The NFL draft is becoming more and more of a can’t-miss event. Just about every city wants a piece of the action.
The draft’s importance to college athletes could negatively affect the popularity of college bowl games.
LSU running back Leonard Fournette and Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey both were chosen in the top 10 after skipping their bowl games. Michigan tight end Jake Butt tore his ACL in the Orange Bowl and fell to the fifth round. Before his injury, he was projected to go as high as the second round.
More players could follow the lead of Fournette and McCaffrey and sit out bowl games. Butt collected $543,000 on an insurance policy, according to Albert Breer of the MMQB, and Bengals offensive lineman and NFL Players Association president Eric Winston suggested that the schools should provide insurance policies for the players who play in bowl games.
“Any guy that’s draft eligible, especially first, second, third round, why would you ever play a bowl game without your school buying you a couple million dollars of insurance on loss of value?”
Agents told Breer that while more players with a good chance to be drafted in the first round could skip bowl games, players with mid-round grades could increase their stock by making an impression in bowl games.
Not only could this dilute the interest level of smaller bowl games, it also could affect bowl games involved in the college football playoff if star players sit out.
Providing insurance policies for players might be the best solution to something that could become more of a problem in the years to come.
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