This from the LA Times …

Los Angeles Loyola has become the first big-name football school to announce that it will not participate if invited to play in the CIF State Football Championship Bowl Games on Dec. 16 at Home Depot Center.

Chris O’Donnell, Loyola’s athletic director, said Monday that playing a 15th week of football would interfere with the school’s final exams, among other problems.

“It’s a meaningless game,” O’Donnell said. “High school kids will have played 14 games and will have been playing for four months, and I don’t know what the players and coaches will get out of it.”

Loyola won the Southern Section Division I championship last season and would be eligible for the Division II bowl game if it wins its conference championship.

State commissioners will meet Dec. 10 to select the three Southern California representatives and the three Northern California representatives to play in bowl games for large, medium and small schools. Schools must inform the CIF by the end of November whether they would participate in the first-ever bowl games. – Eric Sondheimer