Kirk Herbstreit offers opinion on bowl opt-outs: 'You compete your ass off'

Kirk Herbstreit is not a fan of the recent trend of bowl game opt-outs. In an appearance on WVTM13 in central Alabama, the ESPN analyst struggled to understand the logic of players who decided to skip their team’s bowl.

“It’s not like because we have a Playoff that teams before the Playoff didn’t achieve their goals,” Herbstreit said. “I don’t get it. I never will. If you’re a competitor, you like to play in a game. Let alone a 100,000-seat stadium with a TV rating that will be as high as the (CFP) semifinal. My god. There’s the tradition, which I know today’s player doesn’t really get that. But I think you do once you get there and you get into that stadium. I think you start to feel it a little bit more.”

The number of players who decide to opt out of bowl games only seems to increase with each passing year. Auburn had three players including linebacker Zakoby McClain opt out of the Birmingham Bowl this season. Oregon defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux won’t play in the Alamo Bowl, nor Purdue receiver David Bell in the Music City Bowl.

Look around, and it’s clear to see this is happening everywhere. If it’s not a College Football Playoff game, it isn’t worth risking injury.

“I hope this isn’t our new norm,” Herbstreit said. “I hope it’s an era that we’ll somehow get out of. I think the quote “a meaningless bowl game” — is the Akron game a meaningless game in September? Are we just gonna pick and choose where a game has meaning? Your team is playing an effing game. It matters. You go play and you go compete your ass off. That’s your job. I don’t get “meaningless.” I never will.”

But it isn’t just the Music City Bowl or Birmingham Bowl players are deciding isn’t worth it. Several stars have also decided to forgo a chance to play in prestigious New Year’s Six bowls on college’s biggest stage.

That includes Ohio State stars Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, Haskell Garrett and Nicholas Petit-Frere, all of whom opted out of the Rose Bowl. For Kirk Herbtreit, who played quarterback for the Buckeyes, these bowl game opt-outs especially sting.

“It’s the Rose Bowl,” Herbtreit said. “We used to have to deal with a consolation prize of going to the Citrus Bowl. But this is the Rose Bowl. Maybe these players that are struggling to understand it, maybe when they get out there and get on that field, maybe it will dawn on them why this bowl is different. I get being disappointed, but you gotta shake it off and move on to the next game.”

Although it is disappointing when the best players don’t play, it’s hard to fault them for looking toward their future. No matter what side you stand on, this is a trend that isn’t slowing down any time soon. Until the Playoff expands, we will continue to see talented players choosing to sit out what were once elite games.