The postponement of the Sugar Bowl is creating a bit of a domino effect for another bowl game.
Thursday’s TaxSlayer Gator Bowl between Duke and Ole Miss is moving back about a half an hour to accommodate the Sugar Bowl’s new timeslot.
The Sugar Bowl, originally scheduled to kickoff at 8:45 p.m. ET on Wednesday night, was postponed earlier on Wednesday afternoon due to a New Year’s Eve terror attack that occurred on New Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street. As of Wednesday night, the Sugar Bowl—a quarterfinal of the College Football Playoff between Notre Dame and Georgia—will be played at 4:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, though some Louisiana officials would like to see the game delayed at least another day.
Assuming the current plan moves forward as expected, the Gator Bowl between Duke and Ole Miss will move its kickoff in Jacksonville, FL from the originally scheduled time of 7:30 p.m. ET to 8:00 p.m. ET to make room for the conclusion of the Sugar Bowl. The game will still air on ESPN as originally planned.
Some slight modifications have also been made to ESPN’s “Megacast” viewing options for the Sugar Bowl. With ESPN2 airing the Under Armour All-America Game at 4:00 p.m. ET directly against the Sugar Bowl, the “Command Center” feed will move to ESPNU and the “SkyCast” feed will move to ESPNEWS. The “SkyCast featuring Hometown Radio” feed originally slated for SEC Network will now only be available on streaming due to a women’s college basketball game scheduled on the channel at 7:00 p.m. ET.
It should also be noted, a Radford-High Point men’s college basketball game is scheduled at 7:00 p.m. ET on ESPNU and will likely overlap with the “Command Center” feed. It’s unclear whether ESPN will choose to preempt the “Command Center” feed for the basketball game.
All things considered, postponing the Sugar Bowl to 4:00 p.m. ET on Thursday has went about as seamlessly as possible given the circumstances. And no doubt, the Gator Bowl is happy to have a College Football Playoff lead-in for simply moving its game back 30 minutes.
[ESPN PR]
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.