Selfish or Smart? Stanford RB says he won't play in Bowl game - wants to get ready for NFL draft

rojo wrote:

To quit on his teammates mid-season isn't what I'd advise my son to do.

Well.. good thing this isn't mid-season - it's post-season! It's a crappy exhibition game between two teams that are playing for NOTHING.

Star wrote:

If there is an equal talent I'm going to pick the guy that wants to play.

The move could cost him money.

1) You might pick that guy, but you are fan, not a professional. Pros don't think like fans. They care about more than "talent" and "wants to play." They also want to know if this guy is sensible, if he understands risk and reward and cares about them.

2) For all we know, McCaffrey's worried that the Stanford O Line is so beat up it can't protect him. Or maybe he thinks he's not completely over the injury that kept him on the sidelines this year. Or....

3) McCaffrey knows exactly what NFL teams want. His dad played 13 years in the NFL and has three SB rings.

4) Injuries in Green Bay are likely to have more impact on McCaffrey's draft stock than whether he plays in this game.

I'll pick the guy that watches out for himself just like all the college admin fatcats do.

I refuse to hold players to a high standard than those that pay them (be it in $$ or in scholly $).

In the NFL, the preseason is virtually meaningless, starters sit out most of time. Nobody complains when NFL players take off preseason games. In college, the bowl games are virtually meaningless except for the playoff bowls. If I'm a 1st round projection and my college team is going to some bumfuk bowl game in Boise, Idaho- I'm staying home.

All I know is that this young man's decision to not play football for one day is a very important subject that deserves days of national media discussion.

I actually played 6 years of organized football, Jr. high and high school. Football is a BRUTAL sport and unlike the MLB and NBA the money is all in the bonus/guaranteed portion. The majority of NFL players never receive their contract money because it is terminated or renegotiated for injury and declining performance.

Most football players understand the business side of football.

Rojo - You should actually take a business or econ class. The money the football team brings in outweighs any of the school "investment". Look at the contracts these Power 5 schools have signed. The 3rd string running back is worth every penny of his scholarship because he adds depth and competition to the team. And if he isn't performing, many schools will cut him loose after year two. Examine the alumni giving rates when the football team does well. The media coverage is free PR and it's year round. The NCAA and the colleges are swimming in money off of two revenue sports, football and basketball.

The gambling analogy is excellent. You leave when you are ahead. Every play on the football field is like going all in because if you get hurt you may lose everything.

Myles Jack, who was a potential top 10 pick, got hurt early in his last collegiate season. He announced midway through the 2015 season his college career was done so he could prep for the draft and took some flak from the media and fans. Turned out his knee injury was even worse than previously thought and he slid to the second day as well. He might have re-injured his knee and ruined any shot of getting drafted had he stayed on the team.

Some people throw out the platitude that life isn't about money and McCaffrey will hurt his stock because skipping this game says something negative about his character.

- What if one of his life goals is to play in the NFL at a high level? When I grew up I never envisioned scoring the winning Sun Bowl touchdown.

- The Sun Bowl is a tier 3 bowl with nothing to play for. McCaffrey got a "life experience" in the Rose Bowl last year when he tore up Iowa and won the MVP in front of America.

- The NFL and the majority of corporate America value winning/profits over character.

- It's easier for affluent people or people with comfortable lives to say life isn't about money. Even though I doubt McCaffrey or his family is hurting for money.

Iowa800 wrote:

Rojo - You should actually take a business or econ class. The money the football team brings in outweighs any of the school "investment". Look at the contracts these Power 5 schools have signed. The 3rd string running back is worth every penny of his scholarship because he adds depth and competition to the team. And if he isn't performing, many schools will cut him loose after year two. Examine the alumni giving rates when the football team does well. The media coverage is free PR and it's year round. The NCAA and the colleges are swimming in money off of two revenue sports, football and basketball.

I agree with most of what you say, but only 24 FBS schools were profitable in 2014.

Oh nevermind, we are talking football numbers alone.

It's really hard to quantify the publicity aspect but all these programs get relentlessly covered in newspapers, radio, online, tv, etc. Many of these schools see alumni giving increase when the major sports do well. If the real bottom line was a losing proposition for P5 schools then you would see football programs getting cut like men's track.

Harambe wrote:

Iowa800 wrote:

Rojo - You should actually take a business or econ class. The money the football team brings in outweighs any of the school "investment". Look at the contracts these Power 5 schools have signed. The 3rd string running back is worth every penny of his scholarship because he adds depth and competition to the team. And if he isn't performing, many schools will cut him loose after year two. Examine the alumni giving rates when the football team does well. The media coverage is free PR and it's year round. The NCAA and the colleges are swimming in money off of two revenue sports, football and basketball.

I agree with most of what you say, but only 24 FBS schools were profitable in 2014.

http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/athletics-departments-make-more-they-spend-still-minority

You are correct.

The pro scouts have already pegged him. They do not want him a bowl game as it does nothing for his pro value and draft ranking.

Smart decision to focus on the future.

HRE wrote:

But there's nothing about a bowl game which makes a career ending injury any more or less likely to happen than any other game does. If you've established yourself as a potential first round pick by midseason and don't want to risk injury, why wait for a bowl to quit? Why not skip the 12th game, or the 11th, or the 8th?

My intuition tells me that playing in a bowl game is inherently more likely to result in injury than any other regular season game (except for maybe the first one). The regular season is usually over before the last week of November. Then there can be around a month off before the bowl game. That time off could easily expose a player to rust. Hitting in practice is nothing like hitting under the lights, with the band playing, fans cheering...

Now that being said, the value of McCaffrey's scholarship is essentially a pay to play, not a pay and elect to play. While he is "employed" by his school he needs to suit up. Also, he relied on his teammates to open the NFL door of opportunity, the least he could do is repay them by getting one last win.

If I was a part of the NCAA cartel I would collude with other institutions of higher learning to have some type of play or pay clause associated with the scholarship: if you elect not to play then you have to pay back your scholarship for that year.

Harambe wrote:

I may be the only person here who has been to the Sun Bowl.

He's not missing much.

This is a solidly B- tier bowl. I'm sure his teammates don't care.

If we are going to FORCE these kids to risk their careers by playing in college for three years, look for this to become the norm. Minimize the risk.

You're not! I grew up in EP and saw many Sun Bowls. You're right in that it's a solid B tier bowl. It's a different game now than when I saw Thurman Thomas run all over West Virginia at the 87 SB. Money is everything and McCaffrey is right to minimize his chances of blowing guaranteed NFL money.

It's the FREAKING SUN BOWL.

rojo wrote:

But the same time since the adults in charge, the so-called educators, have been basically saying for the last 20 years, "Money is the only thing that matters", I'm not too upset about it.

To me, one of the biggest travesties in education is how bad the administrators have behaved in recent years. I grew up in Texas and Texas and Texas A&M don't even play each other anymore because the adults have made it all about money.

Rojo, as a college professor I plead with you TO never, NEVER confuse college administrators with educators, let alone w/ responsible adults.

Smart move by a smart kid at a smart school. I would expect nothing less from someone who goes to Stanford. Running backs have a very short shelf life, so you don't want to lose millions of dollars just so you can play in the Sun Bowl. Quite honestly I feel that the NFL policy that requires someone to play two years worth of college football before they can enter the draft is discriminatory and should have been eliminated years ago. The college game is essentially a free minor league system for the NFL to evaluate young talent with no financial risk. The colleges (at least the good ones) make tons of money off the players who are making slave type wages compared to their NFL counterparts (the $100,000 a year they are giving McCaffrey pales in comparison to the $2 million a year that an average NFL player makes). It is why college coaches are able to make as much and sometimes more than pro coaches (not to mention the ADs). Kudos to McCaffrey and Fournette for skipping their bowls.

Dennis T Reynolds wrote:

Smart. Football is a business, he is treating it as such. The NFL, NCAA, universities and YOU THE CONSUMER have made it that way.

I like that players are doing this, it exposes how meaningless the majority of these bowl games are. They are nothing but a cash grab by the NCAA and the universities.

x1000

There's no other reasonable answer; how much $$$ has Stanford (which does have other virtues) already made off this kid?

As I used to run right next to the ASU football practice pen. I saw the hurt tackling dummies(What they called walkons) on the extra long golf carts carried back to the med center for treatment. I saw stars lumber. not the glamour of saturday, just a normal tuesday.

I don't blame him one bit, if his team was in the playoffs, he should play otherwise the bowl is to make more money for his school.

asu guy wrote:

I don't blame him one bit, if his team was in the playoffs, he should play otherwise the bowl is to make more money for his school.

That's what the playoffs are for too.

Once a player has maximized his draft possibilities, he should stop.

If I really thought NFL teams would lower the draft place of somebody who didn't play, that would be something to take into account. I don't see any evidence of that. Indeed, for a position like running back, it could actually help--less wear on the tires.

It can be both smart and selfish. Those are not exclusive to one another.