COLUMBIA - The Southeastern Conference has rearranged this Saturday's football opponent for the Missouri Tigers.
In a release Monday evening, the SEC said the Razorbacks were not fit to travel to Columbia this weekend "due to combination of positive tests, contact tracing and subsequent quarantining of individuals within the Arkansas football program".
Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said in his Monday press conference the Hogs (3-5) had 55 scholarship players at the start of last Saturday's loss to LSU, and did not anticipate getting more than "one or two" players back for this weekend.
The SEC postponed the Vanderbilt-Tennessee game for the purpose of giving the Tigers (3-3) an opponent.
The Commodores (0-7) will come to Columbia this weekend in a game postponed earlier this year and rescheduled for Dec. 12. The game will still kick at 11 a.m. on SEC Network, as the Tigers' game against Arkansas was scheduled. Vanderbilt is coming off a 38-17 loss at Florida.
Missouri, Texas A&M and LSU are the only SEC teams to have played six games this season. Kentucky, Arkansas and South Carolina have all played eight. The SEC will continue to look into rescheduling Georgia at Missouri, Arkansas at Missouri and Tennessee at Vanderbilt.
""As we continue to adapt to the current realities, it important to remain flexible as we move forward in the final weeks of the season," commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement. "Contact tracing continues to be the biggest contributing factor to game interruptions. We will continue to manage the remaining weeks of the football schedule to allow for as many games to be played as possible."
III
The Tigers program confirmed Monday freshman offensive lineman Dylan Spencer had entered the transfer portal. Spencer started at left guard against Florida, did not travel to the South Carolina game.
Spencer is the second freshman to enter the transfer portal this season, joining defensive lineman Montra Edwards. Four others, wide receivers Cjay Boone and Dominic Gicinto, linebacker Aubrey Miller and quarterback Taylor Powell, have also entered the portal this year.