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More bowl games reportedly to be canceled in the near future
Published:
According to Brett McMurphy, America’s self proclaimed college football insider, somewhere between two and five bowl games are going to announce today they’ve been cancelled for 2020 due to a lack of willing football programs to fill them out.
My updated bowl projections: @CFBPlayoff field: 1-Alabama, 2-Clemson, 3-Ohio State, 4-Notre Dame
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) December 20, 2020
* Also, b/w 2-to-5 bowls will be canceled today, sources told @Stadium
* There were discussions about BYU & Sun Belt teams playing in multiple bowls!! https://t.co/2pseMJZpcA
Per McMurphy
Because there will not be enough teams to fill all of the 32 remaining bowl games, more bowls are expected to be canceled in the next 24 hours, sources told Stadium.
At this time, it’s unknown which bowls or how many will be canceled, but with the recent opt-outs of USC, Penn State and a number of additional Big Ten teams that will not play, there will not be enough teams available.
Because several teams opted out of playing in a bowl game, BYU, along with the Sun Belt, had discussions about playing in two bowls this season to help fill each bowl game, but ultimately the schools chose not to for various reasons, sources told Stadium.
At least 15 programs have opted out of bowl games so far, including all but three in the Pac-12, and more may announce their intentions this morning. With the lack of revenue opportunities caused by empty stadiums, and the difficulty of keeping an entire roster free of positive Covid-19 tests, many teams and administrative staffs have opted to end their seasons and let players go home for the holidays.
Mark Schipper is a reporter, sportswriter, and aspiring novelist living in Chicago, Illinois.