Vanderbilt-Missouri game pushed back as SEC football sees first virus-related postponement
The game, hosted by Missouri, has been tentatively rescheduled for Dec. 12, the league announced.
“We’re playing football in a pandemic,” Vanderbilt Coach Derek Mason said Saturday after the Commodores’ 41-7 loss to South Carolina for which Mason said the team had only 56 scholarship players available. “I think everybody understands that, but as we go forward, this university is committed to not putting our student-athletes in harm’s way and making sure we’ve got as good of a roster as we can to go into ballgames, and if we don’t, we’ll make other decisions. Looking at our health from week to week is something we’ve got to do.”
The SEC announced last month a minimum threshold of 53 scholarship athletes per team for its football games this season. Conference programs affected by outbreaks have the option to take the field with fewer than those 53 players or can request to have the game rescheduled.
The Commodores cited “a lack of available scholarship student-athletes” Monday in announcing the postponement of the game at Missouri. The shortage, they said, was “due to the quarantining of individuals with positive tests and those designated as close contacts, along with injuries and opt-outs.”
Missouri Coach Eli Drinkwitz said on a radio show Monday that he had learned his team would not be playing the Commodores this week when a charter bus service alerted the Tigers that Vanderbilt had canceled its travel arrangements.
“We absolutely understand,” Drinkwitz said. “… Our number one priority is for everyone at Vanderbilt to be safe.”
The matchup between the 0-3 Commodores and the 1-2 Tigers, who are coming off a 45-41 win over LSU, is the 28th game at the Football Bowl Subdivision level to be postponed or canceled since August, according to the Associated Press. That includes a Big 12 matchup, Oklahoma State at Baylor, that was originally scheduled for this coming Saturday but is now set to be played Dec. 12 after Baylor suspended football-related activities last week.
“We are disappointed to postpone another game,” Baylor Athletic Director Mack Rhoades said Sunday in a statement, referring to the fact that the pandemic caused the postponements last month of matchups with Louisiana Tech and Houston. “However, the significant increase in positive covid-19 cases has led to concerns of an outbreak and the decision to suspend team practice through October 17. Secondly, this has caused a position group to fall below the minimum threshold of available players.”
Florida Atlantic Coach Willie Taggart, whose Owls have also had three games postponed this season, confirmed Monday that 18 players and nine members of his staff tested positive last week. FAU has managed to play just once this season, getting a home win over Charlotte on Oct. 3.
According to the SEC’s testing plan for what the conference considers high-risk sports — basketball, football, soccer and volleyball — athletes receive a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test three times per week during their seasons. Coaches and support staff also adhere to that testing schedule.
Missouri confirmed Saturday that six players were held out of its win against LSU because of positive coronavirus tests or contact tracing.
“We all really took a lesson last week when the president of the United States is able to contract the virus,” Drinkwitz said Thursday. “I think we can do as great a job as we can, but we all got to practice safe social distancing. We’ve got to wash our hands. Testing can only do so much.”
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