USA Football Bowl abruptly cancelled

Started by Ron Boerger, January 18, 2016, 07:57:06 PM

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Ron Boerger

QuoteThe USA College Football Bowl was abruptly canceled Monday leaving players and fans confused and upset with bowl organizers.

The USA College Football Bowl, which features players from the FCS, Division II, Division III, NAIA and some FBS entrants, was supposed to be a weekend-long event at Savannah State in Georgia that culminated with a game on Monday. The game was supposed to kickoff with scouts and agents in attendance at 2:15 p.m.

However, when Monday afternoon came around, there were no scouts, no agents just a lot of angry people.

More:  http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/senior-showcase-bowl-abruptly-canceled-leaving-frustrated-players-003858250.html

Sadly, the kids participating in this event had to put up at least $750 of their own cash (per http://www.usacollegefootballbowl.com/player.html) plus their travel expenses.  The article says "SA College Sports would like to confirm that the financial logistics behind today's game will be sorted out promptly for the sake of the athletes and parents" but I wouldn't be holding my breath. 

Pat Coleman

Sigh. Guess it was only a matter of time before another Dennis Wilson game was cancelled.
Publisher. Questions? Check our FAQ for D3f, D3h.
Quote from: old 40 on September 25, 2007, 08:23:57 PMLet's discuss (sports) in a positive way, sometimes kidding each other with no disrespect.

Mr. Ypsi

Gotta kinda wonder how all the scouts and agents knew not to show up, and the players and their families kept spending on hotels.  Something tells me this is gonna be a bonanza for lawyers.

jknezek

Quote from: Mr. Ypsi on January 19, 2016, 12:05:36 AM
Gotta kinda wonder how all the scouts and agents knew not to show up, and the players and their families kept spending on hotels.  Something tells me this is gonna be a bonanza for lawyers.

Only if you can get blood from a stone. Lawyers generally know not to go after someone with no money to shell out, and I'm guessing he doesn't have any of the money laying around in a bank account. Guessing the scouts and agents were never going to show up, but it's a good hook to tell these kids they will be there. Gives them hope and helps get them to shell out.

Jonny Utah

Quote from: jknezek on January 19, 2016, 08:34:35 AM
Quote from: Mr. Ypsi on January 19, 2016, 12:05:36 AM
Gotta kinda wonder how all the scouts and agents knew not to show up, and the players and their families kept spending on hotels.  Something tells me this is gonna be a bonanza for lawyers.

Only if you can get blood from a stone. Lawyers generally know not to go after someone with no money to shell out, and I'm guessing he doesn't have any of the money laying around in a bank account. Guessing the scouts and agents were never going to show up, but it's a good hook to tell these kids they will be there. Gives them hope and helps get them to shell out.

I played in a Dennis Wilson "all star" game back in 1997, after playing in the Aztec Bowl.   I drove from Boston to North Carolina and had to pay about $500 I think for the hotel, food, and whatever else they had to pay for.  It was fun, and I got to play with some guys that I had become friends with in the Aztec Bowl and saw some other friends in DC on the drive down.  There were also some legit coaches there (real d3 coaches I mean) who knew their stuff.  I remember Coach Cheplick? from Hobart who knew what he was talking about and I enjoyed playing under him.  Other than that though, this was a 2 star production.  We played at a HS field (it snowed too to boot), and the "USA College Football" company really didn't have us do anything else.  There was a dinner and semi-lame banquet but that was all.

Although the Aztec Bowl was sponsored by the AFCA, it was run by a sports travel agency which did a solid job.  We went on several excursions in Mexico City and got to see some cool sites through the agency.  Although the food sucked, it was a much better experience.

wildcat11

My Experience with USA Football and Mr. Wilson

Quote

This did happen over 10 years ago so my memory might be a little fuzzy.
After my senior year at Linfield, 1998, I received an invitation from
USAfootball.com to participate in a Division III all-star game.  You have
to remember that this is really at a time when the Internet was still
pretty fresh in terms of content and what was available in terms of .com
site's history.  USAfootball.com at the time was ran by a guy named Dennis
Wilson who was covering small college football in a similar vein of Don
Hansen's site in where USAfootball.com would put out a pre/post season
all-american teams, rankings, news, etc.  USAfootball.com was also in the
business of putting on a few of these all-star games after each season but
the catch was this is a player paid fee game.  That means the play has to
pay a fee to take part that covers the food, hotel, overhead and on top of
that you also had to pay for the airfare.  It was a pretty expensive deal
when was all said and done.

Needless to say, I was pretty excited to get invited to an "all-star" game
and so was Linfield.  1998 was Linfield's first year in division III and
so it was a big deal for a player to get invited to a post-season game.
Linfield put up the $400-$500 and I was officially put on the west roster
and received a packet of information about the week of the all-star game.
Per the itinerary the players would have a media day where we would would
talk to local media about the game, a combine with professional scouts
(arena, smaller loges, NFL), practices,  we would participate in a local
Mardi Gras parade, and a number of what sounded like a well organized and
planned out events.

Upon reaching New Orleans, I met a few guys from UW-Stout at the airport
and we headed out to the hotel.  When we arrived the hotel was actually a
flea bag motel near the airport.  My roommate, a punter from Simpson, was
already there and we talked for a bit.  The hotel was very sketchy but I
wasn't too worried at that point. That evening was suppose to be the
"media day" event in the "conference room".  The players went down to the
conference room which was actually a dingy, dark, mold infested basement
where a 1/2 full keg of warm flat beer and a couple of metal folding
chairs greeted us.  At that point, the players looked around the room and
we all noticed there was only about 20 of us and of course no media.  The
confirmed roster we saw on USAfootball.com before we flew out to the game
listed about 70 players to make up the two rosters.  At that point we all
knew something was up.  Mr Wilson arrived for a few minutes talk about the
week ahead and how great it was going to be and left us about 5 minutes
later.

The players started talking about if more guys were going to show and how
we all felt this event wasn't on the level.  The next morning there were
about 5 more players (around 25 total) and we all kind of knew this wasn't
going down like we had hoped.  After we held a practice or, something they
called a practice, the players once again met and requested Mr. Wilson to
be present.  We point-blanked asked him why there where only enough guys
to barely make up one roster and expressed with him how disappointed this
had become with how unorganized this whole event was.  Mr. Wilson tried
his best to dance around the questions and talked about how he could get a
local community college play against us and things were not that bad.
Pretty much, the players walked.  A number of guys just caught a flight
out that night or the next morning or turned the remainder of their trip
into a vacation.

It was just a bummer because we all just wanted one more shot to play
against our peers at the end of our college careers.  On top of that,
Linfield had been so generous to pay for the trip and it winds up being a
complete bust.  It was just a bad way to wrap up college football as a
player.

One thing I do want to make clear is that I'm not saying don't take part
in player fee all-star games but do your research and make sure the
organizer has a positive track record and that they have a history on
delivering on their promises.

Jonny Utah

http://www.wjcl.com/sports/football-players-blindsided-by-bowl-cancellation-in-savannah/129283119/story

Here is a link to a news clip from Savannah about the game.

That sucks Wildcat11.  I have to admit that although the game I played in was pretty crappy (I remember kegs in a hotel conference room as well!), we at least got to play a real game, with some good coaches and good players.  I remember them cancelling another game at one point (the one you mentioned), but in his statement this year he says it was the only game he has ever cancelled?

Anyway, Pat maybe you should get in the business of setting up a game!?!?!