Date and time set for Music City Bowl, but there will be changes for Nashville game

A new name won't be the only change for the Music City Bowl this year.

The game is now known as the TransPerfect Music City Bowl. The new title sponsor was added earlier this year. 

Many other significant changes have already been made and more are likely to come for the 23rd annual game as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was announced Friday the game is scheduled for Dec. 30 at 2:30 p.m. at Nissan Stadium and will be broadcast on ESPN.

The date and time for the bowl is usually announced in the spring, but that didn't happen this year with so much uncertainty surrounding the college football season at that time due to the pandemic. 

The bowl's president and CEO Scott Ramsey is confident the game will be played as long as its two conference partners — the SEC and Big Ten — continue to play their regular seasons.

"We've had a lot of 'what-if' planning that has gone on and we don't have all the answers yet," Ramsey said.

"At this point we're fully planning on having a game unless our two conference partners change course over the next several weeks, which obviously could happen. But we're anticipating having a game and then we're just going to work through some of the other business aspects like tickets and sponsors and TV and all those kind of things."

The two teams in the bowl are expected to be announced on Dec. 20, the day after the SEC and Big Ten championship games.  

After SEC officials announced during the summer the regular season would begin in late September, but Big Ten officials voted to postpone their season, Ramsey and his staff were left trying to find an opponent for the SEC representative.

"We still wanted to find a Power Five team so we started talking to the ACC and the Big 12," Ramsey said.

Not long after that, however, the Big Ten reversed its decision and announced it would play in the fall. The Big Ten's first games were played last weekend.

That meant the Music City Bowl was able to revert back to its original plan to match an SEC opponent with a Big Ten opponent.

"We were happy about that because this is the first year of our new six-year agreement with the Big Ten," Ramsey said.

It is usually at this point in the season when speculation starts about which bowls teams might end up in. That is not the case this year, Ramsey said, because the Big Ten's schedule just got under way and the SEC is only playing 10 games.

Also, the factors that determine which teams play in which bowls likely won't be based solely on wins and losses or rankings in conference standings like in the past.

"In talking to the SEC and the Big Ten we just haven't gotten to how do we want to create some matchups this year," Ramsey said. "There's one school of thought where they'd like to minimize travel. If you can get some teams to some bowl sites in a few hours, whether that's on a bus or however they normally travel as a team. Do we really want to charter people across the country for one or two nights and bubble them in a hotel if we don't have to?"

The NCAA waived all win requirements for bowl eligibility this season, meaning all 127 FBS teams are eligible for the postseason. Ramsey was among those who pushed for the move. 

"Our pitch was if we can stage games it's a positive," Ramsey said. "Records were immaterial when it came to trying to put together a postseason at this point. We could not worry about whether they only played five of six games, or however many, in the Big Ten or in the SEC they only played eight."

In compliance with Metro Health Department guidelines, auxiliary events around the bowl, including the Fan Zone on Broadway, the Coaches Luncheon and Battle of the Bands, have been canceled this year.

Ramsey is also unsure when tickets will go on sale and how many will be made available due to attendance restrictions that will be determined by the heath department.

Several bowls have been canceled due to the pandemic, including the Bahamas, Hawaii, Redbox and Holiday.  

Ex-Vol Kyle Phillips suffers season-ending injury

Former Hillsboro and Tennessee Vols defensive end Kyle Phillips, in his second season with the New York Jets, will miss the remainder of the season after suffering an ankle injury in Sunday's game against Buffalo.

Phillips was injured early in the game, but was able to return. He reinjured the ankle later and had to be carted off the field.

Phillips' playing time was on the rise. He had made back-to-back starts and registered 11 tackles with three for losses on the season.

Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation gets new site, date

After a one-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the Simmons Bank Open for the Snedeker Foundation, previously known as the Nashville Golf Open, will move to The Grove, May 3-9, 2021.

Nashville Golf and Athletic Club served as host for the first four editions of the tournament, which is on the Korn Ferry Tour.

The Grove, a Greg Norman-designed course, is located south of Nashville in College Grove.

"We are excited to host the Simmons Bank Open,” said Mark Enderle, developer and partner at The Grove. “Providing the opportunity for young golfers to learn and grow in their game and fostering the next generation of passionate players is core to the mission of The Grove."

The Grove serves as the home course for Middle Tennessee State's golf team.

The 2020 Simmons Bank Open was scheduled for April 30-May 3.

The tournament was renamed earlier this year in recognition of its new title partner Simmons Bank. 

► More:Brandt Snedeker praises Simmons Bank for sponsoring Korn Ferry Tour players

Former Tennessean sports writers going into hall of fame

Two former Tennessean sports writers are in the Tennessee Sports Writers Association 2021 Hall of Fame class announced Thursday.

Larry Taft, who started out covering high school sports before serving as The Tennessean sports editor, and Maurice Patton, who covered several different beats at The Tennessean, are in the class along with former Cleveland Daily Banner sports editor George Starr.

After working at the Knoxville News Sentinel and the Democrat-Union in Lawrenceburg Taft spent nearly 40 years at The Tennessean. He served as sports editor from 2007-12.

Patton began his career at the Review Appeal in Franklin and went to work at The Tennessean in 1990. He covered high schools, Vanderbilt, Tennessee, Tennessee State and the Nashville Sounds while at The Tennessean. In 2016 Patton became sports editor of the Columbia Daily Herald.

Austin Peay standout and Cohn coach dies

Former Midstate high school star athlete Ted Potter, who went on to play football and run track at Austin Peay and later coached in Nashville, died Tuesday. He was 83.

Potter was an All-Midstate football player and set several track and field records at Clarksville High in 1956. He also finished second in the state decathlon that year.

Potter went on to play football at Austin Peay where he was a team captain in 1959 and set the low and high hurdles records on the track team.

As a coach Potter led Cohn to its first Nashville Interscholastic League Class AA championship in 1966 and served as an assistant on the 1967 football team, which won the NIL title.

Potter later coached at Hillsboro and Stratford before retiring from Metro in 1991.

Belmont misses out on ESPN's canceled tournament  

Belmont's men's basketball team was set to start its season in an ESPN tournament that would have been played Nov. 26-29, but the network decided to scrap the event.

The 2020 Orlando Invitational would have been played in a bubble-type concept at HP Field House. Along with Belmont, the field included Auburn, Boise State, Gonzaga, Michigan State, Saint Louis, Siena and Xavier.

ESPN officials canceled the tournament because of challenges that would have come with testing players and coaches for the COVID-19 virus over the four-day stretch.

Springfield pro wrestler Tracy Smothers dies

Professional wrestler Tracy Smothers, a Springfield native, died Wednesday after battling lymphoma. He was 58.

Smothers was an outstanding wrestler and football player at Springfield High. 

He began his pro wrestling career in the mid-1980s in World Championship Wrestling where he teamed with Steve Armstrong as the Wild-Eyed Southern Boys and The Young Pistols.

Smothers later wrestled as Freddie Joe Floyd in the WWE and Extreme Championship Wrestling.

If you have an item for Midstate Chatter contact Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 on on Twitter @MikeOrganWriter. 

Sports on Nashville TV

The five highest-rated sports events locally for the week ending Oct. 25 in Nashville: