Here's Why Notre Dame Coach Brian Kelly is Right in Threat to Boycott College Football Playoff
Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly stirred the pot in the college football world today ... and I'm glad he did.
Kelly and the No. 2 ranked Fighting Irish are preparing to play in the ACC Championship game on Saturday against No. 3 Clemson, the first conference championship game in Notre Dame's program history. Considering they've already beaten Clemson once this year and the circumstances around the sport, I think there's virtually no chance the Irish are left out of this year's College Football Playoff.
And perhaps the fact that Kelly is holding a lot of the cards right now is part of the reason why he spoke as passionately as he did this afternoon about players' families being allowed to attend a CFP semifinal game.
I respect that everyone has different feelings about the pandemic and I'm not here to tell you how to feel.
That said, I couldn't possibly agree more with Kelly on this point. If it's safe enough for the teams to travel across the country and compete in these games, in stadiums that seat tens of thousands of people, why isn't it safe to allow families of the players to attend the games? It's not complicated to spread people out in the stadium.
The issue is much more about local governing politics than it is about the NCAA or the CFP.
When he was asked about the potential about playing in a bowl game, here's what Kelly had to say to reporters Friday afternoon (the video is above):
“I'm not sure we'll play in the playoffs, if parents can't be there, to be honest with you," Kelly said. "Why would we play, if you can't have the families at the game? So, a bowl game … yeah, we would opt out if you can't have families at bowl games. I mean, why would you go to a game where your families can't be part of it? What's the sense of playing a game in an area of the country where you know they nobody can be part of it?
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"So it doesn't surprise me at all (that some teams opted not to play in bowls). Look, there's so many sacrifices these kids have had to make. To go to a bowl game where there's no real opportunities for them to do anything – they're going to stay on campus and may show up at the bowl game 24 or 48 hours prior to. So there's no real reward. Go home and see your families. Go home for Christmas, that's the reward, really, more than anything else.
"You know, it's not the bowl games’ fault. I get it, we're in a pandemic and there's restrictions and things like that. But, you know, we’ve got to think about the student-athletes in this situation, and not having a chance to share this with their families. After being away and sacrificing so much. You can see why they wouldn't want to play.”
He's spot on and I would support any coach from any program in the country that speaks up for their players like he did on this topic.
Of course, there's also a chance this could impact the Buckeyes. Ohio State likely controls its own destiny to the Playoff. If they win this weekend, it's hard to see an argument against putting them in the CFP, based on the decisions that the committee has made up to this point. I don't think Texas A&M can do something impressive enough in a non-championship setting against a bad Tennessee team to leapfrog Ohio State (as long as they win on Saturday).
Depending on how things shake out, a Rose Bowl appearance for Ohio State is a very real possibility. And while the question hasn't been publicly asked of Ryan Day or anyone else at Ohio State, I'd have to think the Buckeyes would also fight for their players' families to attend the game.
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