Hawaii vs. Fordham Game Is In Jeopardy
Patriot League is wanting zero contests that require a flight.
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Bronx to Honolulu is a long trip
Hawaii’s Week 2 game against the Fordham Rams of the Patriot League might not happen this year. The league made an announcement about wanting to cut down on travel and overnight stays for the upcoming season.
One of the biggest line items was that the league is was regarding flying:
Student-athletes will return to campus at the same time as the student body; the conference schedule will begin at the end of September and finish before Thanksgiving; and no Patriot League teams will fly to games, and with rare exceptions, regular-season overnight travel will be prohibited.
The Hawaii game obviously requires a flight and more than one most likely, and while overnight travel and flights are required for the Fordham game, there is not a 100 percent decision made for or against.
Patriot League spokesman Ryan Sakamoto told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in a clarification that, “Based upon the language, that game certainly looks like it will be in jeopardy.”
There is a lot on the line for Fordham as this is a “buy game” for them and could be missing out on a lot of money that would fund a good chunk of their athletics programs for the year.
However, there are still talks about having the game.
“Conversations are still on-going, so I don’t know that there is a definite answer yet,” Sakamoto. “There are discussions (about) whether there is a potential for exceptions. None of those games have been canceled yet. As we move forward, there will probably be some more clarity.”
As for the school itself, Fordham spokesman Joe DiBari told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, “There is a (conference) meeting on Wednesday to discuss football, so we should know more by then.”
More information will be coming about this game. For Hawaii, they are allowed 13 games so dropping this will get them to 12 which is good enough for a season.
An option if this game does not happen is to do a swap with an East Coast team that is within driving distance for Fordham. FCS teams are bolded.
- VMI at Virginia
- St. Francis (PA) at Buffalo
- Eastern Kentucky at West Virginia
- Hampton at Old Dominion
- Idaho at Temple
- Kennesaw State at Kent State
The majority of these are about six to seven hours but the best option for a more manageable drive would be for Idaho and Fordham to switch games. Fordham going to Philadelphia is a very easy 100-mile trip and Idaho going to Honolulu is basically the same distance to Philadelphia.
Plus, the other FCS teams reside in the Eastern time zone and would make for a very long trip.
More will come out after the Patriot League has more meetings scheduled for this week.
