CMU football sits Rawls for Bahamas Bowl due to "an academic issue"
Thomas Rawls, the Central Michigan University football team's senior running back, will not play in the Chippewas' bowl game on Wednesday due to "an academic issue", the team announced Monday evening.
Rawls, a transfer student from the University of Michigan, did not travel with the team when the group flew to Nassau, Bahamas on Saturday.
The Chippewas are set to face Western Kentucky University in the inaugural Popeyes Bahamas Bowl at noon on Wednesday, Dec. 24.
In the nine games he played this season, Rawls led CMU with 1,103 rushing yards, 10 touchdowns and an average of 122 rushing yards per game.
Rawls has had a controversial season in Mount Pleasant.
On Sept. 13, the CMU football team announced Rawls would be withheld from the Chippewas eventual blowout loss to Syracuse University "due to an issue that came to (the program's) attention." Two days later, it was made public that Rawls had been arrested for his role in purse theft at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in April.
After serving a one game suspension (CMU's 24-10 loss to Kansas), Rawls returned to the field on Sept. 27 against Toledo.
Nearly a month later, Rawls suffered a knee injury during CMU's win over the University of Buffalo, missed the rest of that game, and all of CMU's 38-7 win over Eastern Michigan University the following week.
Rawls' graduate transfer agreement from U-M grants him just one year of eligibility at CMU.
