Remember when bowl games meant something? I was sitting here watching ESPN break down these 21 five-star kids and all this recruiting class nonsense, and I got to thinking about the old days. Back in 2002 when we went to the Sugar Bowl against Florida State, that felt like a prie. You earned your way to New Orleans. The whole town shut down for a week. We had parades. You could feel the weight of the season in every play. Now we got what, 40 bowl games? Half of them are played in empty stadiums in places nobody wants to go in December. Kids opt out because they are worried about their draft stock. I remember when Herschel ran all over Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl and it meant something to every man in that locker room. You stayed for the game because that was what you signed up for. Now we got the Duke's Mayo Bowl and some sponsor nobody heard of. The 1995 Peach Bowl against Virginia Tech, we had 70,000 people in the Georgia Dome and it felt like a championship game. Now you cannot even get fans to show up for the Citrus Bowl unless the team is undefeated. The transfer portal killed bowl season worse than anything because half the roster is gone by the time the game rolls around. I miss when December meant something. When you sat around with your family and watched the bowls and every game had stakes. Now it is just a participation trophy for going 6-6.