Barry Alvarez picked Nebraska because he loves bowl games, suggests paying players for bowls

During the 2022 Big Ten Media Days, former Nebraska Cornhusker and legendary Wisconsin Badgers head coach Barry Alvarez revealed some pretty interesting thoughts on the upcoming season and on college football. The former Badgers AD came up with a simple solution to college football’s recent issue of players sitting out bowl games: pay the players for bowl games. Alvarez also explained why he picked to play for Nebraska. And his reason: because he loves bowl games.

“Nobody likes bowls more than me,” said Alvarez. “I love bowl games. I went to Nebraska because I wanted to play in bowl games. I don’t know if anybody’s been involved in more bowl games than I have, so whatever we can do to keep our bowl structure.

“I know the Rose Bowl, and the Big Ten and the Pac-12, we’re committed to that. And I know everyone in our league knows that tradition is important, and we do not want to lose that. I know the Pac-12 feels the same way.

“So whatever we can do to keep the bowl structure in place. We need to do that.”

Making it to bowl games was once the crowning success of someone’s collegiate career, especially if they made it to a BCS bowl in that era or a New Year’s Six bowl now. Those times appear to be in the rearview mirror as players have opted to sit out bowl games in preparation for the NFL draft. And with the movement of college sports into a pseudo amateur sports arena, Alvarez brings a solution that could likely remedy players sitting out of postseason contests.

“I think bowls ought to pay players. Go back to the old Senior Bowl. You know you win the game, you get X amount of dollars. You lose a game, you get X amount of dollars.

“You know we’re talking about NIL and everything else. I see all our bowl guys up here, well, jack up the price a little bit, and we need to pay the players a little.

“I hate that when they bail, when they don’t want to play. I’d give anything to play in a bowl game. Yeah, that’s hard for me to believe.”

The parody in college football is a double-edged sword as of late. With essentially every game on the schedule of utmost importance to making it into the College Football Playoff, one or two losses will end the dream of playing for a national championship. And some players see it as, if I’m not playing for the national championship; I am preparing for the next level. And with the drive to opt out and prepare for the NFL primarily being financially based, paying the players for participation in bowl games might not be a bad idea.