College Football Bowl Thoughts | Jackson Free Press | Jackson, MS

College Football Bowl Thoughts

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Bryan Flynn

Everyone has likely heard about the dust-up between Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork and cartoonist Marshall Ramsey. Bjork got upset over Ramsey's New Year's Eve tweet: "Wonder if Bo will be asked to drop the ball tonight."

That tweet might have been the nicest thing said about Wallace, who had three interceptions in the first half. Bjork said he was just defending his player and thought Ramsey was picking on the student-athlete.

Here's the thing Bjork and every other athletic director needs to understand: If the power-five conferences (SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and Pac-12) want to push for autonomy and paying players, what Ramsey said will look like a compliment in comparison to what's coming.

The difference is that pro athletes are paid and college athletes are thought of as kids just using sports to earn a degree. If they are paid, then the gloves will come off even more so than they have now.

The power-five athletic directors need to grow a thicker skin because Bjork would have snapped if he saw my Wallace tweets. Also, it doesn't look good to pick Twitter fights when you're getting your butt handed to you 42-3.

It was not the best bowl season for the SEC; it finished 7-5 in bowl games. The mighty SEC West went 2-5 in bowl games with blowouts of Mississippi State and Ole Miss. The SEC East, though, went a perfect 5-0 in the bowl season.

It was a down year for SEC bowl games, but it wasn't like the rest of the power five were tearing it up. The Big 12 went 2-5, the ACC went 4-7, and the Big Ten is currently 5-5 as Ohio State prepares to play for the championship. This season, the Pac-12 performed as the best conference, currently at 6-2 and awaiting Oregon's performance against OSU.

Can the whole country send the Oregon Ducks a big thank-you note? Jameis Winston and the Florida State Seminoles can't troll America anymore, courtesy of the Ducks. If Oregon can play like they did against Florida State on New Year's Day, I don't think there is a team in the country that can beat them.

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