Boise State withdraws from Barstool Sports’ Arizona Bowl

Boise State Football made the decision to withdraw from the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl due to multiple internal team factors on Monday, Dec. 27.

The Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl announced the teams for this year’s bowl matchup on Dec. 6 and was set to have the Boise State Broncos face off against the Central Michigan Chippewas in Tucson, Arizona, on New Year’s Eve.

Barstool Sports president Dave Portnoy was the first to confirm the news of Boise State dropping out of the bowl game via a tweet. Boise State Athletics later confirmed the news themselves.

Breaking: @BroncoSportsFB has pulled out of @theARIZONABOWL due to too many players contracting covid. We are actively looking for a replacement. I suggest @WSUCougarFB does a poll of players whether they want to play in Az bowl or Sun Bowl.

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) December 27, 2021

“We feel for the young men in our program who were very much looking forward to closing out their season, and for some, their football careers,” said Boise State athletic director Jeramiah Dickey in a released statement. “I would personally like to thank Kym Adair and her team at the Arizona Bowl for putting together a first-class student-athlete and fan experience that we are extremely disappointed to miss.”

In consultation with its medical staff, in addition to campus and public health officials, Boise State football has shut down all team activities as a result of COVID-19 protocols, therefore will be unable to compete in the 2021 Barstool Sports @ArizonaBowl. pic.twitter.com/lEGAEfjOmh

— Boise State Football (@BroncoSportsFB) December 27, 2021

According to KTVB, two sources have given two different explanations for the bowl game dropout, but no definitive reasoning has been announced by Boise State yet.

The first source said that the dropout was due to many players on the team being exposed to COVID-19 forcing Boise State to drop out of the game. 

The other source said that travel delays along with players only having three days to travel home for Christmas and back was the reason for the withdrawal.

Boise State opted out of a bowl game last year as well, making this the first time the Broncos have opted out of back-to-back bowl games since 1997 and 1998.