LOS ANGELES – The trend of sitting out non-Playoff bowl games is becoming a growing trend in college football as more emphasis is being placed on being on the top-four teams who have a shot at playing for a national championship and those who are not and in bowl games that many cynics are labeling "meaningless exhibitions".

This is not a problem that has plagued Ohio State much through the years, last year Denzel Ward sat out the Cotton Bowl and several years ago Bradley Roby was out for the Orange Bowl against Clemson with an injury, but many felt that was more of a business decision with the game not being for a national championship (and prior to the CFP).

The Buckeyes have several players who could go very high in the upcoming NFL Draft and it would not come as a surprise to someone who does not follow this team if a Dre'mont Jones or a Dwayne Haskins opted not to play in the upcoming Rose Bowl against Washington on New Year's Day. Ohio State is sitting with a 12-1 record but is not in the four-team playoff and win or lose, once the game ends on Tuesday evening, there are no games left to play for this team.

Michigan will be without several players who are sitting out their Peach Bowl game and it does not stop there with several other teams dealing with the same issue.

The Buckeyes have preached "The Brotherhood" under Urban Meyer during his Buckeyes' tenure and when talking to players and coaches about the decision for the Buckeyes to bring everyone into this game, that message rings loud and clear as a determining factor in making a decision about bowl participation. Ohio State is quite happy to go into this game with guys like Jones instead of without him.

"It's huge because he's such a good player," defensive coordinator Greg Schiano said. "That's number one. And I think from the standpoint of the brotherhood, I think the players really appreciate -- his teammates appreciate him coming out and playing. And I think Dre'Mont will be a force."

Is it a case of the game changing or the world changing? A decade ago there were no discussions about guys not playing in their bowl game. 20 years ago, there were only a fraction of the number of bowl games and there certainly was no College Football Playoff to deal with as the sport went through many different paths to determine the No. 1 team at the end of the bowl season.

Schiano is not ready to say that it is the game of football that has changed but maybe more of the context that has done the changing.

"I think that's what's changed," Schiano added. "But I think you can say it for the whole society. I don't think it's isolated to football or anything else."

Every situation is different, and Ohio State has not ended up on the wrong end of many of them in terms of not having players going forward and playing in the bowl game. Schiano however is not going to try and get into the mind of each person who has a decision to make.

"I do think that that is an individual choice," Schiano said. "And I don't get into trying to live someone else's life. I think they need to make the decision that they think best suits their life. Just as I have to make those decisions, you have to make them. We all do. You can't get into someone's mind and know what drives their decision-making."

Schiano has had a chance to be on the NFL side of things as the one-time head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Would a guy sitting out of his bowl game raise any concerns on a player he would be looking at when it comes time for the NFL Draft?

"It all depends on who the player is," Schiano added. "The NFL is purely a business. What gives us the best chance to win, if that player -- if there's other issues, then that becomes something to put weight on."

That is not a concern that any of the current members of the Buckeyes team will have to deal with as everyone reportedly will be a go for the game. Each year and each player is different and the Buckeyes will have to cross this bridge every postseason that the team is bowl eligible and not in the playoff.

Obviously, the popular answer would be to just make the playoff yearly and take things out of the equation but there even may be a day that we all reach where players will have to weigh the NFL against a College Football Playoff title. We are not there yet, but we may not be far away.