I'm not sure what the situation warrants. You can be a law-abiding citizen doing absolutely nothing wrong and still get sick. You can even be triple-vaccinated and get sick.

Does a trophy ordinarily won by a team that performed better in a football game demand preservation? I wouldn't want it.

All we can do is rely on medical experts to tell us whether it's a good idea to cancel games or allow exposed or infected individuals to participate. Right now, they say cancel. OK. We deal with the disappointment and move on.

Commemorating disappointment seems pointless.

I do, however, think that the bowls should pay the appearance fees regardless of what caused the cancellation. Even to UCLA, unless it was within their control to play anyway under the current rules.

Every day, of course, I'm worried the semifinals will be canceled. Or that a star for Michigan (rumors are strong they could lose their only secondary player capable of handling Georgia's excellent tight end). It's a potential disappointment I guess I've already calculated into the moving on eventuality.

Can we at least limit that to something reasonable like, say, whatever percentage of their revenue stream they actually managed to retain (after failing to satisfy their obligation for exposure to various sponsors, after ticket refunds are processed, etc etc)

I mean, doesn't seem right to stick them with paying for failure to perform (any more than their sponsors, ticketholders, etc should be stuck)

I don't have a problem giving NC State the win and UCLA the loss. I'd consider it a forfeit. Both sides knew the rules going in and one side was able to field a team while the other wasn't. We have no idea what the precautions each team took going into the game. No one forced them to accept a bowl invite.

With that said, I'd be embarrassed to accept a trophy for a game I didn't play in. Take the W in the record books, but you'd have to be a bottom of the barrel program to put that in your trophy case.

The money stuff is a business deal that really doesn't impact us. Guessing (or hoping) sides had insurance to cover losses.

I think all of the appearances prior to the game, were met, which might have been part of the problem. Going to Seaworld, the Aircraft Carrier, is pretty bad optics, but it's part of the Holiday Bowl Experience. I do know for the Rose Bowl, they have the Prime Rib contest with Lawry's, but I read that they were doing takeout boxes. But it's always been one of the Rose Bowl traditions before the game.

As for the game, I think the issue came down to testing rules within the state/program/conferences. NC State doesn't test, UCLA does.

I was thinking more of the lost value of the venue impressions and the TV exposure (a big part of the value/selling point for those sponsor packages) I hadn't even thought about the more ancillary stuff like those appearances to be honest.

fwiw, I found their 2020 IRS filing (since they're run by a non-profit, that's pretty easy to find)

The bulk of their $10m revenue* falls under "Program Services" which line itemed as follows
Ticket Sales - $4.48m
TV/Radio - $3.00m
Sponsorships - $1.20m
Bowl Related Events - $0.63m
Misc Other - $0.12m

*that's for Covid 2020 ... the previous year's filing was $16.3m in revenue

Team payout line item last year was $6.85m, but with all the associated expenses (including over $1m in salary to three full-time year round employees) the final balance was a profit of just $96k, so about $3m in expenses from salaries to advertising to office space to venue rental, etc and so forth.

With the bulk of their revenue likely wiped out, they appear to probably have just enough cash reserves ($2m entering the year) to cover their expenditures for the year leading up to the (non) game.

I've never seen a QB throw an INT twice on one play. Until now.

OK so now Brock Purdy has done 2 things I've never seen a QB do in less than one half of football. First he threw a pass that was batted in the air, and as he tried to bat it down, he punched it at least 5 yards forward to a defender who took it to the house for a Pick 6. And then with 30 seconds left on a 4th and 2, he ran for a 1st down but was hit, fumbled, and recovered his own fumble behind the line to gain. Game over.

TIL Cheez-It has a mascot and his name is Prince Chedward

I've seen what you meant.

Stewart Mandel on Twitter: "Why is Doeren be so adamant that the Holiday Bowl gets counted as a forfeit for UCLA?

... Oh.… "

Ballsy to say the NCAA stands for "No Clue At All". Best quote of the yesr.

The difference, of course, is that regular season conference games and playoff games count/matter. These games are scrimmages put on for TV content/ad revenue.

I don't follow college football very closely, but why is it that regular season games "count" and the bowl games don't? Isn't the purpose of all the games TV content and ad revenue?

Why does a week 5 game between middling ACC games count but a bowl game between middling teams from different conferences doesn't? Seems like basically the same thing, except he game at the end is at a neutral site, part of some kind of annual tradition, and is the last game, all of which you'd think would push it ahead of the regular season game in importance.

I feel like this was different in the 80's and 90's.

Regular season games count in terms of determining conference (and within conferences, division) champions. That's the reason the season is played (unless you are in the SEC, where you don't even have to be a division winner to make the playoff). Bowl games for any team other than those in the playoffs are just exhibitions.

Hawaii DB Michael Graham, son of Hawaii HC Todd Graham, entered the portal. Awkward?

Hawaii is losing a lot of their players. I'm assuming Graham was hoping for a quick rebuild before jumping to another school

And his brother is Hawaii OC. Just bizarre. The only reasonable set of circumstances is that he's not good enough for D1 and is transferring down a level.

Or that it's foreshadowing a coaching change after an expose detailing how the HC had "killed the love of the game" for a number of players who had entered the portal en masse.

TN Purdue game is pretty entertaining

Pass defense is non existent right now for both. Long pass plays TDs.

Tennessee got hosed. That was a touchdown.

Eh, that dude was stopped and the OL was pulling him in. If he had reached out 3 seconds earlier, it's a TD. I had no problem with them stopping his forward progress there.

Not a stellar day for the officiating but then again not a stellar day for anything resembling defense nor coaching either.

What is Mel Tucker's record since getting that massive extension?

Narduzzi: Look at me.

I’m the Sparty now

So, does anyone think that Cincinnati or Michigan has a shot tomorrow?

I worry about GA. Hard to come back from being exposed like that. So yeah, MI can definitely win.

I’ll root for Cincy but that that is much lower chance of an upset.

I think Cincy may have the better chance. We've seen Bama come out sluggish before, and the offense is running out of bullets. They don't need the game to turn into any sort of shootout.

Georgia meanwhile has to figure on having something to prove. Michigan seemed to have a very small chance to start with, this is a bad matchup for them, and if Hill doesn't play that chance might be down to near zero.

What the fuck was that 3rd and 1 call by Pitt?

Edit: Almost as dumb as ESPN showing the field goal line for Sparty.

I expect both to lose, but I think both have a chance. There's way too much certainty around this time of year, which is definitely not always borne out by the results.

That Purdue/Tenn game was wild. A really crazy 4th quarter that ended up in OT and basically ended on a controversial goal line stand call.

Fun game.

My 8yo son has watched two games this season: Michigan beating Ohio State, and Alabama beating Georgia. He thinks this is an easy call, Michigan are winners and Georgia are losers, how could anyone think otherwise?

So, there's that.

I think Bennett is like Andy Dalton, good enough to beat a lot of teams, but not good enough to beat elite teams. I think UM wins and AL only loses if they beat themselves.

And next week AL beats the hell out of UM.

I like that they offer the home town radio call on SEC network, but why the heck can't they have the game on full screen? I don't need a camera isolated on Nick Saban the whole game. That us just dunb.

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Alabama offense versus Bearcats defense looks a little like grown men playing boys. It almost looks like they do Cinnci a favor when they don't run straight at them.

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An hour late with the comment, but those cowgirl outfits or whatever they were were pretty ridiculous-looking. It's not the 50s, guys.

Yeah, I have no idea why Alabama stopped running so much. Probably should have another 7 - 14 points.

They aren't winning because of their schemes, they win because they have far more talent than anyone.

They have 172 yards rushing, and yet it still feels like they left yards on the field. The score is closer than it feels like it should be.

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The score in not indicative of how dominant Bama has been in this half

Can someone ask Ryan Seacrest to keep that California Southern accent to hiself?

This may be nothing, but my nephew who is a reporter is in Miami. All other Qb's for both teams have came out yo warm up already, except Stetson Bennett. He has not touched the field yet.

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I think we can call the game. Not quite a blowout but still a pretty convincing win. Not sure if it helps the Group of 5 case in the future.

Bennet is out warming up now. It was the starting center that is sick and is now questionable.

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Basically looked like Washington in 2016 or Clemson in 2018.

Saban paraphrased: "Yeah I dunno, man. You win so many of these, what more can you say, really?"

Far more pedestrian than I was hoping for, kind of a throwback to previous Bama "we'll just do enough to win while our defense smothers you" performances.

The missing pieces definitely showed tonight, makes me hope against hope for Michigan even more now.

Why do reporters keep asking players and coaches who they would like to face in the next game? They'll never get an interesting answer.

This feels like the worst team Saban has had in some time and they are going to cruise to another title. Not sure what that says about college football.

If these same two teams had played last night in the Peach Bowl, it would have been a nail-biter. Cincinnati might have actually won. Then we would be hearing about how they got robbed, how they deserved a chance, etc.

The talent level probably isn't that different than some, it seems "worse" because this group doesn't seem to have their heads into things the way a lot of the previous units have. It's that "they have to learn" deal Saban talks about, this one seems either slower on the uptake or more hardheaded (or both)