Music City Bowl won’t be played

The Music City Bowl was canceled Sunday because a COVID-19 outbreak left Missouri unable to play Iowa in the matchup that was scheduled for Wednesday in Nashville.

It’s the second bowl called off since the postseason lineup was set Dec. 20; overall, 18 bowl games scheduled to be played this season have been canceled.

Missouri athletic director Jim Sterk said the Tigers, who went 5-5 in their first year under coach Eli Drinkwitz, have had a “significant increase in positive COVID19 tests among our student- athletes, coaches and staff” since the end of the regular season.

Missouri is the third Southeastern Conference team that has had to pull out of its bowl game because of the coronavirus, joining Tennessee and South Carolina. Army was able to replace Tennessee in the Liberty Bowl against West Virginia to salvage that game, set for Thursday in Memphis. South Carolina’s situation left the University of Alabama at Birmingham without an opponent in the Gasparilla Bowl.

Iowa (6-2) was put in the same predicament, with no short-notice replacement available to face the Big Ten’s Hawkeyes.

Flames block perfection

ORLANDO, Fla. — Elijah James blocked Massimo Biscardi’s 42-yard field-goal attempt in overtime Saturday night to give Liberty a 37-34 victory over Coastal Carolina in a wild finish to the FBC Mortgage Cure Bowl.

Liberty (10-1) took the lead on Alex Barbir’s 44-yard field goal on the first extra possession.

Coastal Carolina ( 11-1) got a huge break in regulation when the Flames’ Joshua Mack fumbled inside the Chanticleers’ 1-yard line with 41 seconds left in the fourth quarter and Alex Spillum recovered.