re: Can Jayden just say

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absolutely meaningless bowl games

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I’m confused. Are our players not gonna be wearing LSU uniforms? Are Wisconsin players not wearing theirs? Will they not be keeping score? Will the outcome not be reflected in our season win/loss record? Seems pretty meaningful to me.

And that’s just the actual game. The extra practices are certainly meaningful. The practices and the game will be beneficial to our young players going into next season. For the seniors it will be the last chance they get to play with their brothers and run out of the tunnel with that “LSU” written across their chest. For a lot, it will be the last time they ever put on a uniform at all.

That said, there are admittedly levels of meaningfulness. And if Jayden, Malik, or BTJ determine the Gator Bowl isn't meaningful enough to risk getting injured and hurting their potential draft status, I won’t begrudge them one bit. Because it’s not just the risk of devastating injury or an MCL or whatever that would require surgery and obviously drop them in the draft, something as “small” as a turned ankle or pulled hamstring could prevent them from working out for the combine/pro day where they could potentially raise their draft stock.

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support and understand guys opting out

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We obviously agree here.

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a glorified scrimmage.

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We don’t completely agree here. Like I said, if they’re keeping score, it has meaning and we want to win. That said, with not just the opt outs, but the month between the previous game does make it a game between 2 very different teams than they were at the end of November. Which does give it a “scrimmage”y feel.

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Bowls need to end

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Why? (I’m not picking on you—I think we actually agree on more than we don’t. You just had a few quotes in 1 post that made it easy to address in one reply.) But I’ve never understood why people have a problem with bowls. If it’s a not a matchup you care about, simply don’t watch. Who does it hurt? Some are very sparsely attended, but a lot help the economy of the host site’s city. And I get that it’s kind of weak when a team like LSU goes 6-6 and gets “rewarded” with going to Shreveport or Memphis or Houston or whatever crappy bowl a 6-6 SEC winds up in.

But what about Liberty? Or James Madison? Or Vanderbilt and schools like that that play with huge resource disadvantages? Their players get up at 5 a.m. all year and work out. They’re running 110s in the spring and summer when it’s 90 degrees. They sacrifice their time and bodies just like Bama’s or Georgia’s or Ohio State’s or whoever. And they do it knowing that they have no chance of actually making the playoffs. Why not reward them for having a good season (by their relative standards) with a little week-long vacation where they get to stay in nice hotels, get great meals, get to go bowling or riding rides or whatever touristy things the host city has to offer, get a pretty nice swag bag with all kinds of cool things in them, and treated like kings for a week or so?

And to me, it’s not the “participation trophy” argument. I’m not talking about “rewarding” USC for going 7-5. To me it’s more about rewarding players on lesser teams that had decent-great seasons by their standards and put in the work all year and finished what they started.

Playing college football is really hard. The benefits are usually well worth it, but that doesn’t make it any less hard. Those guys sacrifice a lot. It’s easy to quit. I just don’t see why it upsets anybody that 2 teams of players are gonna spend a week in Memphis for the Liberty Bowl and get to go to Beal St., eat some good barbecue, tour Sun Studios or Graceland or whatever.

ETA—again, I just used some of your quotes to make some points I have. No animosity directed toward you at all. I think your opinions are valid, I just slightly disagree on a couple.