Central Michigan Gives Sun Bowl a Belated Christmas Gift

What a wild 24 hours it has been for the Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl. As Washington State was landing in El Paso for their week long game preparations, Miami was about to inform them that they would not be able to play the Cougars due to the spread of COVID within the team.

As Adrian Broaddus reported earlier this morning, the list of possible replacement teams for the Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl were extremely limited. Although FCS program Steven F. Austin took to social media to make their case to play in El Paso, the Sun Bowl Association was not ready to go down a level in order to keep their December 31st game on schedule. Other fans wanted schools like SMU and Memphis to make the trip. However, all of the players on those teams were sent home after their bowl games were also canceled.

Just when it looked like the Sun Bowl stadium could be empty for the second New Year's Eve in a row, a crazy thing happened. COVID hit the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl this afternoon when Boise State announced that they would not be able to field a team to make the trip to Tucson. Like Wazzu, Central Michigan arrived in Arizona and was suddenly without an opponent. The Chippewas suddenly became the ultimate holiday gift for the Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl.

Before the announcement could be made official, Sun Bowl Association officials would have to iron out all the details with Central Michigan and the Mid-American Conference. That would include the payout that the MAC would receive for the Chippewas playing in the Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl. Although the ACC would no longer receive the approximately $2.3 million since Miami pulled out of the game due to COVID, the MAC would get a much larger cut than the $175k they were supposed to receive in the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl. Add in CBS Sports televising the game instead of Barstool's YouTube channel, and the move from Tucson to El Paso is a no brainer.