Report: Decision made on Fenway Bowl between Virginia and SMU

Due to COVID-19 related issues, the Wasabi Fenway Bowl between Virginia and SMU has been called off, per the Action Network’s Brett McMurphy. The game was scheduled to kickoff at 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday at Fenway Park in Boston with ESPN carrying the national broadcast.

According to the Virginia athletic department, the Cavaliers were scheduled to leave Charlottesville on Saturday to head to Boston ahead of Wednesday’s Fenway Bowl. Instead, the team wasn’t able to depart as it had to wait for COVID-19 testing results.

Virginia had pushed back its departure to Sunday due to the late testing results, but it will now be forced to remain in Charlottesville and not play in the Fenway Bowl at all due to its number of positive COVID-19 tests within the program.

Virginia was 6-6 coming into the bowl game, while SMU presented an overall record of 8-4. The Cavaliers were 2.5-point favorites, and the over/under was set at 71.5 points.

The bowl game was set to be Virginia head coach Bronco Mendenhall’s final game with the Cavaliers, as he announced that he would step down after the 2021 season. Mendenhall, 55, amassed a 36-38 overall record with four bowl appearances in six seasons in Charlottesville. Virginia later named Tony Elliott as Mendenhall’s successor, but he wasn’t slated to take over the program until after the Fenway Bowl.

COVID-19 forces yet another bowl game cancellation

The Fenway Bowl isn’t the first postseason bowl game to be canceled this postseason – and it probably won’t be the last.

While Virginia and SMU won’t be able to face off in Boston, they join Hawaii and Memphis as the Hawaii Bowl – which was scheduled to be played on Christmas Eve – was canceled due to COVID-19 related issues within the Hawaii program.

Although the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl is still happening on New Year’s Eve in Jacksonville, it won’t feature the originally scheduled teams of Texas A&M and Wake Forest but instead Wake Forest and Rutgers as the Aggies had to withdraw due to COVID-19 related issues within their program.

The Gator Bowl between Wake Forest and Rutgers will kickoff at 11 a.m. ET Dec. 31 at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville. ESPN will be carrying the national broadcast.