JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors raise the 2019 SoFi Hawaii Bowl trophy after winning against the Brigham Young Cougars on Dec. 24.
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The status of the SoFi Hawaii Bowl’s 19th game is undetermined following the Mountain West Conference’s decision to cancel its fall football season.
The 12-member MWC was to have provided a representative to the December bowl game against an opponent from Conference USA at Aloha Stadium. The Hawaii Bowl debuted in 2002 and has featured the University of Hawaii in nine of the first 18 games.
But the MWC announced on Monday it was shutting down all its fall sports.
“ESPN Events continues to evaluate the next steps for our owned and operated bowls as conferences make decisions on their college football seasons,” a spokeswoman for ESPN said in an email response to questions from the Star-Advertiser.
The game has traditionally been played on or around Christmas Eve but no date had been set for 2020. The game’s website lists only “December 2020” and “details to be announced.”
The game is one of 17 owned and operated by ESPN Events, a division of ESPN. Overall the network was scheduled to broadcast 36 of a record 41 bowls prior to the pandemic.
If the season is played, the field is expected to be considerably whittled down since 53 schools that make up the 130-member NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision have already said they will not be playing the sport in the fall.
The MWC champion had been scheduled to play a Pac-12 representative in the inaugural LA Bowl in SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles that is the home of the Rams. But the Pac-12 has also canceled its 2020 season.
The Pac-12 cancellation of all sports through the end of 2020 also potentially impacts the Maui Invitational (Nov. 23-25), which has been scheduled to include Stanford, and the ESPN’s Diamond Head Classic (Dec. 22, 23 and 25), which lists Arizona State.
