The Missouri Tigers home game on Saturday morning with SEC East rival Georgia has become the latest victim of the coronavirus, with the contest being postponed on Tuesday afternoon, the result of positive cases and contact tracing giving MU too many ineligibles for the game.
The belief is that contact tracing, more so than positive COVID-19 cases, hit Missouri’s program. particularly an already thin offensive line. The SEC has had “roster threshold” guidelines in place, with Missouri in danger of falling below that number.
In the Tigers last game against Florida, Missouri had only 64 scholarship players available, just 11 more than the minimum number of 53 in order to play. Last week, the Tigers offensive line had only nine scholarship players available, after starters Xavier Delgado and Larry Borom were ruled out with injuries.
No announcement on a reschedule date has been made for Georgia at Missouri, as the Tigers already had a postponed game with Vanderbilt moved to Saturday, December 12th. The Southeastern Conference could use December 19th as a make-up date, but the SEC’s championship game in Atlanta is also scheduled for that day.
Other SEC games postponed for this Saturday are No. 1 Alabama at LSU, No. 5 Texas A&M at Tennessee, and #24 Auburn at Mississippi State.
Arkansas is scheduled to play at #6 Florida on Saturday afternoon, despite Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman testing positive for COVID-19, keeping him away from the field for the game in Gainesville. Defensive coordinator and former Mizzou head coach Barry Odom will serve as interim head coach for Arkansas on Saturday. Vanderbilt at Kentucky remains on as scheduled for Saturday in Lexington.
