Mizzou’s homecoming game against Vanderbilt postponed
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Mizzou football team's homecoming game against Vanderbilt on Saturday is postponed. PowerMizzou first reported the news.
According to the SEC - the game was postponed due to COVID-19 concerns with the Commodores. Mizzou was scheduled to host Vanderbilt on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. However, the SEC said the game will now be moved to Dec. 12 - which is a week before the SEC Championship. Mizzou athletic director Jim Sterk said the game could be moved to Dec. 19, if necessary.
This is the first SEC game to be postponed this season.
On Saturday, Vanderbilt head coach Derek Mason said his team had only 56 scholarship players available to play. He would not comment on whether or not these absences were COVID-19 related. According to SEC protocols, teams must have 53 scholarship players available in order to compete.
"We absolutely understand," Mizzou football coach Eli Drinkwitz said on the Paul Finebaum show Monday. "We've been dealing with COVID like everybody else, so our number one priority is for everybody at Vanderbilt to be safe, the players to be safe and these football contests can be made up. We're going to use it as a positive for us here at Mizzou. We'll use the week to get healthy. We'll use the week to improve. We'll use the week to focus on our academics, and then we'll use the week to get focused on our next opponent, which will be Florida."
Sterk said Mizzou will now hold homecoming on Oct. 31 against Kentucky. On a lighter note - Sterk and Drinkwitz found out about the postponement in a rather unique way.
"If y'all want to know the real truth, our bus company alerted us that Vanderbilt canceled their buses, and that's where we first got wind that maybe this game wasn't going to go on," Drinkwitz said on Finebaum.
Sterk added, "Columbia's a small town, and the Vandy folks were trying to be preemptive, and we heard about it."
The Tigers are coming off an upset win over No. 17 LSU over the weekend. MU is 1-2 on the season. Meanwhile, Vanderbilt is 0-3.
