We are now a day or two deep into the post-season portion of the 2020 NCAA FCS (f/k/a Division I) College Football season. The bowl bonanza has begun - although truthfully referring to what has unfolded, and shall continue to unfold through January 11, 2021 as a "bonanza" runs the risk of incurring the wrath of the remaining members of the Cartwright clan. A significant number of schools decided to opt out of playing in a bowl game this year, including every member of the Pac-12 except for the Oregon Ducks and my Colorado Buffaloes, which is why the Buffs are shuffling off to San Antonio, Texas to face the Texas Longhorns in the Alamo Bowl on December 29. For those placing a bet at home or through your phone, Texas has opened as a 13-point favorite. I expect the line to grow as we get closer to game time.
Although the number of bowls being played this season is down significantly from the normal "non-pandemic" complement of games, the people who run them have managed to invite a half-dozen members of the SEC with losing records to play in them. Notwithstanding the two National Semi-Final Games being played on New Year's Day and the National Championship Game on January 11, there are twenty-six bowl games being played. Twenty-six. Six of them, slightly less than 25% of the total to be played, will include a SEC team with a losing record. The SEC has twelve member schools. Ten of the twelve are playing in bowl games. The only two missing the party? Vanderbilt, which failed to win a game all season, and LSU, last year's National Champion, which is serving a "self-imposed" bowl ban this season, which ban the Bayou Bengals "self-imposed" when their record was 3-5. They finished their season 5-5.
The University of South Carolina, which managed to win two of its ten regular-season games and fire its head coach on account of his team stinking so much, secured a bowl bid as did its conference companions Mississippi State University, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Arkansas, each of which won three of their ten regular-season games. COVID-19 did to the Gamecocks what an apparent lack of institutional self-awareness and humility could not, which is keep them from their bowl appearance. The University of Kentucky, which won four games on its ten-game season, is playing in a bowl game. The belle of the ball as it were from the SEC's Second Division (the 2020 bowl game-equivalent of being the skinniest kid in fat camp) is the University of Mississippi. Ole Miss won four games but it only played nine, which means it came much closer to being statistically average than did the other five.
Meanwhile, the Army Black Knights, winners of the 2020 Commander-in-Chief's Trophy and holders of a 9-2 record (a/k/a as "seven games above .500" for anyone from the Gasparilla Bowl, Armed Forces Bowl, Liberty Bowl, Texas Bowl, Gator Bowl, or Outback Bowl Selection Committees who might happen upon this) held no bowl invitation and had no chair in which to sit when the music stopped. They were supposed to have played in the Independence Bowl, which cancelled once eligible Pac-12 schools starting opting out of these games in droves.
One might think that the Armed Forces Bowl might have had an interest in matching Army against the Tulsa Golden Hurricanes, runners-up from the AAC, as opposed to inviting Mississippi State to play Tulsa. Or perhaps the Liberty Bowl would have wanted Army to challenge West Virginia in its game rather than tasking Tennessee with doing so.
One would have been wrong. Fortunately for the Black Knights, fate intervened. Following their final regular-season game this past Saturday, Tennessee's coaches and players took COVID-19 tests. The Volunteers apparently had a sizable number of positive tests, enough that they informed the Liberty Bowl they would not be playing in the game on New Year's Eve. Suddenly the Liberty Bowl found itself in need of an opponent to face West Virginia. When they contacted Army, Jeff Monken's Black Knights accepted the assignment.
Will Army defeat West Virginia? I cannot pretend to have any idea. I know however that their resume warranted them being extended the courtesy of an invitation to begin with, and not as an eleventh-hour, after-the-fact, desperate times call for desperate measures replacement.
Consistent excellence should never be taken for granted.
-AK
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