Photo courtesy of BlueGoldNews.com West Virginia offensive lineman Wyatt Milum eyes a blocking target.

MORGANTOWN — In a way, the decisions facing Wyatt Milum, WVU’s All-America left tackle, echo situations throughout college football and may, in some way, be part of what’s behind what has become a crazy, wild, unpredictable season for the sport.

In the midst of Monday’s team interviews that wrap up last Saturday’s victory over UCF and preview Saturday’s noon meeting with Texas Tech in Lubbock that will be shown on FS1, Milum was asked if he planned to play in whichever bowl game the Mountaineers are invited to this postseason.

In the revolution enveloping the college game, seniors such as Milum, who projected out as a first-round NFL draft pick, it has become common for many potential NFL draftees to skip their team’s bowl game to prepare for 1. the Draft Combine and 2. to avoid injury that could hurt their career.

Milum indicated that at present he plans to play in the bowl.

“Yeah, I plan on playing in the bowl game,” he answered. I want to finish the season with the guys. I feel like that’s the right thing to do, that’s just my personal opinion. I plan to play in the bowl game, so that’s what I plan to do.”

Of course, he’s going to get a lot of outside advice between now and then and agents can be very persuasive in such matters since they have a financial stake in each player’s future along with the player and his family.

So stay tuned on that one.

But now you wonder how Milum’s decision can possibly have an effect on the wacky doings in college football. That things are off-kilter can be verified just by looking at the scores this past weekend.

You can start with the Big 12, where BYU and Colorado, who entered Saturday’s play tied on a collision course for the championship game as the only two teams with one loss, were upset so that now the conference heads into its final weekend with those two teams, Arizona State, which upset BYU, and Iowa State, which barely survived, 31-28, over Utah all tied for first with 6-2 records.

But it was no different across the nation, where in the next to last week of the regular season No. 4 Penn State barely escaped Minnesota, 26-25; where No. 5 Indiana was wiped out by Ohio State, 38-15; where No. 7 Alabama was destroyed by a staggering Oklahoma team, 24-3; where No. 9 Ole Miss lost to unranked Florida, 24-17; where No. 12 Boise State escaped a huge upset by beating unranked Wyoming, 17-13; where No. 15 Texas A&M was stunned by unranked Auburn, 43-41, in four overtimes; where No. 19 Army was overpowered by No. 6 Notre Dame, 49-14 and where No. 25 Illinois escaped with a 38-31 come-from-behind win over unranked Rutgers.

What is going on?

That was the question I posed to Neal Brown, whose WVU team spent the entire season unable to stir the pot with a big upset of a ranked team.

There is such parity nationally that there is only one unbeaten team in the nation, Oregon, while just a year ago at this time there were four unbeatens. It seems like every weekend.

And, while the traditional names remain at the top — Oregon, Ohio State, Texas, Penn State, Notre Dame, Georgia, Tennessee and Miami making up the AP Top 8, the dominance is not as great and the gap is narrowing to the point that on any given Saturday anything can happen.

Looking at it from another angle, the No. 1 and 2 teams in last year’s AP rankings at this time — Michigan and Washington — are unranked, as are from last year’s Top 25 at this time Florida State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Arizona, Iowa, LSU, Louisville, N.C. State, Kansas State, Kansas and Liberty.

That’s 13 teams who were Top 25 last year and unranked this year.

Brown had his theories on what was going on, and some of it can be found in the decisions his own Milum is going to have to make.

“A couple of things, later in the year those things are more likely to occur. There’s a lot going on around these guys. They are making decisions on the draft, decisions on training, decisions on playing in the postseason, decisions on portal or no portal, what do they think their NIL value is,” Brown began. “These are all things going on around these guys. What’s happened is it’s crept up earlier and earlier. These are things each of the individual players are having to deal with, and it’s a distraction.

“So I think you are seeing inconsistent play because of that.”

Milum does have to think about the draft, on how to train for it, on whether to play the bowl game … big, important things.

Milum is fortunate to have former teammates Zach Frazier and Doug Nester he can go to for advice on how to move through the whole procedure.

“I’ve talked to both of them during the season so I kind of know what I’m getting into with that,” he said. “They helped me out with that, but right now I’m not really worried about that stuff. I’m still just worried about the season.”

Brown sees other things that are affecting the power structure in college football, beginning with the transfer portal and NIL.

“In the past, where the dominant teams used to have all the depth, now they don’t have as much depth,” the WVU coach said. “Those guys who were maybe second and third team are at different places and are really good players.”

Players want to play. Opportunity probably is a bigger driving force than money on whether or not they enter the transfer portal.

“Those schools who still have the elite talent, they still have it but guys who were second and third team players are going to different places and are getting reps there. The talent is spread out more,” Brown said, before adding one final factor that has come about through realignment in conferences that affect the outcome of games.

“Travel is a factor, too. You look at the travel and it wears on you as you go through the year. One game is fine, especially if you have a bye week the next week, but what happens is it becomes a lot over the year and I think guys get tired.

“I don’t know any one of them is the exact reason, but I think all those things are factors,” Brown concluded. “I try not to complain about it. I don’t know if it’s good or bad. Nor am I to judge. It’s just kind of the world we live in now.

“We’ve been in upheaval for four or five years now and I think it will continue for another several years. That’s what we’re in the midst of now and I don’t know it will change for several years.”