To me, all of this is a slow downward spiral of college football and most fans are too ignorant to see or care about what is happening.
Players should not be paid, period. If they do get paid, they should forfeit a portion of, or all of their financial assistance, dependent on their reported income. So right now, you have kids getting a full ride to college because of their athletic gift, and then getting paid on top of it? While I know this is a football discussion, I can't help but think how unfair this is to other collegiate athletes who get little to nothing. I get it, the Universities are making millions off of the performances of these kids. But lets be honest here, these so called "kids" have always known what they were signing up for. A vast majority of your top recruit's are not committing to play football at these schools just for the free education. No, they are doing so with aspirations of playing in the NFL and making millions. The degree they earn is their insurance plan if they don't make it to the next level or heaven forbid suffer a career ending injury.
Bowl games? Meh. I kind of miss the old days before the BCS, etc. The Bowls were fun, felt like they had meaning, regardless if you were in the title hunt or not. I remember ND games in the early 90s, the Orange against Colorado, the big blowout win against florida in the sugar bowl, or the couple of intense games against A&M in the Cotten bowl. As a fan, title hopes or not, I wanted to kick the crap out of those teams in those games. Todays bowls, not so much. Too many bowls with zero meaning for fans. I do understand the extra practices, etc. Good for the program as a whole. I also am looking forward to the expanded playoffs as that at least gives additional games a real meaning.
Paying players, dividing up college football, etc., in my opinion is the beginning of the end. Its losing it luster. The storied traditions, pagentry, all of it... could be gone one day soon or simply not mean anything to anyone anymore. What I have always loved about CFB compared to the NFL is that these kids made a decision to come to school and play for a university because it was the best fit for themselves, their family and their future. The decided to play for a school because it gave them the best opportunity at a college education AND the prospect of making it to the NFL. The NFL... you get drafted and guess what... sorry if you don't like the town of cleveland.. but that company now owns you for a while. Talk about exploitation!