The city of Austin, Texas is no longer getting a college football bowl game this winter, officials confirmed Wednesday.
According to ESPN, the NCAA certified three new bowl games earlier this month and one was set to take place in Austin. The other two - the Cure Bowl in Orlando, Florida, and the Arizona Bowl in Tucson - are keeping their certification, lowering next year's total to 41, which is still a record high.
The bowl game in Austin was going to match up teams from the American Athletic and Sun Belt conferences and was reportedly going to be played at the University of Texas' Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.
Despite losing one bowl game, the total of 41 still ensures a majority (63 percent) of all Football Bowl Subdivision teams will get to play in a bowl game this upcoming season.
The Football Bowl Association (FBA) confirmed the Austin bowl officials' decision to stop pursuing a game this winter.
"We applaud their courage to explore it and have the courage to step back and make sure they had it right," Wright Waters, the FBA's executive director, told ESPN. "They can come back in a year to organize and reach out to key individuals in the community. It will be better in every way a year from now."
