MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The point is moot now: Nick Chubb and Sony Michel have announced their intention to return for their senior years.

But what if they didn’t? Would they still have come here to play in what can charitably be called a middle-tier bowl?

“I would’ve played,” Chubb said. “I would have finished up what I started.”

LSU’s Leonard Fournette and Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey each made different calls this month, leading to plenty of national debate. Fournette and McCaffrey, both tailbacks in their junior years, announced they would sit out their team’s bowls in order to begin preparing for the NFL draft.

Or, in the minds of many, to save themselves from injury.

That’s not how Michel would handle it, he said Wednesday.

“You can’t really control whatever you’re trying to avoid,” Michel said. “If it’s supposed to happen it’s supposed to happen. I’m a big believer in fate, and whatever that is, you’ve just got to continue and finish what you start.”

Michel said he wouldn’t sit out the bowl game next year – if it’s a meaningless one – just to save himself for the draft. (“I’m 100 percent committed to Georgia football,” Michel said.) Of course it’s easy to say now.

Chubb knows Fournette well, and the two have spoken this month. But Chubb said the bowl situation didn’t come up. Either way, Chubb said, he’s respectful of anyone who wants to go that direction.

“That’s their decision. If they have a chance to be a high pick in the first round, I could see why they would do that,” Chubb said. “But that’s not something I would do.”