Friday's Arizona Bowl is canceled after Boise State withdraws; Central Michigan to play in Sun Bowl

Friday’s Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl will not be played after officials were unable to find a replacement for Boise State, which couldn’t participate because of COVID-19 issues.

BSU officially withdrew Monday afternoon after a spate of positive tests, leaving bowl officials little time to pursue alternatives for a game scheduled for noon Friday at Arizona Stadium.

“Due to a COVID spike within a participating athletic program, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2021 Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl,” bowl officials said in a statement. “We would like to thank our conference partners and sponsors for their support. We look forward to providing a world-class bowl experience in 2022.”

The cancellation of the Arizona Bowl, which had been played annually since 2015, frees Central Michigan to play in the Sun Bowl.

The Sun Bowl had been seeking a replacement for Miami, which was unable to play because of COVID. CMU, which arrived in Tucson on Sunday, immediately became a logical candidate given Tucson’s proximity to El Paso — 318 miles down I-10.

The new arrangement was finalized Monday evening. CMU will square off against Washington State, which touched down in El Paso on Sunday. The Sun Bowl also is scheduled to be played Friday.

The Arizona Bowl is in its seventh year and its second as part of an agreement with the Mid-American Conference. The Mountain West Conference has been a partner from the outset.

The MAC released CMU from its Arizona Bowl obligation, according to SI.com’s Ross Dellenger, who first reported Monday morning that Boise State might not be able to participate. Negotiations reportedly were underway by Monday afternoon between Arizona and Sun Bowl officials regarding the Chippewas.

Arizona Bowl officials’ first choice was to play the game as scheduled — or even move it to another date to accommodate a rescheduling. They were examining options as late as Monday evening for the game, whose primary objectives are to raise money for charity and boost the economy in Southern Arizona.

“This late development is disappointing on so many levels, but we certainly understand and agree that the health and safety of the players, coaches, officials, university personnel, fans, vendors and our community comes first,” Kym Adair, executive director of the Arizona Bowl, said in a news release. “We exhausted every option to find a replacement team to play, but unfortunately we could not make that happen.”

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Dave Portnoy — the founder and president of Barstool Sports, which is in its first year as sponsor of the Arizona Bowl — first revealed the news that Boise State was unable to participate. Later in the day, after the CDC shortened its recommended isolation time for asymptomatic COVID patients from 10 days to five, Portnoy tweeted the following:

“Nobody is dying from COVID. CDC just said to treat it like (the) common cold. People are acting like it’s a death sentence. What are we doing here? Life is short. You don’t get back the days you waste being scared.

“And yeah, I know people are dying. But people die from stuff every day, including the flu. Omicron is not killing people in any sort of fashion that everybody should be drastically altering their lives.”

Three other bowl games have been canceled because of COVID-19 issues, and the Gator Bowl had to scramble to find a replacement for Texas A&M. A year ago, 18 bowl games were canceled because of COVID, including the Sun Bowl. The Arizona Bowl was moved to CBS in its place — and almost wasn’t played because of COVID issues within the San Jose State program. The Spartans were missing several coaches and regulars and lost to Ball State 34-13.

Boise State has had particularly bad luck of late when it comes to postseason bowls. The Broncos opted out of the postseason last year, citing mental, physical and emotional exhaustion from a long season filled with COVID-related disruptions. That ended a streak of 18 consecutive bowl appearances by the MWC’s flagship program.

Two years earlier, Boise State and Boston College were playing in the ServPro First Responder Bowl in Dallas when it was called off in the first quarter because of lightning. It was declared a no-contest.

The timing of the Arizona Bowl allowed Boise State to send its players home over Christmas. The Broncos were to reconvene Sunday, but some had trouble getting back to Boise because of flight cancellations.

By Monday afternoon, following a round of positive tests, Boise State had to shut down all team activities.

“We feel for the young men in our program who were very much looking forward to closing out their season, and for some, their football careers,” Boise State athletic director Jeremiah Dickey said via Twitter. “I would personally like to thank Kym Adair and her team at the Arizona Bowl for putting together a first-class student-athlete and fan experience that we are extremely disappointed to miss.”