COVID-19 has dramatically altered the 2020-21 college football bowl season. With 16 games being canceled and more than 20 teams opting out, it would appear that no game is fully secure until kickoff. Such is the case with the Liberty Bowl, which will now pair Army and West Virginia after Tennessee was forced to back out due to issues with COVID-19.
According to a statement from the Tennessee, an increase in positive cases among athletes and staff, including coach Jeremy Pruitt, made practicing for the game too much for the program to handle. That temporarily left the Mountaineers without an opponent 10 days away from the bowl, but Army was an obvious replacement.
The 9-2 Black Knights were slated to play in the Independence Bowl on Dec. 26, but a lack of available opponents resulted in the game being canceled. Since the cancellation, Army has publicly stumped that it still intended on playing in a bowl game to potentially reach its third 10-win season in the past four years. It got its wish on Monday with the Black Knights’ inclusion into the Liberty Bowl where they will face off with their Big 12 foe.
While this is the first instance of a team backing out of a bowl game, it will probably not be the last. One thing that frequent COVID-19 testing has done with the college football season is disrupt matchups on short notice. If regular-season games can be planned a few days in advance, bowl games might be as well.
