North Carolina State coach Dave Doeren is calling upon the NCAA to award the Wolfpack a win after UCLA was forced to back out of their bowl game because of issues with COVID on their team. Officially the NCAA has called it a “no contest,” neither a win nor loss.
“The NCAA stands for No Clue At all in my opinion, so I don’t really care what they say about it,” Doeren said according to Yahoo Sports. “As far as I’m concerned, we did beat them.”
The UCLA Bruins were slated to play the North Carolina Wolfpack in the Holiday Bowl at Petco Park in San Diego, but the game was canceled just six hours before kickoff as the Bruins continued to struggle with players testing positive for COVID.
“The UCLA football team is unable to participate in tonight’s San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl due to COVID-19 protocols within the Bruins’ program,” said UCLA via twitter at 3:33 pm.
Dave Doeren (@StateCoachD) on the NCAA not ruling the Holiday Bowl as a forfeit: “The NCAA stands for No Clue At All in my opinion. I don’t really care what they say about it.” pic.twitter.com/SYjD5J3Tq4
— Pack Pride (@PackPride) December 29, 2021
“We felt like UCLA probably knew something was going on,” Doeren told reporters at the hotel, according to the LA Times. “[They] didn’t tell anybody on our side. We had no clue they were up against that. I don’t feel like it was very well handled from their university.
“It would have been great to have had a heads-up,” he said, “so two or three days ago we could have found a Plan B. Disappointing.”
One Wolfpack player took to Twitter to complain that they weren’t just deprived of one game, they were deprived of their Christmas holiday, away from family and friends.
“Our team has been away from family and friends for a month prepping for this,” tweeted QB Aaron McLaughlin. “We have been here for 5 days practicing, were in a hotel for Christmas just for it to be canceled 5 hours before kickoff? We deserve better.”
This isn’t the first time Wolfpack players and fans have fallen victim to a COVID-related cancellation. A similar fate was dealt N.C. State during the College World Series, when the team was one win away from playing for a national championship but were pulled from contention because of COVID-19 protocols.
So far five college football bowl games have been canceled because of COVID issues that forced teams to withdraw, according to Sporting News.
“For some bowl games, teams have been able to find a replacement opponent to allow the matchup to continue. That was the case in the Gator Bowl, after Texas A&M had to withdraw from the matchup,” said Sporting News.
But the notice by UCLA came too late to find an alternate opponent for the Holiday Bowl.
