Pete Thamel is reporting that Boston College has become the first team to opt out of a bowl invitation in 2020 even though at 6-5 they are bowl-eligible even under the traditional rules. AD Patrick Kraft cites the fact that it wouldn't be the usual bowl experience this season, and that families might not be allowed to go to the games either, so what's the point of dragging out the zombie season any further:
The story notes that Jeff Hafley took the temperature of the team — since it's 2020, I should probably stress that's a figure of speech — and that nobody seemed very interested in a bowl. They just want to have whatever kind of holiday season they can get during the pandemic.
What's interesting to me about this is that BC is the sort of program for whom getting to a bowl, any bowl, is usually a pretty big deal, the highest really achievable goal they have in most years. This isn't like LSU choosing not to go to a bowl in a major letdown season for them. Thamel notes, "The question looms whether this creates a domino effect around the sport. The combination of needing to stay on campus for Christmas, not being able to experience the bowl city because of COVID-19 restrictions and the exhaustion from the isolation of playing during a pandemic make it likely that similar decisions will follow for teams outside the highest tier of bowl games."
We've already seen players deciding that the bowls aren't enough of a reward to delay their pro futures for; now entire teams are doing it. In an environment where the average bowl game isn't any more interesting a matchup than a random game you might see on ESPN any Saturday afternoon in the fall, you wonder if the "minor" bowls will ever be the same again after the pandemic. If people don't miss them even at a Boston College, how long can they survive?
