The Morning Commute for Wednesday, November 20th
Welcome to the Morning Commute
Today we’re talking about respect.
This week’s CFP Committee rankings came out Tuesday evening, and likely to the chagrin of many uninformed and ignorant media/coach types nationally, Mizzou was included in the top 25. The Tigers, at 7-3, with all three losses coming on the road to top-20 opponents, have been dismissed in the rankings ever since beating Boston College by a “measly” six points back in September.
But the Tigers got some respect from the College Football Playoff Committee this week. Coming in at No. 23 in this week’s CFP rankings, Mizzou stayed exactly where it was the previous week, despite a loss at current No. 18 South Carolina – a game the Tigers led until just :15 seconds left in the game. It’s asinine that the Tigers dropped seven full spots in the AFCA Coaches Top-25 after the Carolina game (from No. 21 to No. 28) and less egregiously from No. 24 to No. 26 in the Associated Press poll.
From here forward, the CFP is the only one that matters realistically, and even though Mizzou has no realistic path to the field of 12, it’s satisfying as a fan to know that the committee appreciates that the Tigers are a quality team. If the Tiger defense had been able to hold the lead last Saturday, where would Mizzou have been slotted this week in the CFP rankings? I think you could make a case that they would have been either in South Carolina’s current spot of No. 18, or even higher. I’d certainly argue that the Tigers would have had a better resume than No. 17 Clemson and No. 16 Colorado.
But alas, that’s neither here nor there. All we can do is watch and hope that the leadership of the team keeps everyone on task to finish out the season in style. A 9-3 regular season – while slightly disappointing due to the pre-season hype of a potential playoff appearance – is never anything to complain about in this neck of the woods.
Seeing Texas at No. 3 is gag-inducing to those of us who weren’t over the moon thrilled about seeing them invited to the Southeastern Conference. Those of us haters can only hope that they slip up down the stretch and find themselves on the outside looking in. Probably a tall order, as they are obviously very good, but consider this fact when evaluating the type of season they’ve produced so far in going 9-1:
In the Longhorns’ 10 games thus far, they’ve played precisely TWO Power 4 conference opponents with a winning record. In those games, they got destroyed at home by Georgia, and won by three points at Vanderbilt. Not exactly the most impressive resume out there.
Catch the CFP rankings right here.
This week’s SEC Shorts video was a pretty good one, check out their topical send-up of CFP goings on.
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
- In his weekly Beyond the Box Score, Nate Edwards laments how difficult life is on the road in the Southeastern Conference, and how away games prevented the Tigers from having the type of year we all dreamed about coming into the season.
Despite all of the returning offensive production and talent on defense, there really hasn’t been any point this season where Mizzou felt like a Playoff team. In fact, I’d say the only thing that Mizzou was outstanding at was “winning close games” and, as we saw on Saturday night, that’s not always a guarantee.
The game we saw Saturday at Carolina was the type of game most everyone thought we’d see the Tigers involved in this season – a back-and-forth shootout. It was the most scintillating game of the year no doubt, it’s just a shame that this one didn’t go the good guy’s way.
- Josh Matejka takes a look back at Saturday’s tough loss at South Carolina and compares things to the movie The Mist in his weekly Revue.
Saturday’s loss to South Carolina finally did it, folks. It finally killed whatever slim hopes Missouri had of making the College Football Playoff. The dream is over. That’s got us a little in our feels a bit this morning. Feelin’ a little pensive, a little existential.
There are spoilers contained in the comparison, so be forewarned if you haven’t seen the movie before.
- Tuesday’s Morning Commute by Sammy Stava had updates on the football and softball schedules, as well as volleyball rankings.
- Cast your votes in the weekly SBN Reacts fan poll. Is Mizzou’s season over/not over after being effectively eliminated from the playoff with last week’s heartbreaking loss at South Carolina? Chime in here with your vote!
- Tiger Football held its weekly press conference previewing Saturday’s tilt at Mississippi State. Adeen Rao was there to take notes, check out the high points of the discussion that took place.
- Over at Rock M+, we’re talking about the football transfer portal, and who some of the top targets the Tiger coaching staff could be eyeing this time around.
Rock M Radio: Looking back at the South Carolina game
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