to your point- the day after Christmas the Boise State/Boston College, First Responders Bowl game went into a lightning delay about 10 minutes into the 1st quarter then the game was cancelled a few hours later by the head of ESPN events...
in the grand scheme of things the game meant little- unless you were a BC or Boise fan or parent who spent the money to travel to Dallas for Christmas to see your son play his last football game or actually were a player suiting up for the last time...
there was no reason for this game to be cancelled- other than it was going to disrupt the ESPN schedule..
indeed. boise, in fact, was the primary motivation for realignment and the playoff illusion in the first place. no one was going to force their way into national prominence ever again that wasn’t already part of the syndicate. over time, there would be too many mouths to feed. that sh*t had to be stopped.
realignment and the playoff are just more mechanisms of control to enforce the status quo.
ESPN didn’t cancel the game.
NCAA rules require a 30 minute delay when lightning strikes occur with 8 miles. Lightning continued close by and the teams agreed after almost an hour and a half to just cancel the game, rather than put fans and everyone on the field in danger.