Christian McCaffrey Blows Off the Sun Bowl
Published on 25-Dec-2016 by Raoul Duke
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College football bowl games have been marginalized for some time now.
Because ESPN will point their cameras at literally anything, these post-season pairings have multiplied over the years, completely saturating the product on the field.
However, a recent trend is now threatening to render bowl games even more meaningless.
Stanford stud tailback Christian McCaffrey recently announced he'll be skipping his team's eagerly anticipated Sun Bowl matchup with the North Carolina Tar Heels to focus on the upcoming NFL Draft.
— Christian McCaffrey (@CMccaffrey5) December 19, 2016 |
Of course, this decision makes perfect sense for McCaffrey.
Dude's projected to be a second-round pick in the 2017 draft and could even improve his stock with a decent showing at the public meat market otherwise known as the NFL draft combine.
What could potentially harm his draft status?
This is just spitballing here, but perhaps an injury in a completely meaningless exhibition game.
Similar business decisions are being made by other players, including LSU's Leonard Fournette, another running back expected to go early in the draft.
The injury to former Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith in the Fiesta Bowl last season has certainly altered the thought process of star college players and will no doubt continue to do so into the future.
Meanwhile, where does this leave already ineffectual bowl games between the seventh-best team in the SEC against the eighth-best team in the ACC?
Honestly, if a player competes in 11 or 12 regular season games, only to skip the supposed culmination of those efforts, why should anyone else care?
Poor Hyundai.