Star college players used to play in bowl games not so long ago. I can unsderstand them not wanting to get injured but if I were a NFL scout I'd think more positively towards a player who was loyal to his team mates to the very end and a player willing to take a risk so he could proudly represent his school one last time.

I know others will say that "It's just an insignificant bowl game." which may be 100% true. If so, the NCAA and college football needs to eliminate these "insignificant" bowl games and maybe just have 10 or 15 bowl games for the best 20 to 30 teams. It's obvious that many college football players don't care that much for playing bowl games when they have little incentive to do so. The only bowl games that matter are the three playoff games. Maybe all those insignificant bowl games should be played during the first 3 or 4 weeks of the regular season so the bowl sponsors can still make some money and promote their product or service? ESPN will have to find something else to fill in all those empty time slots in December. Or... the FBS could simply do what the FCS does playoff-wise and end all bowl games or have the top bowls sponsor the final 3 rounds.