Army football coach Jeff Monken woke up early Sunday, anxious to know who his team would face in a bowl game.
The Black Knights had set a 9-2 record, crowned by Saturday’s victory over the Air Force that secured them the Commander-in-Chief Trophy. The Army had a deal to play the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl against a Pac-12 opponent. By mid-afternoon on Sunday, the Army thought it would have the match secured.
“Okay, we should know something at 2:30,” but at 2:30 they came and went. “We should know something at 3 in the morning,” but at 3 in the evening they came and went, “Monken told ESPN Sunday night.” And then we started to know they would shut us down. “
After an increase in Pac-12 teams opting for the bowling season and other teams, according to Monken, threatened not to participate if they were paired against the army, the Independence Bowl canceled the his game and the Black Knights ran out of postseason destiny. Monken and Army administrators briefed the team after dinner at a meeting at 6:15 p.m. ET.
“We had guys in tears,” Monken said. “We’ve got the biggest career victories of these seniors, they just won the Commander-in-Chief Trophy, that will be their legacy, and they hope to play a game of bowling once together, before he marches into the U.S. Army United and we’re sitting here telling them, “I’m sorry, guys, you can’t play.”
You can talk about a playoff system and people who make fun of not being one of the top four teams: ‘Oh, we should be there.’ All we want is a bowl game. All we want. it’s an opportunity to play. “
An independent FBS army, reached an agreement to play in the Independence Bowl in 2020, 2022 and 2024 as long as it was eligible. Although the Football Bowl Association raised the minimum of six victories to qualify, the Army still celebrated its appearance after securing its sixth victory on October 24 against Mercer.
Monken said he was worried when the Pac-12 teams started opting for the bowling season late last week. But he still thought the military would find an opponent for the Independence Bowl, which has been played for 44 consecutive years.
“The bottom line is that there were enough people who kept saying,‘ No, we don’t want to play in the army, we don’t want to play in the army, ’” Monken said. “And I’m sure they don’t want to have a week to prepare for the option [offense] or whatever, but our players, we have guys on our team who wouldn’t be invited as rides to the teams we prepare to play. We have guys from California, they didn’t have any Pac-12 offers and they start for us. ”
Monken praised SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey for the league’s involvement in 12 of 14 bowling teams, including several, such as South Carolina and the state of Mississippi, with record losses. He noted that several teams seemed intent on participating in the postseason until losing games this past weekend.
“USC, a week ago, said, ‘We deserve to be in the college football playoffs if we go undefeated and win the Pac-12 championship,'” Monken said. “And Pac-12 said, ‘An undefeated Pac-12 team. deserves to be considered “. So they go to the Pac-12 championship against Oregon and lose and go from wanting to go to the college football playoffs to not wanting to play at all? I do not get it. Boise State has chosen not to participate. They have lost their championship. party yesterday. So did they go from being their conference champion and representing their conference in a bowl game to not participating? Couldn’t you go one more week and play us?
“It just doesn’t make sense to me that you can go from wanting to play to not wanting to play in a matter of 12 hours.”
USC cited a recommendation from its medical team as to why it chose not to participate. And if USC hadn’t opted for the exit, it would almost have been guaranteed to play in the Alamo Bowl, which would have pitted Colorado against the Independence Bowl as an army opponent.
Monken added that the situation is particularly unfortunate because neither the Navy nor the Air Force will appear in a bowl game this season.
“I’m not pointing a finger at anyone,” he said. “It’s collectively, as a bowling season, whatever the system, a 9-2 team shouldn’t be left out and a 9-2 army team shouldn’t be left out. I don’t know how we have an Armed Forces Bowl and a Military Bowl and a First Responders Bowl and in all these bowling games, we will have service members who will come back and reunite with their families, we will put it on TV and it will be a -Good story, and you’ll leave the army team at home.
“How much is a bull? Someone has to fix it.”
After Monken broke the news of the bowl, Army elders met and agreed to stay on campus and continue practicing until Thursday morning, in case another participating bowl team is unable to play due to COVID-19 tests or for other reasons. If the Army can’t find a bowl spot, players will be fired for returning home for the first time since May. But if a stain opens, the army will be ready. Athletic director Mike Buddie issued a statement Sunday saying the academy “would continue to fight to get them this opportunity.”
Monken said the team would only need one day to arrange the trip and get to the bowl site. He pointed to the team’s entire season motto: Don’t plan. Get ready.
“If we get a bowl game on Dec. 31, if you call us on the 29th, we’ll have those guys flying in on the 30th,” Monken said. “What I hope are some of these bowl games, when they know enough about this about the army, they’ll say,‘ You know what? If someone cancels, we will take the army. to be the knight in shining armor and we will look like a hero who will take over this team ”.
“They will be the hero.”
Monken doesn’t blame the Independence Bowl at all, saying, “They worked hard. They were crying. They wanted to have this bowl game, they wanted to welcome us and they tried to get an opponent and people kept rejecting them.”
He said he also understands the contracts the bowls have with the conferences and their members.
ESPN staff writers Alex Scarborough and Kyle Bonagura contributed to this report.