While I love a good college football game as much as the next person, the NCAA’s historically high number of seemingly meaningless bowl games amid the recent COVID-19 surge is questionable.
Every year, the NCAA and its corporate sponsors put on these exhibition matches at the end of the college football season to theoretically “reward” the teams with winning records. However, aside from the National Championship, these bowl games have no true importance or impact on team standings. And, many teams this year such as our Ducks played without star players or their regular season head coaches.
This season the NCAA planned to host 42 bowl games, which is higher than previous years, so each team with a winning or even record in select conferences would have a chance to compete. Unfortunately, scheduling this slew of matches may have been overly optimistic, as the dangers of the new Omicron variant led to game cancellations and frustrations throughout the league.
In total, the NCAA canceled six bowl games  due to the COVID-19 outbreak. And, as the NCAA struggled to find a way to keep the virus under control, many people questioned its motives for attempting to host so many games during this stage of the pandemic.
When the NCAA released the handbook for this season’s bowl games, detailing all the rules teams were required to follow, there was no mention of COVID-19 health and safety protocols. Teams were left to their own devices to decide how to manage testing, vaccine requirements and player quarantine. This lack of uniformity in regulations across the NCAA is what ultimately led to many teams having to forfeit games because of virus outbreaks among their players.
Players and coaches have voiced their frustrations with the league over its handling of the virus. North Carolina State was one of the teams that wasn’t able to play as its opponent, UCLA, had to forfeit just hours before the Holiday Bowl game due to a COVID-19 outbreak. N.C. State coach Dave Doeren, told reporters “NCAA stands for no clue at all,” after his team was forced to fly out for the game only to be told it would not play nor be awarded the win. N.C. State players even took to TikTok to complain about how they missed Christmas with their families and traveled across the country for no reason because UCLA wasn’t able to keep its players safe from COVID-19.
The NCAA should have taken up responsibility to keep each team competing in bowl games COVID-19 safe. By leaving these teams on their own for health and safety protocols, the NCAA ultimately demonstrated what little care it has for the needs and safety of its players.
Additionally, the teams competing weren’t the only ones put at risk of COVID-19 by these bowl games. Bowl games occur over the holiday season with the intention of attracting loads of fans from out of state to travel and attend their schools matches. However, in a pandemic, the idea of thousands of fans traveling out of state to party and watch their teams play has “superspreader event” written all over it.
This carelessness by the NCAA for not only player safety but also public safety truly shows the league will continue to do almost anything to rake in a little more cash. Bowl games make loads of money for qualifying programs and conferences as well as the long list of corporate sponsors, making the NCAA yet another corporation to prioritize profit over safety in this pandemic.