Do you really think that the thousands of players playing college football have no love for the game, no competitive blood flowing through their veins ?
Of the hundreds or thousands of players, how many high draft choices have been injured in bowl games in the last ten years ?
Your 1st paragraph is a straw man.
🙂
ALL these athletes are competitive. Even the ones who at the end mitigate even small risk by forgoing bowl games. A top player might not want to be that small statistic.