes sense

My alma mater (James Madison) got into their first bowl this year, the Armed Forces Bowl vs. Air Force. In the time between the end of the season and the bowl game, our coach left to go to Indiana and took most of the staff with him. So far 10 players have also transferred to IU and our starting QB, Sun Belt PotY, also hit the portal, although he did play in the bowl. We lost despite AF being on a four-game skid coming in. So while it was cool going to the first bowl game in program history, it's really hard to tell how good/bad JMU actually was and how good/bad AF was. AF doesn't have to deal with transfer portal shenanigans. It was cool for JMU to have a miracle 11-2 second season in FBS after 8-3 last year, and even going to a bowl was neat. But so many bowl games were distorted by the transfer portal, culminating in Georgia/FSU, it's just wrecked bowl season. Something's got to change.

I completely agree with you. It is hard to want to know who is number one while caring about the bowls that used to matter. I used to love the Rose Bowl because it was the Big 10 vs Pac 10. It was tradition. Now it feels, meh! Something happened when tradition was lost in favor of crowning a unanimous national champ. I only watched one bowl game, the Michigan game, and all the other ones seemed so insignificant.

As much as I agree with your key points, being a part of a college football team as well does allow me to appreciate what bowl games offer the opportunity for teams to have extra weeks of practice. I think there is an interesting dynamic with bowl games nowadays with the ability of players to opt out due to their future aspirations of NFL play, I think it is very important for the younger talent, second or third strings to have a chance to step up to the plate and contribute against an opponent that is unfamiliar. Despite all the flashy and vacation qualities of a bowl game that allows the team and players to have a fun experience and receive nice gear and gifts, I think it ultimately it lets a team have another shot at being that years team and potentially end it on a high note, and come out with a win going into next season. I do think that teams who do not receive bowl games are worse off for it simply due to the fact that they have usually two weeks less of practice, and one full game less of experience for their younger members.

As a Husker native, NOT going to a bowl game the past few years does feel bad. I get why they don’t matter for skilled teams, but it’s fun to see the players another week and feels valuable after coming off a losing record previously. Here’s hoping 2024 🤞

Ik this sounds stupid but I went to FSU and when you say “Florida” it means you’re referring to UF not FSU; FSU is always “Florida state”. Just thought you should know people get really particular about it down there.

unrelated but i love the WKU shirt, where did you get it?

i’m a mississippi state fan and our bowl game last year was incredible. our coach mike leach had literally just passed away and we finally got back to a bowl and won it

Pop tart bowl is the only bowl game that matters

Man, Michigan really caught a break not having to go through Georgia last year. Props to Bama for getting it done in Atlanta.

Love the progression of your videos bro, been a day 1 fan and fellow punter. See ya at a million subs

I think that the entire cfb system is hurting the game a lot. What if all of the top players on your favorite NFL team sat out only because they are entering free agency. No sport should be run like this because it removes any competitiveness unless it’s for the CFP.

I think the only narrative that bowl games are truly pushing is "please give us money, we want money, the tv makes money and you should give us some of it." Except for playoff bowls, not a single one of the 477 bowls matter one little bit. They are just a chance for players to get hurt for nothing. Maybe, MAYBE, the players get to go somewhere cool and get to be treated well in the week leading up to it. But most bowl games are cynical cash grabs in places like Shreveport (the Independence Bowl). And I say that as someone who has lived in Shreveport for the last five years.

I don't remember when all of the opt-outs began, but that is truly what is ruining bowl games. The FSU that went 13-0 and the FSU that played UGA were two completely different teams. Hopefully the expanded playoffs next year will curb some of the opt-outs because a bowl game that lacks each teams star players is not even worth watching anymore. Why should the fans care if the players can't even be bothered to show up

UGA was not at full strength either: No Brock Bowers, Amarius Mims, Rara Thomas, Smael Mondon, Julian Humphrey, Jamon Dumas-Johnson, Xavian Sorey, and over a dozen other guys. Both teams were without the SAME number of players. All this game did was prove that the committee was right to leave FSU out.

As a USF fan, I think Bowl Games are pretty good when the teams have something to prove. We USF fans will be insufferable, blowing out Syracuse 45 - 0, we say we could get into a power 5 conference, but give it a few more seasons.

This reminds me of Alex Smith Utah team snub. They went on to obliterate Alabama in the "Consolation Bowl" to prove that they should have been the team to play in the Championship game. What did they earned from it? A 24 hour coverage of "They should have been chosen" then nothing.

wouldn't have had these issues if the 133 team league didnt have the smallest playoff in US sports 🙃

Can we please stop pretending that FSU played anyone worth a damn all season?

The fact that ate so many bowl games and 6-6 teams can make it to one. THAT IS WHAT IS RUINING BOWLS GAMES

I think ESPN and their incessant pushing of the playoffs as an achievable goal for every team is what really ruined bowl games.

UGA and FSU were both deserving of going to the play-offs... and the play-offs have rendered bowl games meaningless. The only reason we still have them is because coaches want the extra practice time.

Things that have made bowl games irrelevant: 1. The BCS/CFP 2. The glut of bowl games added over the years to the point where a team with a losing record can get in. 3. Player Opt Outs. 4. Transfer Portal

Bowl games used to be my favorite time in the year before the playoffs were a thing. Previous generations knew that college football was about beating your rival not winning the national championship. They didn't even have a national championship game when I was younger.

I don’t think people realize that Florida State was a team of players who lacked experience in this game, they played the entire starting lineup for Georgia the back-to-back national champs who had a full season of experience against a team with only 8 players who had started at least one game. Another thing is when it comes to Florida State vs Alabama and Texas on who should get in to the playoffs, the games didn’t matter, but now that Florida State has lost to Georgia the game matters a lot more. The biasness Bama (and frankly the entire sec) receives makes the entirety of College Football basic, because you know that the same teams will be at the top every year. It doesn’t matter how you play on the field, it matters how much the committee likes you.

This is a shinking example of unintended consequences. We railed for so long about a playoff that we forgot that the regular bowls games not connected to the CFP were meaningless and only attended for the 15 practices that coaches get. We, as a fan base, got exactly what we deserved for being greedy. Instead of two weeks of decent and sometimes compelling games, we have the lifeless husk of the bowl series while waiting for the games that matter.

crazy to think its only been a couple years since teams just had to argue about the top 2 instead of top 4. glad to see it's going to 8 but sad it happened one year after seven teams had a legit argument to be included in a playoff

I still can't believe bama got in over georgia. I would have put florida state and georgia ahead of bama. Bama had so many bad games early in the season, and close games against mediocre teams

Please stop calling them Florida. Thats an entirely different team

As a Florida state fan, this hurt way too much

As a die hard FSU fan I've been saying since we got our brakes beat off in that game. "The committee said 13 games didn't matter.. so the players said 14 doesn't either then."

The only reason FSU players had to play for in the orange bowl is the millions in revenues the conference gets from being in it. I'm 100% on the players' side in this. Yes they get a scholarship, but it is at the coach's whim. They can get dropped at any time, so don't give me that "free tuition" line because it is "free tuition so long as their coach doesn't need their scholarship for somebody else." With a 60% football graduation rate (2019 being the most recent football specific year I can find data on) free tuition from a nonfootball perspective only matters if you graduate. As a fan, I want to see a good game, but I can't fault the players for making a rational decision to opt out and not get hurt the way Jaylon Smith did a few years ago. But what about the "it is their chance to show scouts what they got" argument? That's something to consider if there was no combine coming up in a few months. Show what you got at the combine where the chance of severe injury is much less. Players have their health and their talent, and they lay that out on the line for our entertainment. It sucks to watch a crappy game like this year's orange bowl, but FSU playing at full strength just to show the committee how wrong they got it doesn't give them a chance at winning it all; it only give sports show talking heads material to talk about, and that doesn't help the players. A bowl game has become a participation trophy with half the teams in the bowl subdivision going to one. Like you said, nobody is going to care who won the toilet bowl brought to you by toto in 2023. They are going to care about who won between Michigan and Washington. Bowls are a way for businesses to make millions and share some of that revenue with the various conferences. With a 12 team playoff, that should be the post season, though I would make it a 16 team playoff and nobody gets a bye game.

Yall gotta admit, last year's Cotton bowl was pretty cool with Tulane going toe to toe with the Heisman winner.

Good review. You are 100% correct. FSU exposed what most of us knew: non-CFP bowls are worthless

As a fellow HBCU alum. S/o to you for plugging the Celebration Bowl!

I remember WMU going on a tear the one year and qualifying for a no-name bowl game. No one was really excited... until they realized it was in the Bahamas.

My biggest problem with the FSU snub is that the injury to the first string quarterback may have kept them out. In the NFL, you keep your seed regardless of your injuries.

This sort of thing will continue to be an issue until one of two things happens. 1) Playoffs are expanded to the top 25 teams. or 2) Playoffs are expanded to the top 25 teams.

None of this is on Florida State. I would've sat out too, why risk injury for nothing? They did everything right and were snubbed. A brutal but necessary killing blow to bowl games. With the CFP expansion, I think and hope we will see a transition to meaningful postseason play that people will remember.

I was raised a fan of both UGA and FSU, and I gotta say you illustrated why this game sucked so much in a great way. The increasing lack of importance in bowl games is a serious issue, and I really do hate it since one of my favorite bowl game experiences was the 2016 Orange Bowl between FSU and Michigan. Great video, keep up the good work, and don't forget the "State" part of the Noles' school name hahaha.

I really like the history and the general idea of Bowl games, but this year was the clearest proof yet that between CFP, NIL, conference realignment, transfer portal, NFL draft, and the general economic conditions around football for players, the old model is completely broken and probably unfixable.

As an FSU fan, knowing that we had to go up against a dominating Georgia team with almost all their players while practically our entire starting team opted out, I knew we would lose. However, I do 100% think that if FSU had had our entire starting team, like Georgia, we would have at least put up a fight or possibly even won. And when I say this, I include Jordan Travis. When he was injured, the FSU team lost its soul. Travis was the energy of the team and his injury was a huge devastation. But, if we had had Travis along with all of the players who opted out, I truly believe that FSU would have put up a good fight or won by a small margin. Also, FSU was completely unmotivated to play against Georgia. We had gone undefeated winning most of our games by a landslide. We had beaten both of our biggest rivals, one of which was without Jordan Travis. In my opinion, FSU had proved themselves in the 2023-2024 season. They showed the CFB world that they were here to stay and were ready to dominate in the years to come. When the playoff committee rejected them from being in the CFB, they might as well have just given them a pat on the head and a participation trophy. FSU was one of the only FOUR teams that went undefeated. While FSU was cast to the wayside, Alabama and Texas (both lost 1 game) were put into the playoffs. The Washington coach, Kalen Deboer, was even asked if he could imagine being left out of the playoffs with an undefeated season in which he said, "In all honesty, no." Georgia wanted to prove that they were still the dominating team in the nation after being left out of the playoffs as well. Therefore, the majority of their players did not opt out as FSU did. This obviously leads to the 63-3 loss for FSU. A large part of FSU's team was seniors and many of them went into the NFL draft. 10 players from this FSU team were drafted and are now playing in the big leagues. Even though it would have been nice to beat a dominating Georgia team, I can speak for most FSU fans that we did not expect to win that game based on the cards we were dealt. Injuries, opt-outs, lack of motivation. However, being able to watch our team grow in the past few years has been amazing. I personally think that we will have a really good team coming up this next season. We lost a pointless bowl game. A bowl game that we had lost as soon as the clock started. The young men on the FSU football team are ready to come back and prove the playoff committee wrong. If you don't agree with what I have to say, I don't really care. These are my personal opinions on the bowl game, playoff committee, and the FSU football program. Anyways, go Noles!

I dont think you realize someone was gonna get screwed regradless. Had Bama not made it, they would've been snubbed and if State didnt make it, they were gonna be snubbed. That's why the expansion of the playoffs is so important, especially this year.

Hey man, loved the longer style of video! This was very entertaining all the way through. I loved how you built the narrative and mainly showed clips while you were talking instead of just talking to the camera which would have been less engaging to me. Just a small bit of feedback, a nitpick really. There were quite a few times you referred to FSU as “Florida” and as a Gators fan it just felt very wrong and it would’ve felt more right if you’d shortened them “FSU” in those times instead. But really, loved the content, keep up the good work!

1. Florida STATE friend, STATE. 2a. Its reality of 5 not being the same number as 4 finally catching up to the NCAA (its come close a few times) . 2b. I dont think its the death of bowl games, because that already happened. And theres a LOT of factors at play (transfer portal, players on their 7th and 8th year "covidshirt" years on their 4th different team) 3. We absolutely needed an 8 team playoff this year, because we had 8 standout teams (Washington, Oregon, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, FSU, OSU, Michigan) and the rest of the field was more than a little behind those 8. The BCS system killed the importance of most bowl games. And having 40 of the fuckers didnt help either. There are only so many people interested in watching 2 6-6 midmajor teams that got a bowl game solely because someone paid to put their name on a bowl game You said you were in ... some bowl I already forgot the name of, and from that information alone, I couldnt tell you what team that was (Western Kentucky?), what 2 conferences that game had ties to that year, or if either of the teams playing in it were ever on TV in this region. The NCAA has spent a while building up the concept of the Power 5 conferences (and then pretending the Pac10 mostly didnt exist because 75% of the AP voters brag about going to bed and not watching west coast games [some on nationally televised ESPN shows even!]), in an era where they take the best 4 teams to the playoffs. This was doomed from the start, especially as those conferences grow ever larger (No, the Big 10 doesnt need to run from Southern California to Jersey and have 20+ teams, this is stupid, stop it). Hilariously, this happened in the last year of the 4 team era (and as we head into the 12 team era, it reminds us that we should just go back to 10 team conferences and also take 16 teams, holy crap have we learned nothing), so the NCAA can just shrug it off. What id like to see, if College Football is going to keep rushing headlong off this path, is bowl games pick up some of the rivalry games. People worried about losing the Apple Cup? Bedlam? The other rivalry games people are worried about losing? (The red river rivalry will never not happen, I think UT and OU would sooner be a conference of 2 and play just that game during that weekend) Make them bowl games in years the involved teams arent playing for a title. The Holiday Bowl can be the Holiday Apple Bowl. You can have 'Bedlam at the Death Star on New Years Day/Eve/ish'. You can always have the winner of the same midmajor west coast conference play the winner of the samemidmajor east coast conference, and so on. You can do a lot of fun things with those games instead of being just another game you see on a sheet of games and go "I only know those teams exist because I saw them last year when I was picking bowl games". you can finally play the damn Toilet Bowl. Theres a lot of space to play with, the NCAA is just perpetually a decade behind.

Build your Culture. Georgia has built their culture up within the last 7 years, and they as a program showed up for a game like all players should or stay home.

The problem is you have the top schools that compete for a national championship every year, and you have the 160 other schools that play hard all season and have nothing to show for it. Bowl games allow different schools to get nationwide exposure, they give teams that are never going to win their conference a chance to play for the next best thing - bowl eligibility. As a fan, I loved knowing my team was going to play in a bowl game. It was cool because it was usually against a school we didn't play very often. I can understand how FSU felt snubbed, but it was also an opportunity for the team to bond and go out on top - but they decided to throw in the towel. But if you watch some 6-6 teams play each other in a bowl game - the winning team is always super excited, even if it's the Flippy's Diner Bowl that no one knows about - it's not the CFP, but it's a bowl game and they won it for their school.

This bowl game, I think, showed the huge difference in how these two programs operate. FSU felt like they had something special, in a program that doesn't have the recruiting classes and the luck to put it all together every year. So of course, when they are looking at a bowl game that doesn't get them closer to a championship, it makes sense to see the opt-outs and transfers. Plenty of other teams had notable opt-outs, though perhaps fewer than FSU, but all anyone has talked about is how this team's lack of starting talent in a bowl game was an indictment of the program. Georgia, on the other hand, is a machine. They compete for championships every year. They recruit 4 & 5 star recruits as a matter of course. They don't get opt-outs because they know they're highly replaceable. Kirby can say it's about culture, but some of that culture is that every starter has an ESPN 300 recruit breathing down their neck and a coach who likes getting paid.

The one thing this video doesn't address is the shift from Power 5 to Power 2 (SEC and Big 10) which already began before the bowls with the demise of the Pac 12 and will continue to the point where even some teams in the Big Two will get kicked to the curb and in 5 years (if humanity is even existing by then) college football will consist of 30 teams who all just play each other every season with every other team currently in D1 being relegated down if not dropping football altogether. In other words, the NFL with players pretending to be college students.

How this guy can go so in depth and not even know the name of one of the teams is beyond me. ‘Florida’?

I know you were a backup; punter but how often were you used?

Bama got into the CFP because the SEC is more profitable than the ACC. Simple as. FSU could have beaten the absolute piss out of everyone with their backups the entire season and Bama might still get in over them.

This year’s orange bowl didn’t ruin bowl games, and I was there to witness that beat down. It’s the Playoffs and the committee ruining college football and making the post season meaningless

I like how barely anybody says Georgia got snubbed but we went from 1 to 6 after losing by 3 points in a conference championship game

I am an Oregon fan, and I remember having a conversation with my dad during our win over Liberty. I was saying that by all means we had a successful season and a bowl game win should feel important, but it didn't. Bowl games don't matter unless you're in the CFP.

I am an FSU fan and while not making the playoffs hurt i thought the whole point of them and the voting was that the best teams were selected and not the most deserving statistically. At the same time, as a player you went the whole season getting more and more sure that you were going to play in the playoffs and that being a driving force for the team and organization only to have that ripped away at the last possible moment. I dont blame them for not having their hearts in the bowl game. I also would not be surprised if Coach Norvell encouraged his players to value their futures as players over a game that is for little more than bragging rights. All that I've heard about him is that he cares about his players on a personal level and that is a big part of why we have had such a massive turnaround in the time since he took over.

Good video, I feel like there was an oversight on *why* many of the players opted out on the side of FSU, because while for some you could say it was spite in some fashion, I think it says more that these were players that were declaring for the draft/entering the portal and didn't view the Orange Bowl as valuable enough to warrant them playing and possibly messing with their chances in said ventures. Because you did say towards the end that the main takeaway is that no one views the Bowl games as consequential, but I think that this game was more of a canary in a coal mine that showed just how little the bowl games can be worth if the teams don't commit to give it worth. Because in order for FSU to have fielded to full strength, the players would have to not only be motivated to have something to prove in the Orange Bowl (which a devil's advocate would respond: "Why should they, if their wins don't matter?"), but ALSO feel like reward of the game (superficial) is worth the risk of interfering with their future (prospect value) I saw somewhere that said that the playoffs and bowl games cannot realistically co-exist, because as long as the CFP exists, the bowl games have nothing to play for in comparison. Even when the playoff expands, the bowl games' worth diminishes.

One of the reasons we needed a new playoff system now those what ifs wont be a problem as an lsu fan i hated the fact fsu got snubbed and its not just because they beat our ass they earned that spot. Now not only can u prove u deserved it in the 12 team but we can see Cinderella runs like march madness

The bowl game that ruined bowl games was when Jaylen Smith tore his knee up vs Ohio State. That led to all the NFL draft prospects deciding it wasn't worth the risk

I’m loving the long form vids, Isaac! As a Georgia Tech fan, making it to a bowl game for the first time in 7 years does invoke a special feeling. However, it still ultimately only serves to push bragging rights and doesn’t really mean anything. Alas…

I think whatever value was actually in bowl games ended when the old BCS system started. That was what ruined everything for me. As a Penn State fan, I never cared who won the National Championship, I cared about first, winning the Big Ten, and then winning the Rose Bowl. That was the standard, you perform well enough, you get to go to the big traditional bowl game that really was an accomplishment back then and you played that other conference's winner. Before then, it might have been inconclusive, the national champion being picked by committees or whatnot, but at least, it was out of your control, so if it happened, cool, if not, eh, can't do anything about it. And the BCS, was like, the perfect lose-lose compromise solution. It simultaneously ruined the traditions of the biggest of the bowl games at least, the ones that had stable traditions and histories that matter that you can point to that trumped any of the commercialism bs about them, and then it also just, was a lousy way of picking a champion. Sure, sometimes they got lucky and their were two undefeated teams, but sometimes there were four or five, sometimes there was only one and like seven teams with only one loss, and then you add on top of it the biasness of the power conferences, which I always thought was half bullshit as well, 'cause you never know if you don't play the games.... (You're so good SEC champ, then beat the Sun Belt champ in a playoff, but no, they won't do it. You're afraid!) That's when the bowl games really died out, and while this system is still better and will get better, it's still so wishy-washy that you end up with a 5-6 game that really should be more competitive but just isn't, because there's no value to the game. Every bowl game is just completely arbitrary at this point who goes and who doesn't. I don't even know who went to the Rose Bowl this year, who was it, Ohio St. and IDK, USC? I'm not looking it up either, 'cause it doesn't matter anymore. The real annoying part is how easy this fix would be. Just do it like, the NCAA tournament in all the other sports, (Or all the other levels of college football) and have a real playoff system. If you're in FCS conference, the winner gets an automatic bid, no matter what, so, let's say a 16-team bracket, that's 10 conference winners, [screw the independents, 'cause fuck them join a conference already!) and then six wild cards. Somebody still bitches about getting left out, well, at best you were still like, maybe the 8th best team in the country, and more like the 12th or 13th, and I wouldn't feel too bad about it. Either that, or go back and get rid of the national championship BS altogether, leave it back into control of the sportswriters or whoever it is that votes, and then start these Bowl traditions anew. Of course, that isn't gonna happen now, there's too much money involved in an actual playoff, even a terrible one, plus it's harder than ever to argue that these are unpaid amateur student-athlete when there's more compensation for players than ever.... So, that isn't gonna happen, so the closer we get to an actual legitimate playoff system that reasonably takes into account the entire Div. I landscape and tries to reasonable allow the best teams an opportunity to win, the better. And anything that helps dies out the bowl games at this point, I'm in favor of.

It helps the Bowl Games, that the Playoffs will be 12 teams now. Maybe a lot of players won't sit out or opt out of the bowl game when they are in the Top 12 now. HOWEVER, the Committee isn't going to do it correctly. This will just let the Loser of the Conference Championship Game in (or even worse, the best team that didn't get to play the Conf Champ Game). What a mess. DOWN WITH THE COMMITTEE!!

It felt like they wanted to put Florida State up that high as a sort of inside joke where they were like "Yeah they'll lose to someone and then we can drop them somewhere reasonable." But they didn't. So they made a decision that would definitely piss everyone off

What makes the bowl games insignificant is that there is nothing really on the line. But what would happen if at least 11 of those bowl games were playoff games?

With all due respect to the players, I just cannot get interested in College football. You go out there, play 12 games, put up 50+ points in 9 or more of them, play one or two good opponents finish undefeated or as a one loss team and play in the Who Gives a Shit Bowl and do it all over again next year. Even when a school like Boise State rose up and was a threat in 2007-2011 or so, they did the exact same thing. They shit on almost everyone, including their bowl opponents, but lost one game to Nevada or Hawaii and the seasons were over. It is so damned pointless. I prefer the NFL with the playoffs and the draft. Feels like seasons matter, even bad seasons for rebuilding.

Depth was key. FSU didn’t have the depth to compete with an end of the year SEC power House. The score would have been 48 to 17 UGA.

All I know is that this committee might as well be relegated to judging figure skating.

FSU basically said what most aren't willing to admit. The Orange Bowl was a waste of time and they didn't want to be there. So if the committee wastes their time they will waste everyone else's.

As a longhorn’s fan, fsu got snubbed. But some bowl games do have meaning. Like a group of 5 team that had a 10+ win season and they get to face a solid power 5 team to prove that they can hang with the big boys. Or when a team barely earns a spot for a bowl game after consecutive losing seasons and they beat their opponent that had a better record. And the BCS era was not much different when teams like Boise State and TCU were snubbed out of the bcs bowl for not being a power 5 team. And when Oklahoma State got denied to play at the BCS bowl but the comity chose Alabama (who didn’t even play at the conference championship) instead when it’s obvious they chose them because they bring in more views and revenue.

The 4-team playoff has ruined bowl games. Not sure why 4 teams having a shot instead of 2 made everyone decide that "if we can't be in the playoff, this is pointless" but that's what happened. Before the playoff, it was an honor to play in the Rose Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and even somewhat fun to play in the Peach Bowl and Citrus Bowl. The lower bowl games gave athletes one last chance to shine for pro scouts and win for their beloved universities. Now...

When I was a kid in the 60's, they only had 8 bowl games, so getting to a bowl was a major accomplishment. All of the bowls were fun to watch. There were four in December- the Liberty, Gator, Bluebonnet, and Sun Bowls, leading up to New Year's day big four- the Cotton, Sugar, Rose and Orange bowls. They were a lot better games, because it was the best of the best playing. Today, a team who gets to .500 is automatically in a bowl. Even some 5-7 teams get in. There are 43 bowls plus the national title game. Add to that the transfer portal that opens up in the middle of bowl season, NIL money that encourages player to shop for the school where they can get the most money, and people who are going pro opting out of the bowl to work on their NFL preps, and you have a situation that has ruined college football in many ways.

The bowl games will continue as long as the fans watch the games, either in person or on TV. That's it, period. The question is this: with opt-outs and transfer portal losses for teams with nothing tangible to play for, how many fans will still watch? Tough question to answer.

I'm so glad that you talked about the nuances of this. I was letting out a groan when you said that FSU lost the chance to say they were snubbed because I was sick of people looking at an obvious protest and pretending there wasn't a reason. But you actually made a point to talk about how pointless it was for the FSU players who not only had little to win regarding their pride, but also so much to lose both in pride and in career prospects. Overall my annoyance at the whole situation is summed up perfectly by your starting and ending point: fans only take away from a bowl game precisely the narrative they want to take from it, every time. When people can even try to argue about FSU being snubbed I have to ask what they think the point of playing any football games actually is.

You said Celebration Bowl and the first thing that I immediately realized was that you sir went to an HBCU. And I was did not expect that revelation on the first video I saw from you for obvious reasons.

As a Georgia Fan. I thank The FCS rank Football team of UNA (North Alabama) For taking out the Florida state qb