Mizzou football will play Vanderbilt instead of Arkansas at home on Saturday
The Missouri Tigers won’t face Arkansas and former MU coach Barry Odom on Saturday after all.
The Mizzou vs. Arkansas game was postponed because of COVID-19 issues within the Razorbacks’ program, the SEC announced Monday. The Tigers will instead take on Vanderbilt at the same time, 11 a.m. Saturday, at Memorial Stadium in a rescheduling shuffle.
The Commodores were originally set to face Tennessee on Saturday, but that game was postponed “for the purpose of facilitating the rescheduling of the Vanderbilt at Missouri game.”
Mizzou fans hoping to attend Saturday’s rescheduled game should use their “Game 2” tickets and parking passes, according to the school. Then they should save their “Game 5” tickets for the Arkansas game once it’s officially rescheduled.
“As we continue to adapt to the current realities, it important to remain flexible as we move forward in the final weeks of the season,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement. “Contact tracing continues to be the biggest contributing factor to game interruptions. We will continue to manage the remaining weeks of the football schedule to allow for as many games to be played as possible.”
The Missouri vs. Vanderbilt game was originally scheduled for Oct. 17. But the league postponed that match because of COVID-19 protocols affecting Vandy at the time.
It’s unclear currently when the Arkansas game could be made up for Mizzou. The Tigers still have to reschedule their contest against Georgia, which was set for Nov. 7, but had to be postponed because of COVID-19.
MU now has two open dates after the Vanderbilt game was moved to Saturday. Mizzou’s Dec. 5 game against Mississippi State has not been affected at this point. That means Mizzou has Dec. 12 and Dec. 19, the day of the SEC championship game, to fit in the Georgia and Arkansas games. The conference announced earlier it will utilize Dec. 19 as a playing date for postponed games.
The league also enacted rescheduling measures for the purpose of “maximizing the number of games available to be played.” To do so, the SEC said the conference office may revise the football schedule on a weekly basis, starting with this week’s slate of games. Those alterations, however, must be made by 8 p.m. Monday ahead of Saturday’s games.
That rule allowed the SEC to make those changes on Monday, replacing Mizzou’s contest against Arkansas with Vanderbilt.
The Tigers are coming off a 17-10 road win over South Carolina, but they were battling their own COVID-19 and injury issues.
MU coach Eliah Drinkwitz said after the game they only had 52 players, which is below the SEC’s 53-man roster threshold. But Drinkwitz said they owed it to their players to still go through with the game, especially after coming off a long layoff. MU had gone three weeks without a game by that point.
It’s also just another schedule change for a Mizzou squad that’s seen its share of disruption.
MU’s Oct. 10 game against LSU was moved from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to Columbia because of Hurricane Delta. Then Mizzou’s Oct. 17 contest vs. Vanderbilt was postponed before ultimately being moved to Saturday.
The Tigers then saw the league flip-flop their Florida and Kentucky games on Oct. 24 and Oct. 31 as the Gators battled a COVID-19 outbreak. Instead of facing Florida on Oct. 24, the Tigers beat Kentucky in a 20-10 win that day. MU eventually lost 41-17 to the Gators on Oct. 31.
After a week off Nov. 7, Mizzou then needed to postpone its Nov. 14 game against Georgia. The Tigers fell below the positional threshold at defensive line because of COVID-19 protocols, which prompted the game to be delayed.
The Tigers finally saw something go right on their schedule when they beat South Carolina. But now, Drinkwitz’s team will again adjust on the fly.
This story was originally published November 23, 2020 at 5:49 PM.