Christmas has come early for Carolina Football.
When the Tar Heels lost their last two conference games, they were banished to the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, against 18th-ranked Stanford and one of the best players in the country, junior Christian McCaffery. It was going to be a very tough assignment, with Stanford a perennial power in the Pac-12 Conference under Coach David Shaw.
Now, the Heels get a tremendous holiday break by not having to face McCaffery, who is turning pro and said this week that he will skip the Sun Bowl to prepare for the NFL draft in February. He did not say it, but McCaffery also does not want to risk an injury that could cost him his first-round draft chances. It’s a selfish decision, but selfish is often not a bad thing for someone with so much on the line.
LSU’s Leonard Fournette has made the same decision and will skip the Citrus Bowl against Louisville. He and McCaffery both missed portions of the recent regular season, but Fournette is still projected as a first-round pick and McCaffery close to it. Neither wants to jeopardize that standing for a bowl game the means next to nothing.
If Stanford or LSU were in the College Football Playoff, you can bet their star players would be preparing for the national semifinals right now with their respective teams. But for college games that are nothing more than exhibitions and a chance for most of the players to take a nice trip and get a free bag of swag, high level pro prospects have far different goals in mind.
McCaffery smashed Barry Sanders’ all-time collegiate record as a sophomore, running, receiving and returning the football for more than 3,800 yards as runner-up in the Heisman Trophy race. He is projected as a versatile pro who still must gain weight and strength to be successful at the next level. He stands to make a lot more than the $5 million insurance policy would pay him if he were injured and disabled, ending his football career suddenly.
The losers here are the bowl games. Sun Bowl tickets, which are barely selling at UNC, will slow to a crawl among people who wanted to see McCaffery play. Some Stanford fans may even bail on the trip to West Texas.
But for the Tar Heels, a win is a win is a win.
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