So what happens if a team loses so many players to the portal

[ProudUte]

That they really don’t have enough players to play in a bowl game?

Today, many NFL prospects do not want to play in the bowl game because they do not want to risk injury. Add to that existing injuries and the many players leaving for potentially greener pastures via the portal – it appears some teams may struggle to field a complete team for the bowl game.

I understand that so far, the Utes have not lost any starters to the portal. However, we have lost some backups and many special team players. We will likely lose more. We still have a ton of season-ending injuries. Just look at QB for the Utes. We will be starting either Barnes or Bottari. Both were walk-ons when the season started and one still is.

If we do not move the portal entry until January 1, then we might as well stop holding bowl games other than the CFP. If Utah has a few guys declare for the NFL draft, why should they decide to play in a minor bowl game of little cosequence? Why risk the chance of injury? Phillips sat out the Rose Bowl for heaven’s sake.

[The Miami Ute]

CP3 also didn’t play in the CCG versus USC and Kincaid also missed the Rose Bowl. Personally, I think bowls will be a thing of the past in the near future for all of the reasons, and more, that you mention. Who really wants to play another meaningless game when you have a legitimate playoff system in place? Probably the coaches do, just so that they can get more practices in, and maybe the networks, so that they have some content that they can sell advertisers, but the players? Maybe if they got a significant cut of the take. Otherwise, I don’t think so.

[The Rising Cam]

Clark sat out The 2022 Rose Bowl, but he did play in the CCG against USC. He was covering Jordan Addison: https://youtu.be/4ThAWYJs33o?si=ouHoeWI1UCczXDv0

Kincaid suffered a back fracture in the win against Colorado. It was on a TD catch after the game had already been decided. He played through it for the CCG, but they wisely sat him for The Rose Bowl.
He would have played had the injury not occurred.

Those two are the greatest what ifs for me in last year’s Rose Bowl.

[krindor]

With the amount of viewers and money that bowls bring in, I can’t see them going away honestly

[2008 National Champ]

money for the networks. most schools lose money on the lower to mid tier bowls. it’s not cheap to send your whole team, support staff, band, etc. not to mention that they lose some of their payout if they don’t sell their allotment of tickets.

[Charlie]

The regular season should flow seamlessly into the playoffs like HS with possibly a bye week. With the playoffs expanded to 12 teams there is little need for bowl games for P4 schools other than development at extra practices. The remaining need for bowl games is for the mid major teams other than the token conference champ included in the 12. This need should be replaced by another playoff bracket for only mid majors. There would be much more money and satisfaction in the second bracket for these mid majors. Note that all the HS brackets enjoy the several brackets much more than would ever be possible with a single bracket. The only thing left out is the cross division games which the HS system solves with preseason games just fine.

[prestitute]

There has basically never been a point to bowl games other than 1 more chance to see your team play. We shoehorned the national championship into them, but they have always been exhibitions (in fact wasn’t it pretty recently that they started counting bowl stats as official?). Even under the BCS, only 2 teams played for true stakes. I think we all need to accept it. I miss New Year’s Day bowl season, but that kind of died when ESPN bought so many bowls and staggered them. I keep watching the Utes though, and hopefully we will ve in the playoffs a fair amount if the time.

[Utah]

Yes…and no. Bowls came about before tv deals and big money. You’d play your conference games. Maybe a couple OOC games vs close by teams. But you’d never get to see Utah play a SEC or Big 10 or ACC team. You could in a bowl game.

They were incredible.

Then the college conferences started selling their games to tv networks. So you’d get better/more OOC games. Then for some stupid reason, we decided you could only have one national champion (which is so stupid) and the BCS was born. That has evolved into what we have today.

But I remember playing USC in a bowl game. It was magical. We never got to play a team like that and we were able to go in and show what we could do. Simpler times.