College bowl game cancelations affect more than just the teams

As Steve Beck watched Saturday’s college football action, he started thinking about worst-case scenarios.

The president and executive director of the Military Bowl, which had been set to play next week in Annapolis, Maryland, felt confident about securing a team from the American Athletic Conference. But with a flurry of teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference — the Military Bowl’s other conference affiliate — deciding against accepting bowl bids, Beck began to worry.

If Clemson beat Notre Dame, Beck was “pretty sure” the Military Bowl would be left without a team. And come Monday, the premonition proved correct — the Tigers beat the Irish, and both made the College Football Playoff. That, and seven ACC schools choosing not to play a bowl game, left Beck’s hands tied.

To stage a contest, Beck needed two schools. He only had one. Then, amid all the uncertainty, he lost that one too. Tulsa saw an opportunity to play in the Armed Forces Bowl against Mississippi State and took it, leaving the Military Bowl without any teams and lacking any real alternatives.

Beck pulled the plug. The Military Bowl was canceled.

“It’s not the best year,” he said, “that’s for sure.”

At the end of a season that saw its fair share of disruptions due to the coronavirus pandemic, bowl games are facing their own disturbances. The number of bowls has steadily grown in recent years, giving more teams the opportunity to compete and enticing more fanbases to travel for the holidays.

Not this year.

COVID-19 lockdowns have more teams and fans staying home, leading to at least 15 bowls deciding, as the Military Bowl decided, that the numbers just didn’t work.

Those who have forged ahead face, in most cases, pandemic-related limits on tourism, travel and attendance that have put a damper on the usual economic impact of bowl games.

Host cities like San Diego. the annual site of the Holiday Bowl, count on teams — and the fans who follow them — to arrive early, explore the city and spend money.

“Part of the whole experience [for players] is, they’re with their buddies for some of them one last hurrah, one last game, one last experience,” said Mark Neville, CEO of the Holiday Bowl.

But Neville knew those activities wouldn’t be possible this year, a major factor behind the decision to cancel in October.

It wasn’t an easy call. The bowl pumps an average $31 million worth of economic activity into the local economy each year, Neville said.

“There were some scenarios out there we considered as well,” Neville said. “What if we’re playing the game, and we get to the teams are in town, and something happens, and the game is canceled? Then what? Then the financial risk is pretty great. And as a nonprofit, it’s probably not the smartest thing to do, especially since the tourism part of it is not there.”

Detroit lost the Quick Lane Bowl, a matchup that traditionally hosts a Big Ten or Mid-American Conference team and often attracts fans who live within driving distance.

That was part of the draw, said Dave Beachnau, the senior vice president of the Detroit Sports Commission. Quick Lane’s never been confused with college football’s top-tier bowls, but the game meant millions to local businesses.

The pandemic had already dealt Detroit one gut punch. The city was supposed to host first- and second-round games in the 2021 NCAA basketball tournament before the whole tournament was moved to Indianapolis.

“It’s devastating because when you have the opportunity to host a nationally televised event, it brings great visibility to our community and city,” Beachnau said.

Tucson’s Arizona Bowl, meanwhile, is holding out hope Dec. 31 comes and goes with no additional wrenches thrown into the mix. Executive Director Kym Adair said fluidity has been the only constant in trying to plan a pandemic-proof event.

Instead of teams flying in days in advance, Adair said she expects one-night stays. Originally, organizers had hoped families would be able to attend, now the bowl has had to walk back that promise.

Still, after the Sun Bowl was canceled, the Arizona Bowl worked with CBS to move from CBS Sports Network onto the main channel.

“It’s like trying to staple Jell-O to the wall,” Adair said. “As soon as you think you’ve got something to lock into, everything changes. So, being nimble and flexible has been really key to this year, more than any other year.”

Like most bowls, ticket sales are usually the key to making the Arizona Bowl financially feasible. But Adair credits the bowl’s partners for sticking with the event despite revenue problems.

“Gratefully, we have a board of directors that had the foresight to put away a little bit of a rainy-day fund,” Adair said. “And it happens to be raining in 2020.”

In Annapolis at the Military Bowl, Beck said the bowl’s future is secure, despite this year’s problems.

But the game’s cancellation highlights some of the absurdities of the bowl landscape in 2020. Several sub-.500 teams earned bowl bids because of conference tie-ins, including a 2-8 South Carolina team that fired its coach in November. Meanwhile, a 9-2 Army squad is left without a bowl game, a result of the Independence Bowl being nixed.

Beck wanted to bring Army to the Military Bowl, although the inability to find another team willing to play led to Monday’s cancellation — another disruption to end a season full of them.

“If it wasn’t real, it would be very interesting,” Beck said. “But to me, it’s so personal and so real.”