Hawai’i football gives Memphis dream Christmas vacation, drops out of Hawai’i Bowl

Hawai’i football, fittingly, was supposed to host the Hawai’i Bowl on Christmas Eve. Instead, Memphis will relax in paradise as the Warriors can’t play.

Bowl season never stops until the natty is played, and that includes on Christmas Eve. Or it did include Christmas Eve. But now, the Hawai’i football program will likely leave college football fans without a game to watch on Dec. 24.

The Rainbow Warriors were set to face the traveling Memphis Tigers in Honolulu for the Hawai’i Bowl on the holiday in what should’ve been an interesting Group of 5 battle. But now, with COVID, injuries and transfers depleting the Hawai’i roster so much so that the Rainbow Warriors have to bow out of the game, as they announced on Thursday night.

Now, the bowl game is left to scramble and try to figure out what’s next for Memphis and the game.

Hawai’i football can’t participate in EasyPost Hawai’i Bowl

Now that the Rainbow Warriors have dropped out of the bowl game that they, in essence, were going to be hosting, there are a couple of options on the table.

It’s almost certain that any invites won’t be completed in time for another team to make it into the Pacific Ocean to play Memphis in the game on Christmas Eve. Thus, if they are going to look for a replacement, it will also mean that the game will be delayed.

The other option on the table would be for the game to just be called off entirely, which seems possible given the travel expenses and trials that would be required to get a team to the islands and ready to play a game.

Regardless, Memphis will get Christmas Eve off in Hawai’i. While the Tigers are competitors who want to play, the fact of the matter is that they probably aren’t going to complain about a holiday in paradise.

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