Army football coach Jeff Monken woke up early Sunday, eager to find out who his team will face in a bowl game.
The Black Knights recorded a record of 9-2, capped by Saturday’s victory over the Air Force that secured them the Commander-in-Chief Trophy. The military had a deal to play in the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl against a Pac-12 opponent. On Sunday in the middle of the afternoon, the Army thought it would have the match assured.
“Okay, we should know something by 2:30, but 2:30 came and went.” We should know something by 3 o’clock, “but 3 o’clock came and went,” Monken told ESPN on Sunday night. “And then we started getting the news that we would be excluded.”
After a lot of Pac-12 teams gave up the bowl season and other teams, according to Monken, threatened to give up if paired with the army, Independence Bowl canceled their game and the Black Knights were left without a destination. post-season. Monken and Army administrators briefed the team after dinner at a meeting at 6:15 p.m. ET.
“We had boys in tears,” Monken said. “We have taken the biggest victories of these seniors’ careers, they have just won back the Commander-in-Chief Trophy, this will be their legacy and they are looking forward to playing a bowl game together once, before leaving for the United States Army and we sit here and tell them, “Sorry, boys, you can’t play.”
“You can talk about a playoff system and people arguing that I’m not a top-four team, ‘Oh, we should be inside.’ All we want is a bowl game. All we want is a chance to play. “
The FBS Independent Army has 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 a minimum of six victories to qualify, the Army continued to celebrate its appearance in the bowl after securing its sixth victory on October 24 against Mercer.
Monken said it was worried when the Pac-12 teams started giving up the bowling season at the end of last week. But he still believed 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 army, we don’t want to play army,'” Monken said. “And I’m sure they don’t want to have a week to prepare for the option [offense] or anything but our players, we have guys on our team who would not be invited as walk-ons to the teams we are preparing to play. We have guys from California, they didn’t have a Pac-12 offer and they start for us. “
Monken praised SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey for the league’s participation in 12 of 14 teams, including several, such as South Carolina and Mississippi, with record losses. He mentioned that several teams seemed to intend to participate in the post-season until the loss of last weekend’s games.
“USC said a week ago, ‘We deserve to be in the college football playoffs if we win and win the Pac-12 championship,'” Monken said. “And Pac-12 said, ‘A team undefeated by Pac-12 deserves to be considered.’ So I 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 understand. Boise State gave up today. They lost their championship. yesterday. So, have they gone from being their conference champion and representing their conference in a home game to giving up? Couldn’t you go and play with us for another week?
“It just doesn’t make sense to me that you can go from wanting to play to not wanting to play in just 12 hours.”
USC cited a recommendation from his medical team as to why he gave up. And if USC hadn’t given up, he would have been almost guaranteed to play in the Alamo Bowl, which would have hit Colorado’s Independence Bowl as an army opponent.
Monken added that the situation is particularly unfortunate, as neither the Navy nor the Air Force will appear in a bowl game this season.
“I don’t point a finger at anyone,” he said. “It’s just collective, as a bowl season, whatever the system, a 9-2 team shouldn’t be left out and an army 9-2 team shouldn’t be left out. I don’t know how we have a bowl of the armed forces and a military bowl and a First Responders bowl and at all these bowl games, we will have the service members who will come back and be reunited with their families, we will put it on TV and it will be a sensation – good story and you will leave the team home army.
“How much is a bull? Someone has to fix this.”
After Monken broke the news of the bowl, Army seniors met and agreed to stay on campus and continue practicing until Thursday morning, in case another participating bolus team cannot play due to COVID-19 testing. or for other reasons. If the army does not find a place in the bowl, the players will be fired to return home for the first time in May. But if a bowl is opened, the army will be ready. Sports Director Mike Buddie issued a statement on Sunday saying the academy will “continue to fight to give them that opportunity.”
Monken said the team will only need one day to arrange the trip and get to the bowl. He noted the team’s motto throughout the season: Don’t plan. Prepare.
“If we have a house game on December 31st, if you call us on the 29th, we’ll have those guys flying there on the 30th,” Monken said. “What I hope are some of these bowling games, when they hear enough about the army, they say, ‘You know what?’ If anyone cancels, we’ll take the army. to be the knight in shining armor and we will look like a hero taking this team.
– They’ll be the hero.
Monken does not blame Independence Bowl at all, saying, “They worked hard. They were in tears. They wanted to have this bowl game and they wanted to host us and they tried to get an opponent, and the people kept going. and refuse. “
He said he also understands the contracts that bowls have with conferences and their members.
ESPN writers Alex Scarborough and Kyle Bonagura contributed to this report.