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Message: [QUOTE="Cusefan95, post: 5595415, member: 173"] Devil's advocate - if an 8-4, 6-6 team makes a bowl game and gets blown out, its not a story anybody in the media cares about. After Dino got fired we got demolished, nobody nationally even noticed a game had occurred. When Florida State got left out of the playoff, had the half the team and almost all the starters opt out, and got blown out in their bowl game - some media pointed to that as "proof" they didn't belong in the playoff. How much that has played into the fact the program has struggled since then is debatable- but it may have had some impact. Notre Dame had a boatload of seniors, very few of whom were going to be interested in a non-playoff bowl game. They were very, very likely to be in a "FSU" situation with dozens of opt outs of key players. Getting blown out with backups playing was a possibility. Schools that just miss the playoffs (and have annual expectations to make it) may be taking a huge risk of damaging the brand playing a bowl game with fifth stringers and getting blown out - opting out might be the better decision. I think people criticizing Notre Dame are viewing this from a pre-NIL, pre-playoff perspective. The rules have changed, the incentives have changed - but we're expecting schools and players to act like its still 1988 and bowls matter. What needs to change is people's expectations - I don't expect players and schools will decide to start behaving irrationally under the current rules just so we can pretend as fans that its still 1988. People can be disgusted and horrified at Notre Dame all they want - but if college football doesn't figure out a way to make it rational for near-miss playoff teams to play in bowl games, they should prepare to be disgusted and horrified frequently until they grudgingly accept the new reality. [/QUOTE]

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