Central Michigan heading to Sun Bowl to face Washington State

pulled out of the Friday game. The Arizona Bowl, as a result, has been canceled, becoming the fourth bowl game called off this season, joining the Hawaii Bowl, Military Bowl and Fenway Bowl.

Central Michigan, a Mid-American Conference team that went 8-4 this year, replaces Miami, which went into a COVID shutdown last week and pulled out of the Sun Bowl Sunday night, shortly after Washington State’s airport arrival.

MORE:Complete college football bowl schedule, results for the 2021 season

Central Michigan became a leading candidate to replace Miami by early Monday when Boise State’s status became iffy as COVID tests started to come back. By early afternoon the Broncos announced they couldn’t play in the Arizona Bowl, freeing up Central Michigan.

The Sun Bowl, working with the Pac-12, was able to secure Central Michigan, which will now relocate its operation 315 miles east to El Paso. This represents a major victory for the Sun Bowl, which had its 2020 game cancelled when El Paso was a national COVID hot spot.

There were setbacks before CMU was selected.

SMU, Memphis and East Carolina, which had bowl games cancelled because of COVID outbreaks among their scheduled opponents, made the decision to end their seasons.

bbloomquist@elpasotimes.com; follow @Bretbloomquist on Twitter.

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