Penn State LB: Maybe players skipping bowls will force NCAA to pay us

Christian McCaffrey created a firestorm of opinion with his announcement that he wouldn’t be playing in the Sun Bowl so that he could prepare for the NFL draft.

Leonard Fournette did the same thing a week earlier. Others have done it, and likely will continue to do it.

Some are wondering if that trend will result in some change from the NCAA. Maybe reduced bowl games or more bowl game incentives would be a welcome sign.

Penn State linebacker Jason Cabinda offered up a take along those lines:

Cabinda is as well-spoken as they come. The veteran is the vocal leader of that Penn State defense.

But Fournette and McCaffrey are two extremely rare cases of athletes playing in non-New Year’s Six games with potential monster paydays. They represent less than one-thousanth of a percent of college football players.

The odds of the NCAA overhauling its system because of the desire of a few would be stunning, to say the least. But perhaps as Cabinda suggested — if it does become a true trend — it’ll add to the argument for the NCAA to give student-athletes an a salary.

Surely that would make many like Cabinda and Jake Butt happy.