Don’t they do covid testing every Monday per protocol? Wouldn’t surprise me if there are legitimate issues - Tennessee is legitimately the hot spot in the world right now re: Covid cases.
I agree it’s coincidental they would jump to cancel now when the game is still 10 days away, and likely, as others have alluded, they are using this to justify not playing in a bowl without sacrificing bowl $$$.
This definitely buys them more time to figure things out on their time, and saves them $200k in bonus for Pruitt “making a bowl” (chump change in bigger picture but maybe helpful to put more pressure).