In recent years, there has been a spike in the number of players choosing to opt out of their team's bowl game in order to stay healthy for the NFL Draft or the transfer portal.
The TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl, which was scheduled for Friday, Jan. 1 at Legion Field will be cancelled due to an insufficient amount of teams participating in bowl season. This year's game was supposed to matchup a member from the SEC and the American Athletic Conference. The cancellation puts an end to a 14-year run of bowl games in Birmingham.