Just saw Kiper and Yates going through their final mock draft and it got me thinking about the old NE-10 bowl days. Remember when we used to get invited to the ECAC Bowl up in Worcester or that one year we went to the NCAA Division II playoffs back in 2000? That was real football. You earned that trip by winning your conference, not by having a .500 record and a big enough checkbook. The whole bowl system now is just a participation trophy circus with 80 games nobody watches.
I still think about the 1999 squad that went 9-2 and got snubbed by the selection committee. Coach [name] had those boys playing assignment football, grinding out wins in November when the field turned to mud at our old stadium. We beat Assumption on a cold Saturday that year and the whole team carried the trophy to the parking lot where we had a tailgate that lasted until midnight. You cant buy that kind of memory with NIL money.
Now the draft is all about the same five programs and our guys barely get a mention unless they transfer up. The portal killed what made programs like ours special. We used to develop kids from Massachusetts high schools, watch them grow into men over four years, and send them into the world as engineers and teachers who happened to play football. Now every kid with a decent highlight tape is looking for the next check.
I miss the old bowl trips when we'd bus down to some regional bowl game and the whole town would show up. We had a real community around this program. Now its just business.