Mizzou football headed to Armed Forces Bowl versus Army in Fort Worth
Missouri football is headed to Fort Worth, Texas.
The Tigers accepted an invitation Sunday to participate in the Armed Forces Bowl against Army, the program announced.
Missouri's first trip to the postseason in three years will take place at 7 p.m. Dec. 22 from Amon G. Carter Stadium, where TCU typically plays its home games.
The matchup will be televised on ESPN.
More: Three things to know about Army football, Mizzou's opponent in Armed Forces Bowl
The Black Knights are 8-3 during the 2021 season with one regular-season game to go, facing Navy on Saturday.
Missouri leads the all-time series against Army 3-1, last playing in 1982.
MU last faced a service academy in the 2009 Texas Bowl, losing 35-13 to Navy, and is 9-4 all-time against the Division-I service academies.
As an assistant and head coach, Missouri's Eli Drinkwitz is 8-0 in bowl games. This will be his first with the Tigers after last year's Music City Bowl against Iowa was cancelled due to COVID-19.
The Tigers (6-6) are the lone Southeastern Conference team not to qualify for the College Football Playoff or be selected to one of the conference's affiliated bowls.
Heading to Fort Worth creates a scheduling nightmare for the MU athletic department, as kickoff of the Armed Forces Bowl and tipoff of the annual Braggin' Rights men's basketball game in St. Louis against Illinois are an hour apart.
That means Tiger fans looking to travel will have to pick between two marquee events, instead of possibly attending both.
The Tigers' bowl destination became clearer after the SEC championship game Saturday, with Alabama knocking off Georgia.
Both those conference powerhouses made the College Football Playoff, with the national semifinal locations being bowls without league tie-ins: the Cotton Bowl in Dallas and the Orange Bowl in Miami.
Alabama and Georgia's inclusion in the playoff bracket means the rest of the SEC's 11 bowl-eligible teams moved one place higher in the pecking order among bowls connected to the league. The conference had 10 affiliated postseason spots to fill Sunday, leaving one team unattached.
One of the four New Year's Six non-CFP bowls had to accept another SEC team, long thought to be Mississippi because of the Rebels' top-10 ranking.
Next in line to choose was the Citrus Bowl, poised to take one of the teams with the best records remaining, giving Missouri impossible odds to head to Orlando.
Following those first four was a group of six bowls: Outback, Gator, Duke's Mayo, Music City, Liberty and Texas.
Bowl organizers and the schools each give their list of preferences and are matched as seamlessly as possible, though it's not always smooth.
Two of the three teams still without travel plans after that six-pack selection are chosen by ESPN to play in either the Birmingham or Gasparilla bowls.
In theory, Missouri was one of five SEC programs likely to be the odd team out, tying for the worst record among the league's postseason teams with Auburn, South Carolina, LSU and Florida.
Contact Eric Blum at eblum@columbiatribune.com. Follow @ByEricBlum on Twitter.
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This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri football headed to Armed Forces Bowl versus Army
