Opt-out players are part of a larger college football problem [opinion] (2024)

ATLANTA — Dvon Ellies sat alone on the Penn State sideline Saturday with his helmet on and his head bowed seemingly trying to make sense of it all.

Ellies was hurting from the 38-25 loss to Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl. He was hurting from playing what probably was his final college game.

Guys like him, Theo Johnson, Hunter Nourzad, Caedan Wallace, Adisa Isaac, Curtis Jacobs and Daequan Hardy all sought to finish what they started with their teammates by playing in the bowl game.

“It wouldn’t sit right for me to just leave a team,” Isaac said a couple weeks ago, “leave my brothers like that.”

So he and the others played, even if it was only for a half or so. They opted to play their final college game and not sit out, which was admirable.

The Nittany Lions played short-handed because All-American Olu Fashanu and All-Big Ten picks Chop Robinson, Kalen King and Johnny Dixon opted out of the Peach Bowl to protect themselves from injury.

Their absences might not have decided the outcome, but they surely didn’t help Penn state against a very strong opponent.

Fashanu is rated the best left tackle available in the draft and a projected top-five pick. Robinson is a premier pass rusher, another valuable position, who’s also expected to be taken in the first round.

Maybe you don’t like their decisions, but you can certainly understand them.

King and Dixon, Penn State’s starting cornerbacks, had an opportunity to improve their draft stock against an outstanding Ole Miss passing attack and chose not to play. Hardy decided to play for that very reason.

Neither King or Dixon is expected to be taken in the first round. With them out, the Rebels scorched youngsters Cam Miller, Zion Tracy and Elliot Robinson.

“Since when (do) non-first rounders sit out bowl games?” former Penn State wide receiver DaeSean Hamilton asked Saturday on social media.

Opting out is a relatively new phenomenon in college football. Notre Dame linebacker Jaylon Smith injured his knee severely in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl against Ohio State, which dropped him from a top-five pick to a second-round choice and sparked the opt-out interest. He’s still playing in the NFL, by the way.

When Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey and LSU running back Leonard Fournette opted out of bowl games the next year, it spread quickly.

If non-playoff bowl games don’t mean that much to an increasing number of players across the country, then why should fans shell out hundreds of dollars to see them.

Add the transfer portal and NIL money to the equation, and now you have players threatening not to play in bowl games or even leave if they don’t get extra money.

“Players are going to opt out for the (bowl) game or they’re going to transfer if they don’t play so many plays or they don’t get this much money,” Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin said the day before the Peach Bowl. “You’ve got a system that is not going to get better until it gets fixed.

“Ask the NFL if they would ever put free agency right before the playoffs? And not just players negotiating for the next season, but negotiating whether they’re going to play in the playoffs.”

December has become hellish for college football coaches, what with completing their recruiting classes, the opening of the transfer portal and preparing for a bowl game. Easy access to NIL money has only complicated matters.

“The commissioners of the conferences are the best people to solve these problems,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “Get them all in a room together. You could have representation from the NCAA as well as the NFL. Start from scratch and make a whole new calendar, a whole new model.

“It needs to happen quickly. Right now there are no parameters and no guard rails.”

Players opting out is a symptom not a cause of the larger problem. Maybe there will be fewer when the College Football Playoff expands to 12 teams. Maybe there won’t be.

Far be it from me to tell athletes in their early 20s what to do when it comes to their earnings and their future. And they don’t owe universities anything.

But I’ve wondered how opt-out players are viewed by their teammates. Do the guys playing in a bowl game feel let down? Are they resentful? What do the guys who sit out say to their “brothers” with whom they’ve shared so much blood, sweat and tears?

“Of course it was strange playing without Kalen and Johnny,” safety Jaylen Reed said. “They’ve been my teammates for three years. I’ve known Kalen for a long time. They’re my brothers. When you’re not playing with those guys, especially those caliber of players, it’s kind of hard.”

Originally Published: December 31, 2023 at 4:01 p.m.