BREAKING: Missouri-Vanderbilt game postponed

As first reported by PowerMizzou, this week’s game against Vanderbilt will be postponed. No official reschedule date has been set as of this time.

Missouri just got done playing surprise host to LSU due to Hurricane Delta and now has its plans changed for the second time in two weeks thanks to the rash of COVID sit-outs from Vanderbilt.

Before the season began the SEC mandated that each team must be able to field 53 scholarship players - including six offensive linemen, four defensive linemen, and one quarterback - or else they’d have to postpone. Vanderbilt was missing 14 players from their 41-7 beatdown from South Carolina and, clearly, are going to lose more before Saturday’s scheduled matchup.

From a human standpoint, yes, it’s best to not play this game in order for the Vanderbilt players to recover and not expose Missouri players to the virus.

From a game standpoint it does suck to miss out and playing maybe the worst team in college football right now, especially after a whirlwind upset victory on Saturday. However, Missouri was also without several key contributors - both for COVID and injury reasons - and a week off to recover is not so bad.

BK mentioned this point on this week’s podcast but it’s worth repeating: do you really want Isaiah McGuire and Markell Utsey, fresh off of the most snaps they’ve ever taken in a single game, to turn around and do it again? Or the break-out young receivers carrying the load once again? It’ll be good for the team to rest and come back at full strength against Florida.

The Tigers and Commodores do not share a common Bye Week but the SEC has an all-league-wide Bye set for December 12th; that might be in place to play any games that can help decide Division races, or just an opportunity to play postponed games and make that sweet TV money. Who knows if this game actually gets rescheduled but that would be the only time to do it.

Best of luck and well wishes to Vanderbilt. Tiger fans, your Saturday evening just opened up!