News/Commentary

Army In Bowl Game After All; Will Sub For Tennessee In Liberty Bowl

December 22, 2020 by Staff

Army head coach Jeff Monken will sleep a little better tonight. His football team has a bowl game to play, after all.

Tennessee had to back out of its commitment to play West Virginia in the Liberty Bowl after covid apparently hit the program hard. Jeremy Pruitt, along with several of his assistants and players either tested positive, have undergone contact tracing protocols, or were placed in quarantine. By Monday afternoon, it was clear that the Vols needed to shut it down.

Army will now be West Virginia's opponent on December 31st in Memphis. The Congrove Computer Rankings at collegefootballpoll.com favor the Mountaineers by 11.98 points. Oddsmakers have not yet issued a line on the game.

Army accepted a bid on October 24 to play a PAC-12 team in the Independence Bowl. The team had just defeated Mercer to improve to 6-1 and finished the season 9-2. But after several PAC-12 schools opted out of the postseason over the weekend, the bowl game was canceled on selection Sunday and left the Black Knights out in the cold. The Guaranteed Rate, Birmingham and Military bowls were also canceled on Sunday.. The Military Bowl reportedly tried to revive the game on Monday, but more than 20 teams declined.

CollegeFootballPoll.com issued an appeal on Army's behalf on Sunday.

CollegeFootballPoll.com also posted this article on Sunday - Army (9-2) Left Out While Nine Sub-.500 Schools Get Bowl Bids.

Monken issued his thanks to a bevy of people who also supported Army and blasted the bowl system for allowing the school to be left out in the first place.