FSU and Georgia should turn the Orange Bowl into a controlled scrimmage, like a spring game

FSU got cheated; and Georgia is better in the "eye test" than Michigan, Texas, or Washington. Both should sabotage ESPN by making the Orange Bowl a meaningless practice scrimmage for next year.

At various points in this piece I referred to Kirby Smart as Kirby Smith, who was a Confederate general, not a football coach. (Although SEC coaches and confederare generals share some cultural DNA, I must admit.) I’ve fixed it; but that’s the kind of brain malfunction that can happen when social/history guy drops into sports for a special occasion.

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The Orange Bowl game between #5 FSU and #6 Georgia is a meaningless, glorified Harlem Globetrotters-style exhibition game designed to enrich the same people who just screwed FSU.

No player with any hint of an NFL future to risk should take part in ESPN’s Orange Bowl broadcast. That’s the first thing I would I tell Mike Norvell and Kirby Smart if they even to were ask. (LOL).

And then I would suggest a way to sabotage ESPN and the corrupt powers of the sport while selfishly helping improve both programs for next year. Come listen:

Turn a no-win situation for the Dawgs and Noles into a farce with reps

The Orange Bowl is a total no-win situation for FSU: if the Noles beat Georgia, it will be because Georgia didn’t care. Beating the Dawgs will prove nothing to anyone; and no one will recognize or remember it. If FSU loses or get blown out, everyone will say, “see, the eye test was right.”

ESPN will market “the third playoff semifinal” angle hard for the Orange Bowl until the game is played and then never mention it again. And the thought of Jared Verse or Jaheim Bell or Braden Fiske risking a Jordan Travis to line the pockets of the same suits who just cheated them out of a chance to compete for real is appalling to me.

I would tell these guys: you have nothing left to prove; and the Orange Bowl won’t prove it anyway.

Moreover, Georgia was better Saturday against Alabama in the all important “eye test” than Michigan, who was as bad on offense as FSU with its first string quarterback against a team way worse Lousiville; than Washington, who has played more close games against worse teams than FSU; and Texas, who lost to a mediocre Oklahoma team that UCF should have beaten.

Playing against a Travis-less FSU isn’t going to do anything for Georgia either except risk costing Brock Bowers millions. If they blow out the Noles, it’s just because Travis got hurt. And if it’s close win, it’s: “you couldn’t even blow out FSU without Travis.”

Norvell and Smith should speak and set the terms of the game — as a ‘24 preseason scrimmage

Here’s a much better idea.

First, Norvell and Smith should talk and set the terms of the game.

If all the great players on both sides want to take the risk and play a third semifinal for nothing, fine, I guess. I admire the competitive spirit.

But if young men thinking about their lives and futures make rational choices about what’s worth risking their bodies for and start opting out of the game, Norvell and Smart should announce they’ve jointly decided to use the Orange Bowl as developmental scrimmage.

The QBs will have green shirts to protect them from hits. The ESPN Playoff Committee has just said clearly that losing a quarterback is actually more important than losing a game. We should take them at their word.

No seniors or NFL prospects will be expected to participate; but they should get the fun trip to Miami anyway. We won’t even keep score; we’ll just let the fans vote on who looks better in the scrimmage.

And be honest, coaches and fans: what would be more useful for next year, a fake ESPN game pretending to be a third semifinal with various players missing? Or an actual serious practice game with intense reps for young players against high caliber talent?

And how much fun would it be to bask in Herbstreit’s fake lamentation of the sanctity of competition. LOL. Let ESPN and the Orange Bowl uninvite both teams for undermining the sanctity of the sport.

That debate would be great for college football, right?

Why this won’t happen

To be blunt, Mike Norvell, who I like very much as a Nole fan, and Kirby Smart are paid a lot of money via the same basic forces that just screwed FSU a lot and Georgia a little.

As outraged as he may be here …

The disgust and the outrage ends here …

Nope, Mike. The team already defined itself. And then ESPN and other media companies declared that FSU’s season ended with Jordan Travis’ injury — and that the last two games were pointless.

If anybody gets hurt in pointless effort to extend a season that is now over — rather than looking forward to next — I think that would be a terrible shame

I did not expect to like college football in this era as much as I do. But the power balance between the kids who play and the adults who profit from them is narrowing considerably, without any harm to the product on the field. And I’m here for it. (I also love this FSU team. I’ve been a fan since 1979; and it’s one of my favorites.)

Yet, the power imbalance still exists — as we see today.

It would be quite a thing to see an angry coach actually challenge it in a meaningful way on behalf of the guys who made him very very rich this year.