BARNEStorming: Thoughts around the college football world

OXFORD, Miss. — Now that the Southeastern Conference football season is over, I have just one regret. No, it is not that someone other than an SEC team will win the national title. It is because we don’t have what could be the most fun game in the country.

We don’t get to see Missouri play Ole Miss.

Cotton Bowl champ against Peach Bowl champ. Brady Cook versus Jaxson Dart. Luther Burden against a bevy of wide receivers for the Rebels. Cory Schrader versus, well at this point Ulysses Bentley, IV.

The game could be played at a neutral site. Memphis or Little Rock makes sense.

But that game cannot happen and it is disheartening. It would have been fun — and would have been a lot better than some of the bowl games we saw.

Oh, we don’t get it next season either. Mizzou and Ole Miss don’t play in 2024.

OPT OUTS

Many of the bowl games this season were not up to what they were billed because of all the players opting out of the game for fear of an injury hurting their pro potential or because they were entering the portal to play elsewhere.

Since the advent of Name, Image and Likeness money, many players have hailed it a blessing because they say college football is a business.

Okay. The players are getting their money to play a complete season, basically. So treat the season like a business. If a player does not complete the season and elects to sit out a bowl game, perhaps he should give back whatever NIL money would be allocated for that bowl game.

THANK YOU, COACH FRANKLIN

I always liked James Franklin when he was the head coach at Vanderbilt. Now I like him even more since he is at Penn State. Not only has Franklin brought Penn State back to notoriety after the Joe Paterno/Jerry Sandusky scandal, he has brought class back to the Nittany Lions.

I also like that he is intelligent. And he agrees with me on a topic all college football fans should monitor.

In his last pre-bowl press conference, Franklin said publicly college football needs a commissioner. Someone who can do something the NCAA cannot do, govern the sport.

I still think the best person for the job is David Baker, the executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Baker was the commissioner of the Arena Football League in its heyday, and is also an attorney so he knows what he is doing.

Also, the man is imposing standing about 6-feet-8.  But his best attribute is that he is smart and fair minded. Those are two traits missing from college football.

A NEW BOWL IDEA

Since the college football playoff will include a group of five team each year, how about this? The national champion from the Football Championship Subdivision gets a bowl bid to play up a level.

Last weekend, South Dakota State won the FCS title and looked really good on the field.

Steve Barnes

Steve Barnes joins The Rebel Walk staff as a senior writer and brings a trifecta of journalistic experience. As a writer, he has covered college sports for Rivals.com, Football.com and SaturdayDownSouth.com as well as served as a beat writer for various traditional newspapers.

He has been a broadcaster for arena football and several national tournament events for the National Junior College Athletic Association as well as hosting various shows on radio.

A former sports information director at Albany (Ga.) State University and an assistant at Troy and West Florida, he has helped host many NCAA conference, regional and national events, including serving five years on the media committee of the NCAA Division II World Series.

Barnes, a native of Pensacola, Fla., attended Ole Miss in 1983-84, where his first journalism teacher was David Kellum. The duo has come a long way since that time.

He will bring a proven journalistic track record, along with a knack for finding the out-of-the-ordinary story angles to The Rebel Walk.

Barnes continues to reside in Pensacola a mere ten minutes from the beach because he does have taste and a brain.