Bowl (madness?) updated … Update: Friday’s Hawai’i Bowl between Memphis and host Hawai’i has been cancelled after the Rainbow Warriors had to drop out because of covid concerns. Let’s hope the Memphis players at least get a day at the beach! The college bowl season continues later today with a couple of games on the schedule. The ‘other’ Frisco Bowl (and for the record that’s Frisco, Texas not the ‘other’ Frisco where people might actually like to go to) kicks off at 3:30 PM ET with North Texas playing Miami of Ohio. Then at 7 PM ET this evening Florida will play Central Florida in the Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa. We are seriously considering ‘boycotting’ the latter game because there is simply no way that the Gators should be in any bowl of any kind. True, they were 6-6, but they were 2-6 in the conference and are only technically bowl eligible because they were 4-0 in non-conference games, only one of which was against a Power 5 conference opponent, and one of which was a win against a FCS team which scored 52 points against the Gators while piling up 28 first downs and over 500 yards of total offense. In fact, about the only good thing about this game is that it will allow one last look at Florida junior CB Kaiir Elam (#5, 6-1, 195) who should be very much in the mix to be the 2nd corner selected this year after LSU’s Derek Stingley if as expected he does opt to enter the upcoming draft. However, Elam has not declared to date, although he will play tonight.
Meanwhile, it appears that Rutgers will be given the first call to replace Texas A&M in the Gator Bowl against Wake Forest on New Year’s Eve. Texas A&M dropped out because it couldn’t field a team because of covid protocols. For the record, Rutgers is 5-7 (4-7 against FBS opponents) and lost its season finale 40-16 at home against 6-6 Maryland, but apparently have a good academic record. And while the powers that be scramble to find a replacement for a bowl that nobody really cares whether it gets played, the CFP committee running the playoffs has indicated that the national championship could be forfeited if one of the finalists can’t play on the original or replacement date. In fact, if neither team can play, the national title will simply be vacated. The national championship is currently slated for January 10th, with the two semi-finals scheduled for New Year’s Eve.
