Good for you, Christian McCaffrey. College football, and its bogus bowl system, need a jolt.

Stanford’s All-America running back announced Monday that he won’t play in the Sun Bowl on Dec. 30, saying he needs to prepare for the NFL draft. His Cardinal teammates will take on the University of North Carolina, down in El Paso, Texas, without one of the best players in the game. I’m guessing they’re none too happy about that.

Some say it’s a selfish move by a star player, giving up on his teammates in favor of NFL riches. I say it makes perfect sense. And more players will follow.

McCaffrey’s decision exposes the absurdity of meaningless bowl games. Let’s hope it also sheds light on an outdated system that benefits business, and little else. As things stand, only two bowl games matter. The rest are exhibitions.

That’s right, of the 41 bowl games to be played this holiday season, 39 are unnecessary. Take your pick. Appalachian State against Toledo in the Raycom Media Camellia Bowl? LSU and Louisville in the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl? How about BYU facing Wyoming in the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl?

It’s a pointless exercise celebrating corporate greed. From the laughable names, sold to the highest bidder. (Consider the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl, played at Nissan Stadium.) To the lackluster matchups. To the empty seats and lousy ratings. The NCAA bowl system stinks, and everyone knows it. It’s sad that a college junior seems to recognize this, yet university presidents don’t. Oh, that’s right — they’re on the way to those bowl games with a plane full of well-heeled boosters.

The game deserves better. The fans deserve better. And, most important, the players deserve better.

The college bowl system was created to help boost tourism in southern cities that needed to fill hotel rooms and generate money during the holidays. It started with the Rose Bowl in 1902, puttered along for decades and eventually grew into a financial monster. Millions are made for select “bowl committees,” populated by dubious figures. Who can forget the Fiesta Bowl scandal, in which the game’s “CEO” made $600,000 a year and misspent funds on strippers, Pebble Beach trips and illegal campaign contributions? He went to jail. But bowl madness marches on.

In its best incarnation, college football featured four major bowl games — Cotton, Orange, Rose and Sugar — that involved the best teams in the nation. Even then, it was a flawed system allowing for a subjective national championship, often in dispute. For decades, college football supporters demanded some sort of accountable playoff system. And we finally have a version of that in place, with four teams vying for the crystal ball.

So why do they play all the other games? Money, of course. The cities that host the bowl games benefit. Participating universities split the proceeds with their conference brethren. Television sells advertising. Bigwigs schmooze. T-shirts are sold. Beers poured. On and on it goes.

Bowl games are big business. A study conducted by San Diego State and George Washington universities, commissioned by the College Football Association, showed the economic impact of college football bowl games in 2015 approached $1.5 billion. Individual regions made anywhere between $12 million and $93 million per game, and that didn’t include the cost of tickets bought by locals. It was pure windfall, brought by fans and followers of visiting teams.

But one group doesn’t cash in: the players. Sure, they get to play one more game for the glory of their schools. And this point shouldn’t be understated. The vast, vast majority of players see bowl games as a benefit, a year-end reward for all the hard work. One last chance to put on the pads and lay it on the line with their teammates.

Those are noble ideals, but it’s not a surprising stance considering what they’ve been sold. Sacrifice for your team. Post at least a .500 record. Then we can get to a bowl game. It makes sense for those who play for the love of the game.

But for premier players such as McCaffrey — and LSU’s Leonard Fournette, who cites a lingering ankle injury as his reason for skipping the Citrus Bowl — there is little upside to playing a bowl game. They potentially have millions riding on their health. With the draft combine just more than two months away, why should they risk their futures?

Just ask Jaylon Smith, the Notre Dame linebacker who injured his knee in the 2016 Fiesta Bowl. A projected top five NFL pick, Smith fell to the second round and didn’t play in 2016. That bowl game literally cost him millions.

It’s not surprising that McCaffrey took this route. By all accounts, he’s a bright kid with a brighter future. His father and agent, Ed, played 13 years in the NFL. He knows that football is pure business. The game uses you up until you’re no longer usable. There should be no sentimentality in these decisions.

I’ve long believed that players shouldn’t be forced to play college ball in the first place. There are benefits, sure. Free tuition, first and foremost. But I can’t think of any other profession in which you are restricted from selling your services to the highest bidder. Forcing players to play at institutions that profit from their talents is unfair. Risking injuries in pointless exhibition games is just plain stupid.

There’s a place for postseason college football. Fans of the game clearly want to determine the best team in the nation. But there’s no need for the bowl system, and the crony capitalism that comes with it.

More and more players will decide that bogus bowl games aren’t worth it.

Christian McCaffrey just sounded the horn.

Al Saracevic is sports editor of The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: asaracevic@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @alsaracevic