(ThyBlackMan.com) College football bowl season clearly isn’t quite the same as it was a decade ago. While the College Football Playoff has garnered a lot of interest, the other college football postseason games outside that format do not generate as much interest, understandably so. Due to the transfer portal and Name, Image, and Likeness or NIL, college football players now view themselves as the individual revenue earners they long have been as college coaches, administrators, and the schools themselves have profited off of the unpaid labor of college athletes for decades. Because college football bowl games are correctly viewed as exhibitions that are separate from the college football regular season, most NFL Draft prospects on college football teams participating in college football bowl games now skip those bowl games due to the inherent injury risk associated with playing the game of football.
Miami Hurricane quarterback Cam Ward, one of the biggest names of the 2024 NCAA football season, ended his college football career in controversy due to making a decision that could be viewed as putting himself above his team. He played one half of his team’s game, the Pop-Tarts Bowl, and did not take the field for Miami during the second half against Iowa State despite not appearing to be seriously injured. Miami ended up losing the close game. However, Ward’s decision in reality could be considered a different version of another important sports figure of the Miami Hurricanes athletic program, former men’s basketball head coach Jim Larrañaga.
The addition of quarterback Cam Ward to the Miami Hurricanes football team was one of the biggest stories of the 2024 ACC football season. Ward ended up having such a productive year that he finished as a Heisman Trophy finalist. He also broke Bernie Kosar’s 40-year school record for single-season passing yards and surpassed Steve Walsh as Miami’s all-time single-season leader in touchdown passes. Despite his team’s disappointing loss to Syracuse in the last regular season game that essentially kept Miami out of the CFP, Ward was a star for his team all season.
Before Ward’s decision to sit out the second half of a bowl game, Miami Hurricane athletics received major news as men’s basketball head coach Jim Larrañaga stepped down days before the Pop Tarts Bowl. Larrañaga is the most accomplished and unquestionably the greatest head coach in the history of Miami Hurricanes men’s basketball and has been inducted into the UM Sports Hall of Fame & Museum. His basketball team was undergoing a losing season when he stepped down and it seems that a major reason for his departure was his frustration with the NIL landscape of college sports. He said, “Now all of these guys are pros, they’re getting paid, Three years ago years ago, our Elite Eight team, not a person got any NIL money, not one, but they played hard and played to win and we need to get back to that. And it’s up to my staff to get the most out of this team and hopefully the team recognizes it.” There has been no indication that health was the reason for Larrañaga’s decision to step down.
Much of the criticism regarding Cam Ward’s decision to not play in the second half of the Pop Tarts Bowl is the idea that you finish what you start, once he committed to play in the game in the first place then he should have finished the entire game understanding the injury risk involved. He could have pulled a Shedeur Sanders, ironically another 2025 NFL Draft quarterback prospect who Ward will compete with to be the first quarterback taken. It is fair to criticize Ward for the start and finish method of sports competition. It is also fair to apply the same method to Jim Larrañaga, who did not finish the college basketball season that he started with his team. Larrañaga’s frustration with his team’s performance and NIL should not deter him from finishing the entirety of the college basketball season his team is scheduled to play and that should be pointed out as both him and Ward were high profile representatives of Miami Hurricane athletics. Both head coach and quarterback are leadership positions so more should be expected from both men.
Staff Writer; Mark Hines
