By Seth Herrold
The Missouri Tigers have been to a bowl game in each of the past six seasons, dating back to Chase Daniel’s freshman season. The last time Missouri failed to play a post-season game was 2004, when the Tigers finished 5-6.
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While making a bowl game is hardly a large measure of success these days with so many teams earning bowl trips, missing a bowl game is something you want to avoid. This season, the Tigers are in very real danger of missing a bowl game. No contest is a given in the Big 12, but Missouri should be heavily favored in the final game of the season, playing Kansas in Kansas City. The Tigers already have three wins and a win over Kansas would get them to four. To become bowl eligible, you must win six games. What does this mean? Well, it means Missouri will have to pull off at least two upsets in the next four games.
The Tigers haven’t upset anyone this season, doing just as they were supposed to by falling to better teams and beating the easy teams. Missouri’s next four games are on the road against Texas A&M this Saturday, on the road against Baylor the Saturday after that, at home against Texas the following Saturday and, finally, at home against Texas Tech the Saturday after that. While the Tigers won’t be favored in any of these games, they are all winnable.
Texas A&M is currently ranked 16th in both the BCS and AP polls and Texas Tech is ranked 19th in the AP Poll and 20th in the BCS. Baylor and Texas are both receiving votes in the AP Poll. If the Tigers can’t win two of those games, they will be watching from home when the bowls are played. If you can chalk it up to anything it would be the strength of the Big 12. While the conference is weak in the sense of hanging on to teams and stability for the future, it is incredibly strong on the gridiron. The Big 12 has five teams ranked in the AP poll with two more receiving votes and six Big 12 teams are ranked in the BCS rankings. When two-thirds of your conference games are against ranked teams, it makes it awfully hard to come through the league with a solid record. Throw in the fact that Missouri traveled to play at Arizona State, ranked in both polls, in the non-conference portion of the schedule and it is safe to say the Tigers have one of the toughest schedules out there.
A tough schedule is not an excuse to miss a bowl game, however; not for a program like Missouri anyway. The Tigers have a fairly young team as well, but Missouri is a program that has risen to a level where it is expected to make a bowl game even in the down years like this season. I fully think the Tigers will get the job done, too. Baylor has really dropped off from the start of the season, probably a product of the tough Big 12 schedule, but I feel like the trip to Waco is a game the Tigers should win. Missouri should also win one of the two home games left on the schedule as well and that would get them to six wins.
It’s a tough year for Tiger fans. But a tough year to be a Tiger should still result in a bowl game.