Two Bowl Games Canceled Due to COVID-19 Outbreaks

Rising COVID-19 cases will shut down two bowl games this week.

Both the Fenway Bowl between Virginia and SMU and the Military Bowl between Boston College and East Carolina have been canceled due to COVID-19 outbreaks.

COVID-19 issues within the Virginia team forced the Cavaliers to withdraw from Wednesday's scheduled game, while Boston College confirmed that rising COVID-19 cases within the team led to Monday's game being called off. 

A statement from the @FenwayBowl. pic.twitter.com/j56zMJssKf

— Virginia Cavaliers (@VirginiaSports) December 26, 2021

Virginia was expected to depart on Saturday to face SMU in the inaugural edition of the Fenway Bowl, at the Red Sox's Fenway Park. After pushing the original flight back a day to conduct more COVID-19 testing, the team outright canceled its flight Sunday, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The Fenway Bowl was set to be the final game of the Bronco Mendenhall era at Virginia. Following a regular-season-ending loss to Virginia Tech, the coach announced that he would step down after the bowl game "after 31 years straight of football." 

Mendenhall went 36–38 in six seasons with the Cavaliers, who have put together five straight bowl-eligible seasons. Virginia hired Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott to be the program's next head coach.

The two are the latest bowl games to be impacted by COVID-19 outbreaks. Last week, Texas A&M announced that it would not be able to participate in the Gator Bowl after COVID-19 and various injuries left the team short of scholarship players. Rutgers (5–7) later announced itself as the Aggies' replacement to face Wake Forest in the Gator Bowl after all bowl-eligible teams were already selected for games. 

The Hawai'i Bowl between Memphis and Hawai'i was also canceled after a surge of COVID-19 cases in the Rainbow Warriors' team.