N.C. State, ECU and Wake Forest all had bowl plans altered. Could UNC be next?
North Carolina arrived in Charlotte for its Duke’s Mayo Bowl matchup against South Carolina on Christmas Day. As of right now, the Tar Heels still plan on meeting the Gamecocks for an 11:30 a.m. kickoff Thursday at Bank of America Stadium.
But the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is teaching everyone just how fast bowl plans can change. And the timeline appears to be shrinking.
N.C. State was roughly four and a half hours away from kickoff in the Holiday Bowl when it learned UCLA could no longer play.
The Wolfpack and Bruins went through all the bowl festivities including a trip to Sea World. That’s not to mention the fans who flew cross country to San Diego for the game.
“I mean, it’s shocking, right? We’re less than three hours away from getting ready to get on the bus to go over and play a game and it’s not 24 hours or 48 hours or any of those things,” N.C. State athletic director Boo Corrigan said. “You’ve been kind of looking at, I’ve been looking at my watch all week and trying to figure out what time is it? How close are we? And then you know, you get that phone call and it’s hard not to be angry.”
East Carolina knows that feeling. It was one of the first schools to accept a bowl invitation in November. The Pirates were in Annapolis, Maryland for their Military Bowl game against Boston College scheduled for Monday.
They haven’t played in a bowl game since 2014 and it seems that streak will stand true another year. The Eagles alerted the Pirates on Sunday, they had more than 40 players unavailable because of rising virus cases since arriving in Annapolis and could not play.
“Along with season-ending injuries, opt outs and transfers, we just do not have enough players to field a team,” BC athletics director William Campbell said in a statement.
ECU and N.C. State did discuss on Tuesday the possibility of playing, according to a tweet from Fred Demarest, the Wolfpack’s senior associate athletics director, but it is not an option.
Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren mentioned how difficult rescheduling would be logistically, but also pointed out practical reason of being able to prepare for an opponent.
“I’m not going to schedule another team for a game tomorrow and not have time to prepare our quarterback for blitzes he’s going to have to see,” Doeren said. “That’s not fair to him.”
Wake Forest found out last Wednesday that Texas A&M was down to just 38 scholarship players — out of 85 — due to a COVID-19 outbreak on its team and it would not participate in the Gator Bowl on Dec. 31.
Fortunately for the Demon Deacons, it was in enough time that Rutgers was named as a replacement. The Scarlet Knights won’t bring the same pedigree. The Aggies beat Alabama. The Knights finished with a 5-7 record and were second to last in the Big Ten’s East Division. But Rutgers provides a game against a Power 5 conference opponent.
At this rate, it seems that’s all you can ask.
This story was originally published December 28, 2021 at 7:28 PM.