Deandre Baker, on his ultimate decision not to play in the Sugar Bowl ($$):
Baker was then asked how the playoff has changed decision-making for prospects such as himself.
“If it’s not the playoff, the game — it means something — but you don’t want to get hurt in that last game that doesn’t really hold any value,” Baker said. “It’s just another game to say you finished with your dogs. But knowing you’ve got a bright future ahead of you, and that this game isn’t the national championship or the college playoff if you go out and get hurt, it doesn’t only hurt you, but it hurts your family if you have to take care of your family and be the breadwinner. It’s things like that.”
Y’all keep telling me more CFP games don’t devalue anything. Yeah, sure.
Of course, the obvious solution is to expand the postseason — excuse me, the meaningful postseason — enough so that players like Baker won’t sit out. Brackets, for the win!
Get The Picture 
Does this mean that once a team is out of the playoff picture in the regular season, say they have 2 losses or are out of their conference championship picture, the top junior or senior players should sit out the rest of the season? If the situation arises that there is no chance of a team making the playoff, isn’t every game from then on, by definition, “meaningless”?
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I don’t have a problem with it at all.
As long as everyone insists that college football is “pro light” minor leagues, stepping stone to the big leagues, why not sit?
I hope more and more do just that.
Marcus Lattimore certainly should have skipped his third year.
Gurley shouldn’t have come back after his suspension to blow a knee.
If we started playing college football with college students this wouldn’t be an issue. We’ve purposefully turned it into minor league football and we shouldn’t complain when the players act accordingly.
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I rarely agree with you but I do on this.
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As painful as it is to admit it, like you I have to agree with Derek on this one.
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Read that last paragraph carefully. Derek, while making a lot of sense in his post, wants to go to a D III model as opposed to just paying the athletes and giving them incentive to play. Imagine how sub par FCS and D II ball is comparatively and then realize that a D III model is worse than that. This is Derek’s solution. He thinks that will fix college football’s attendance problem.
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AAF teams are superior in quality to college teams. No one is going to their games. Fans don’t like college football because it is a superior form of football. Fans like college football because it’s their team. Georgia fans want their team to be better than Tech or Tennessee, and that’s where the quality of the player and coaching becomes crucial. But only within that relative context. Randy Moss at FSU would have been a sensation. Randy Moss at Marshall was a tree falling in a forest. If all the universities agreed to play by those rules, then it would work. But in reality we’d just be hitting the reset button on the cheating curve.
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For a team that had a legit chance at something big…yeah..and this mainly applies to first round kids…
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Any drafted player’s money is pretty good too. The last player drafted will get about $70,000 as a signing bonus and around $500,000 a year for four years. If I were a junior finance major at Georgia and a company offered me a job making half a million a year and would give me a check for $70,000 when I signed up if I left right now, I doubt I’d hang around to finish my degree.
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Please see Houston – 2018
Ed Oliver bailed mid season
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But college football’s storied traditions and rivalries come at the cost of our being able to stack, measure and weigh everything.
And all those hardworking suits who are scoring off the student-athletes deserve some consideration, too.
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Although I wanted it to stay 4 , attitudes like these, though correct, devalue any games not leading to potential playoffs. Thus I now get the need to expand. What’s to stop a player from playing when his team loses his second game and is out of the playoffs? What happened to insurance policies? Guess they aren’t big enough for the top level players. College football is dying a slow death and fast becoming minor league ball.
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I wouldn’t have a problem if Baker would have kept his mouth shut and not made such a big deal about coming back on national television.
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Agree. There’s a disconnect in the logic. The follow-up question should’ve been; ‘Then why did you return for your senior season?’ Although I’m glad he did return.
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What’s the disconnect? He came back to play for a national title and to improve his draft stock, didn’t he?
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Then why play in games against Middle Tennessee, UMass, Austin Peay, etc.? I’d argue the bowl game would contribute more toward improving his draft stock, and a far bigger game for the team than those patsies.
So once the playoffs were out of the picture, players can walk or ease up? That’ll go over big in the nfl.
I suppose we need a “game importance” barometer so players can pre-judge which games they’ll participate in, and which ones they won’t. I say you’re in or you’re out. You can’t get a ‘little’ pregnant.
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LMAO.
Check out how many kids who sat out bowl games are still expected to be high draft picks and get back to me.
The NFL doesn’t care about what you care about.
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NFL players don’t ease up for meaningless games … with very few exceptions, the last week of the NFL regular season means very little. Notice a lot of guys sit out the meaningless postseason exhibition known as the Pro Bowl if selected (and they definitely don’t go all out).
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“NFL players don’t ease up for meaningless games”
Because they are getting paid. They literally get a paycheck per game they play in. Of course they’re playing in them.
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Uh, not at the end of the season when they are out of the playoffs. They may not specifically announce they aren’t playing. Teams who are out of it or can’t change their playoff position absolutely mail it in during week 18. It can be as bad as the 4th preseason game.
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Oh, well. I guess we fans should stay away and not watch when our team is eliminated from playoff consideration. Rivalries? Who cares. Bowl games vs. blue blood programs? That’s so 2013.
The powers that be have made this bed by making everything about the playoff. Once again, college football, it was nice to know you.
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By the way, for the amateurism romantics, this is an unintended consequence of the current cartel-based economic model.
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We fans shouldn’t have a problem with this. It’s an important and valid position to be taken by the players. Coaches are aware and can plan for it. There is a second-stringer, underclassman waiting to slip into the position. The game goes on. If we are going to not let the star kids capitalize on their fame while the schools do, then this is a reasonable trade-off.
Over time, however, TV might react. If all the star players abandon bowl games and maybe even the last game or two of the season, eyeballs may go missing and the price TV is willing to pay will go down. Then all panic will break-out, but rest assured, the powers that be will find a perfect solution…
…moar playoffs!
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I agree but when I hear people complain about guys sitting out, they typically are the same ones that are saying the “scholarship is enough.” That’s why I say this has become an unintended consequence of the current model.
You’re right … this will be one of the drums that gets beaten for playoff expansion.
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I wonder if he would have played in the Sugar Bowl had he already been allowed to have corporate sponsorship, sell memorabilia, etc. That could make for some tough decisions for these guys. Get that bonus sponsorship money now at risk of losing a bigger payday from your first NFL contract?
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Once you read over Mr. Bakers statement, you really wish he’d STFU, who REALLY know’s if he has a bright future, is Mr. Baker the grand Poobah of valued games or not…how does he know when a concussion occurs, hitting a tree while snow skiing, broken finger nail, pull a hamstring in the shower….or no injury at all….say thank you, hopefully come back to UGA for continued education, move on to the next chapter in your life and God bless!
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I don’t wish that. He speaks the truth and made the correct business decision. No it is isn’t certain he has a bright future but he sure as hell shouldn’t have risked the opportunity to find out just to play in an exhibition game against Texas. Why should he risk hurting his draft position to injury in that game?
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FWIW I think a lot of us realized a long time ago that non championship bowl games don’t mean shit. I haven’t cared about bowl games since long before the playoffs. I think the 05 Sugar Bowl against WVU was my eureka moment. Don’t get me wrong they’re a fun scrimmages and all, and nobody likes to lose but I had fun in NOLA and was hardly bothered by the Texas loss.
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Why not then just sign some shirts and sit out 4 games
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Bowl games used to really mean something, but not any more. Now they are just participation trophies and I couldn’t care less about watching the majority of them. While it is ‘meaningless’, you should still want to win! Because the whole UGA staff and team didn’t give a flying fig, we have to suffer the loss and the never ending crap from TX (and other) fans. Somebody should have kicked Kirby’s ass and told them to get over it and play like Junkyard Dawgs! I was embarrassed by that game and would tell Kirby that if I had a chance. I was disappointed when Baker didn’t play because he said we was going to and didn’t. I understand the reasoning why he didn’t and support it, but don’t play me like that! I was really counting on him and all the wind in my sail was depleted when he changed his mind.
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