Chris Fowler on bowl opt-outs: 'It ain't changing'

Chris Fowler has been around the sport of college football for what seems like forever. As the sports changes around him, Fowler recognizes that the sport is continuing to stray from it’s past — and it’s not returning to it anytime soon.

Controversial topics like the transfer portal and NIL have gone got the ball of change rolling. In an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show, Fowler stated that it’s easier to accept what’s changing in the sport.

“It’s complicated,” Fowler started, when speaking about the sport of college football. “I love the sport — I will always love the sport. It’s more useful to talk about acceptance, then it is to complain about what’s going on, what’s not as good about the current sport that what we were used to growing up.

“I mean, you can do that — obviously. And the opt-outs in the Rose Bowl .. having four opt-outs – four really important players for Ohio State – that takes you back. Because you didn’t used to see that in the Rose Bowl. But I don’t think it’s a shock to anybody. I think that the fluidity of rosters, the overall confusion that that creates, having to constantly – 365 – be monitoring the portal. Coaches can not like it, they can complain about it — but it’s the reality. You either adapt and figure out ways to make it work to your advantage, or you get swallowed up and get bypassed. And that’s the same of any job in the world. It’s certainly been true in the history of this sport. You adapt, or you get run over.”

Fowler: ‘You can complain about it, but it ain’t changing.’

Furthermore, Fowler believes the programs that adapt to the new world of the sport will be the best suited for success. Continuing, he names teams that already have.

“I think that the programs that adapt to the modern reality — yeah, it’s uncomfortable. Coaches coming and going, players coming and going. The exciting part of it is – if you want to silver-lining it – is that look how you can have these amazing transformations of teams,” stated Fowler. “Utah’s got a bunch of guys that have come in. Michigan State — look what they did. There’s the opportunity to get fresh blood. To have teams rise from the ashes because you can use the portal to your advantage. There’s downsides to it, obviously. You’d like guys to have more buy-in, more enduring loyalty. But loyalty to themselves is important too.

“You can complain about it, but it ain’t changing.”

Chris Fowler sees the writing on the wall for the future of the sport. If they haven’t already, coaches and players will too.