Every team is playing for a championship, regardless of how likely it is to acheive. Once said championship is out of reach, health becomes priority and games lose their color a bit. This is just speculation because I’ve never played but outside lookin’ in I can see it being justified this way. Ultimately it comes down to a player’s mitigation of risk and plan forward against titles to gain.
Do we know what time that was posted? My guess is he posted it before that trophy was awarded and the “one more” was one more award to be announced. I sure would love it to mean one more year at OSU, but… he gone.
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It was posted after the award was announced. 
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Yeah, that makes sense. On one hand, I can understand players not wanting to play in a bowl game; on the other hand, what is the cutoff for games not mattering? Any game after a team is no longer in contention for a championship?
As a coach, you’re going to say every game matters. Play for your teammates. Play for pride. Play to win. To entertain the idea that a single game doesn’t matter would doing a disservice to yourself and the program.
As a player, all of this direction comes top down. So if the coach is influencing them appropriately they’ll buy into the idea that all games matter, even if the season hasn’t gone as planned. Fight the good fight.
As a fan, your (not you specifically) opinion doesn’t matter much. 
As a fan… We only get 13-14 of these things a year if we are lucky… So I think all of the games are important.
Okay, I tend to agree with you guys, that bowl games matter too, it’s just when anyone suggests so on twitter people start foaming at the mouth and are like “ARRGGHH, WHY DO YOU HATE STUDENT ATHLETES!!!”
If you genuinely like football and are being honest with yourself as a fan, they all matter. Unfortunately a good margin of the Twittersphere keyboard warriors do not fit into this bucket. Don’t let them sway you! 
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I would think that they matter from a recruit standpoint. Kids wanna play an extra game,
Get some gear, be in TV. Might’ve helped us last year land a recruit or two from Missouri 
. The last point was probably an anomaly but I will Take it nonetheless .
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The state pride thing never makes sense to me. Both OU and OSU have a majority of their roster from Texas or elsewhere anyway haha.
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Bowl game matters to everyone who intends to be IN the program the following season. Once you decide as a player to move on, the coach’s/fans’ perspective no longer matter to you and it becomes a meaningless game.
It’s their way of exerting some kind of guilt. ‘We’d root for you if you were in the same position!’ 1) No, you wouldn’t and 2) Even if you would, we’re not obligated to return that theoretical favor.
If memory serves most teams lose money on bowls it’s conference money that saves the day, which is why I’m glad uo gets to get curb stomped in the cfp. Why would the cowboys want to go a million or so in the hole for no discernible benefit. The Texas bowl likely means they break even or maybe make a little and they get an actual benefit, they’re playing in a recruiting hot bed they can have success in, unlike the cw bowl. Just a guess why they would want no part of it.
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The only thing about that article I don’t like is he says the players get nothing. Which is false. Depending on the bowl game they get some nice gifts. Everyone on the team does, from the scout team to the stars. They get to go on trips like Disney World and Universal when we went to Orlando. They get to spend a week in some new location (sometimes) and enjoy a paid trip. So it’s not like they get nothing.
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I also believe players should get paid for their likeness, but not for actual playing the games. But that’s an argument for another thread.
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Baylor this year was pretty much a worst case scenario IMO for non UT and OU Big 12 programs. Didn’t hear anyone from the media give Baylor a chance at the Playoff. Baylor had the better loss going into the Championship Game and could have avenged that loss with a win against OU. Had the roles been reversed and Baylor had lost to KSU and OU lost to Baylor I could easily see the media setting it up for OU to get in if they beat Baylor in the title game. They have used that same justification in the past and tried to do the same with Oregon this year. I think the committee takes Oregon over Baylor if the championships games in both leagues went the opposite way. I don’t like it, but I do understand it more after reviewing recruiting performances. Seemed like their preference went OU, Oregon, Utah, and Baylor for that fourth spot.
Interesting name with an interesting take, why was that?
Yup. For the Liberty Bowl, the players get gift certificates to the Bass Pro Shop in the Pyramid, in downtown Memphis.