35 to 40 million reasons ...

I am a traditionalist - I like old style football and have old style beliefs. I used to think it was terrible when guys didn't play in bowl games - letting down your teammates, not honoring your commitments, etc.

But in today's new college football world, I have come full circle and changed my mind on this topic. First, the playoffs have made all other bowl games meaningless. That sucks but it's true. Second, there is pretty good argument to allow the next guy up (ie, Nussmeier in our case) to get that valuable game experience and the 15 days of extra practice. I do like that - Nuss needs it and the staff can evaluate him and others against a decent defense.

Most importantly, if I was a kid in the position of Jayden Daniels or other tops picks - despite my deeply held beliefs about team and commitment, I personally might make the decision not to play in a meaningless bowl game. The chance of injury is not zero - and a serious injury could cost me 35 to 40 million bucks! That's the going ret for a top 5 NFL pick and Daniels is projected there.

And it's not only the money - a serious injury could end the career you spent your whole life preparing for.

I know many of you guys believe in team and commitment and other things that are more important than money - but take a second to think about it. Maybe the reality is that you would skip the bowl too!