First Responder Bowl Canceled Mid-Game; First Time Ever
With Boston College beating No. 23 Boise State 7-0 in the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl, the game was delayed, then canceled due to weather.
Unlike baseball, it’s awfully rare to see a football game canceled after kickoff. Yet, on Wednesday, it happened to one of the first high-profile bowl games — the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl.
Boston College was beating No. 23 Boise State by a touchdown with about five minutes remaining in the first quarter before the game was delayed due to a severe storm that rolled through the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas. After nearly two hours of stoppage, the game was officially called off and ruled a no contest between the two programs. According to an ESPN report, it’s “believed to be the first bowl game called off because of weather.”
“After more than an hour since stoppage of play, and with review of the active lightning and thunderstorm cells still in the area of the Cotton Bowl, it was determined that the game should be called,” Pete Derzis, ESPN senior vice president of ESPN Events and programming, said in a statement. “All parties were concerned about player safety first and foremost, and with that being the primary concern, as well as the fans in attendance, it was a unanimous decision to cancel the game.”
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Associate bowl director Brett Ringler said officials met Tuesday to discuss the weather report and how they would handle the decision-making process.
“We followed all those protocols today, and we finally had to come to a decision to cancel the game based on weather that was forthcoming as well,” Ringler said.
Both Boise State and Boston College will be offering refunds to those who purchased tickets through the schools, per the report.
The First Responder Bowl was in its first year playing with that name; previously, it was the TicketCity Bowl (2011-12) and the Heart of Dallas Bowl (2012-17). Last year, Utah beat West Virginia 30-14. All versions were played at the Cotton Bowl Stadium.
Unfortunately, the canceled event was Boise State’s first time playing at the Cotton Bowl. Boston College, on the other hand, played (and won) in the 1985 Cotton Bowl game against Houston.
Eagles head coach Steve Addazio told ESPN that the outcome was “a first” in his three-plus decades of coaching, adding that everyone was “deeply disappointed.”