SMU fans, it’s been real and it’s been fun but the 2021 season is now truly done. Sorry for the rhyming but it’s official – the SMU Mustangs will not be playing in the Wasabi Fenway Bowl.
SMU was set to face the Virginia Cavaliers in the inaugural Fenway Bowl (last year’s was canceled to guess what? Covid-19) and despite a solid 8-4 record, they will be spending the rest of this year at home watching maybe some more bowl games being played but not their own.
The Military Bowl, scheduled for tomorrow in Annapolis, MD has also been called off between Boston College and East Carolina as the BC Eagles did not have enough healthy players to play in the bowl game. In a later announcement, the Sun Bowl between Miami (FL) and Washington State that was scheduled for New Year’s Eve day has also been called off. There have now been five bowl games affected with the Hawaii Bowl canceled on Christmas Eve, the Gator Bowl has had to replace Texas A&M with Rutgers to face off against Wake Forest (good luck with that one Scarlet Knights) and now these three bowls have been called off as well.
In all reality, there will probably be more bowl games affected this week heading into New Years weekend. In case you are wondering, the NCAA sets many rules and regulations; however, Covid protocols are set by the respective conferences, universities, bowl game committees and local health authorities. One bowl game may be called off while other games may still be a “go.” While this seems inherently unfair, the continued specter of Covid hanging around may change the entire nature of sports as professional leagues from the NFL and NHL to college basketball are all being adversely affected by this issue. For SMU and other teams working hard to prepare for their respective bowl game appearances, it’s not fair and it’s not right but it’s sports and there will always be a next year.
