Ohio St. Marvin Harrison Jr. opt-out nonsense can only slow down with this measure

Once Ohio State lost, again, to Michigan, the best player in college football was finished.

Why the Buckeyes waited ‘til the last minute to announce that wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. was not playing in the Cotton Bowl against Missouri only they know, but in the world of NIL cash this “opt out” charade needs to stop. Or, at least slow down.

As a likely first round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, Harrison has a few million reasons not to play in a bowl game that is not part of the playoffs. We get it.

Also, if he, or any other major college athlete, receives money to play for the team, and they are still on the team, then they need to do their job for the team when there is a game. If not, return the check.

Nothing will ever restore the college football bowl season to its previous state, which proves there is a God. The creation of this fake playoff, and now its expansion, has reduced the bowl games that are not a part of the postseason bracket to spring football exhibitions.

Throw in the player’s ability to enter the transfer portal, which is now roughly the size of the Grand Canyon, and games such as the Cotton Bowl are vulnerable to feature gutted depth charts for teams that often barely show up.

The 2023 Cotton Bowl was one of those bowl games that was so bad you had no choice but to watch, no matter how much it hurt your eyes. No. 9 Missouri defeated No. 7 Ohio State, 14-3; if you’re a Mizzou alum, it was a wonderful end to a great season.

This Cotton Bowl wasn’t on the same level as TCU’s 10-7 overtime win over California in the 2018 Cheez-It Bowl, but this tested your love of football.

So do most of these college bowl games. We’re watching these bowl games to avoid our families, and or just to see how bad the next one can be.

This game meant nothing to Ohio State, and it showed.

Granting these young people increased power to either cash in, or transfer, were both long over due. And some of this “opt out” stuff is beginning to look ridiculous. Because “opting out” is a cute way to say, “I quit.”

The only chance to change some of this is not the NCAA, which at this point would lose a lawsuit if it tried to change a light bulb.

A college athletic department could threaten to alter its relationship with the athlete-student if he/she bails early; “alter” as in, “We love you, and ... when you come back here in a few years to finish your degree, it’s out of your pocket.”

Since most aspiring pro players can’t see beyond the next game, this sort of “threat” won’t do much.

The only real chance to change some of this are the people who run these NIL collectives at the big schools. Those collectives are the real money that compensate the athlete-student in the form of hard cash.

If those collectives squeeze, this trend of a player “opting out” could change.

If this is all about money, Ohio State’s home game on Sept. 9 against Youngstown State is effectively just as significant as its appearance in the Cotton Bowl.

If this is all about money, than this season’s Cotton Bowl has the same value as the playoff games - the Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl, and national championship game.

If this is all about money, all of these college games pretty much mean the same thing for a Harrison Jr. Or LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels, who became the first Heisman Trophy winning player to bail on his bowl game.

If this is all about money, what does winning a national title mean for a Marvin Harrison Jr.?

In the next few years, student athletes will be signing contracts that are far more binding than the National Letters of Intent, and a scholarship. They will be with collectives, and or the university athletic departments.

The relationship between these collectives and an athletic department is fuzzy; they’re not supposed to be linked, and yet they’re embedded with each other.

If the Ohio State University collective is going to arrange to pay an athlete-student tens, to hundreds, of thousands of dollars in return to play football games for the Buckeyes, it would be within reason to expect that person to play regardless of opponent.

That means suiting up to play Michigan, Michigan State, or against Iowa State in the Amigone Funeral Home Bowl. (BTW, that is a real name of a funeral home, and it should be a bowl game).

This newly granted power has tilted the relationship between the athlete-student and his team/coach; everyone involved is figuring it out. It’s a multi-million dollar mess, but football is the drug we can’t quit.

Rules and regulations in this portal/NIL world are coming, and if college football (and TV) want to try to elevate all these bowl games into something more than slapstick comedies, it has leverage.

Because if Marvin Harrison Jr. had signed a contract that said the only way he would be paid was to play for Ohio State against Missouri, he would have been on the field rather than the sideline in the Cotton Bowl.