Also, hahahahahahahahaha kansas
Some observations from championship game week, served up in four quarter style. Legal Disclaimer: these views are my own and may be really dumb.
1st Quarter: Mizzou – Music City & Iowa – Meh or Yeah?
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Just had to get that out of the way, now we can move on to other topics!
Our football Tigers got what most pundits seemed to be predicting most of last week – a bid to the Music City Bowl where they’ll face Iowa on Monday, Dec. 30th at 1:30 pm (central time) on ESPN.
We’ll see what kind of reaction Tiger Nation has to this bowl game. Are we excited about this one? Is it kind of mid, or totally unexciting?
You can make valid arguments for any of those thoughts, but I think our fans will embrace this one in a big way and represent Mizzou well in Nashville. The matchup isn’t all that exciting, as Iowa just isn’t an electric brand. But let’s be honest, Iowa people likely think the exact same thing about Mizzou.
Normally, there wouldn’t be a lot of national interest in this game, but if you take a look at the master schedule, you will see that this is the ONLY bowl game being played on Dec. 30th. So why isn’t it in prime time? Because, Monday Night Football.
So it does get a mid-day 1:30 pm kickoff, but the good news is every bar, every gym, and every college football fan in the world will at least have the game turned on since there’s nothing else to watch football-related until the the Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers tee it up later that night on MNF.
We’ll dig into analysis of the Hawkeyes as we get closer to the game, but the overarching perception is that they have an improved offense in 2024 (hard to be any worse than they had been the previous few years of course), and still have a stout defense. I think this should be a really good matchup on paper. We’ll have to wait and see how many opt-outs both teams have, but we know there’s already a couple major impact guys from Mizzou’s offense who aren’t playing – Luther Burden III and Armand Membou. Hopefully there won’t be too many more Tigers choosing to sit this out.
Mizzou’s athletic administration identified the Music City Bowl as one of its preferred games to the SEC office, and it makes a lot of sense. Nashville is an easy drive for a huge proportion of the fanbase, and it’s a fun city to road trip to. If the Tigers can pull out a win, does it do much for the brand of Mizzou football? Not as much as a potential win against Michigan might, but hopefully the team will get excited about the chance to win 10 games again and play some inspired ball.
Both fan bases have some revenge angles in this one. Remember back in 2020, this same matchup was arranged in the same Music City Bowl, but the game got cancelled when Mizzou opted out due to COVID. I know a lot of Iowa fans felt dissed on that one, as they claim the Tigers were avoiding what they feel would have been a Hawkeye win.
On the other side, Mizzou fans likely remember the gut-punch that Iowa dealt Mizzou in the 2010 Insight Bowl in Tempe, Ariz., when Iowa got a 27-24 win thanks to a late-game pick six that totally flipped a game that felt like an inevitable Tiger win.
We’ll have fun at Rock M Nation covering the lead up to this game, so stay tuned for more to come.
2nd Quarter: SEC – I told you, three teams this year
I try not to crow about my predictions, especially since most of them stink on ice. However, I will take a minute to pat myself on the back, as in this space a few weeks ago, I predicted that the SEC would be a three-bid league in the upcoming College Football Playoff field.
I wish I was wrong, but unfortunately, I got that one right. It’s a big national discussion with lots of thoughts on either side of the argument, but the playoff committee on Sunday revealed that Alabama was the first team on the chopping block, which left only Georgia, Texas and Tennessee to represent the best league in the nation. A little salt in the wound was added once the field was unveiled as the Big Ten received four bids.
The Big Ten is not better top-to-bottom than the SEC this year, but it’s really hard to argue against any of the four teams they got into the playoff (Oregon, Penn State, Ohio State and Indiana). So which league is better this season?
Kind of hard to believe, but despite having a combined seven teams in the 12-team field, there’s only one guaranteed SEC-Big Ten matchup – #9 Tennessee at #8 Ohio State in the first round.
There could be a couple others that materialize if upsets were to take place in the first round, but I was hoping there would be more of these games to help settle on the field which league is more stout.
In the non-CFP bowl games, we do get treated to four SEC-Big Ten matchups:
- Texas A&M vs. USC in the Las Vegas Bowl (Dec. 27)
- Iowa vs. Mizzou in the Music City Bowl (Dec. 30)
- Alabama vs. Michigan in the Reliaquest Bowl (Dec. 31)
- South Carolina vs. Illinois in the Citrus Bowl (Dec. 31)
However, reading into the results of non-playoff bowl games is a fool’s errand in my estimation. Assuming there’s likely to be a lot of opt-outs in the non-playoff games, it will be hard to take much from these games. In this new era of college football, the teams will basically be new versions of what they were during the regular season.
Either way, it is the greatest time of the year, so happy bowl season to all of you die-hards out there!
3rd Quarter: National – CFP Committee did fine, but we’ve got to change the rules
The talking heads were out in full force Sunday after the CFP Committee unveiled the first-ever 12-team playoff bracket. I think the committee did an admirable job given the parameters. Their job wasn’t to pick the 12 best teams and set them into a bracket. The job was to select the seven-most deserving teams for at large bids after the five conference champions were factored in.
And that’s the big beef I have with the current setup – giving five automatic bids to conference champs. And especially giving the top four conference champs an automatic first-round bye. Those parameters have to be axed, and quickly. Like, in time for the 2025 season.
I have less of a problem with giving five auto bids out, that makes sense to have going forward if you want to protect the sanctity of the conference championship games which produce so much revenue for the leagues. I get that.
However, giving a first-round bye to the top four conference champs is not the way. What resulted in this first year was giving a bye to Boise State and Arizona State – which should never happen. There is no way either of them are a top-four team, and they shouldn’t be rewarded with an extra week off to heal and prepare. That’s inequitable, and you can’t convince me otherwise.
Again, it’s the system as designed, and not the committee here, but I’m hoping that enough fits will be thrown that ultimately, the powers that be will step in and correct this for next season.
Don’t get me wrong, I think ASU is a dangerous team in this tournament, and you could argue that they’ve been one of the best four teams in the country in the last six weeks. But the byes should be an entire season evaluation, and not just something a hot team can play their way into. Imagine if a three-loss Big 12 team had somehow managed to win the title game? Then it would have been down to a three-loss Big 12 team or a three-loss Clemson team getting the fourth seed. Nonsensical.
Overall, I’m fine with Boise being in the 12-team field, no problem at all there. Same for ASU and same for SMU, who got the last at-large spot over Alabama. I think ‘Bama is likely the better team and would win more often than not if they played 10 times, but I don’t have a problem with SMU getting in. ‘Bama’s argument about being more deserving than SMU ended when they flamed out in an embarrassing blowout loss to 6-6 Oklahoma a couple weeks ago.
The Committee had to do what they did in keeping SMU in the field despite seeing them lose the ACC Championship Game. Going into the game, SMU was ranked #8 in the CFP team rankings, and the committee had said they didn’t intend to punish teams for losing in their conference title game (where the hell was that sentiment in 2007 when Mizzou lost in the Big 12 title game?). They stayed true to that sentiment, and found a way to keep the Ponies in the mix.
Basically, their hands were tied on that one. If they had bounced SMU from the field, then in effect they would have been shoveling dirt on the concept of the conference championship game. Why would any team want to play in that game going forward, knowing they’d be better off not playing and risking a loss (hello Tennessee, Ohio State, Indiana).
How different would the brackets have looked if we didn’t have the inane auto bye provision?
You’d have #5 Notre Dame hosting #12 Clemson, with the winner advancing to play #4 Penn State. You’d have #8 Indiana hosting #9 Boise State, with the winner advancing to play #1 Oregon. If the seeds held, you’d have #1 Oregon and #4 Penn State in the semi-finals.
On the other side of the bracket, you ‘d have #6 Ohio State hosting #11 Arizona State, with the winner advancing to play #3 Texas. And lastly, you’d have #7 Tennessee hosting #10 SMU with the winner advancing to play #2 Georgia. If those seeds held, you’d have #2 Georgia and #3 Texas for a third go-around in the other semi-final.
I can’t say those games would be any better necessarily than what we’re going to see in reality, but it does seem like a more fair and equitable draw.
Speaking of draws, Penn State got a gift draw when you think about it. All they have to do is win a home game against a warm-weather SMU program, then beat Boise in a neutral site game to reach the semi-finals? I’m pinching myself if I’m a Nittany Lion fan.
On the flip side, I think Oregon got a tough draw, especially given the fact that they’re the only undefeated team remaining. At 13-0, the Ducks do get the benefit of a first-round bye, but they await the winner of Tennessee and Ohio State – two teams with enough next-level talent to win the whole thing. If Oregon survives that game, then they move to the semis where they’d play Texas in my estimation. Tennessee/Ohio State/Texas is a much harder draw than they probably deserved.
That being said, no matter how it got drawn up, it should be a fun watch either way!
4th Quarter: Dealer’s Choice – Christmas portal shopping
Lastly, today marks the opening of the exciting but maniacal transfer portal season, which runs until December 28th.
My Rock M teammates will cover all of the comings and goings quite thoroughly, I’m sure, but I wanted to offer some quick thoughts on USC transfer QB Miller Moss – who appears to be Mizzou’s prime target to replace the outgoing Brady Cook.
I’d love to see Miller Moss in a Tiger uniform next year. I know he’s just a one-year guy, but I think he would be a great bridge to the next quarterback, whether that was Sam Horn if he recovers and develops, or incoming recruit Matt Zollers if he also were to heal and develop, or maybe Aidan Glover will develop to win the job for the 2026 season?
Either way, I didn’t watch a ton of USC this year, but what I did see was that Moss has a legit next-level arm. I don’t know why it didn’t work at USC this season for their team, but I saw a dude who can sling it. He can make every throw you need, and he doesn’t seem tentative to let it rip over the middle of the field.
I don’t ever see Drink’s offensive philosophy going away from being run-heavy, and that could be used against Mizzou by other programs who find themselves in the Miller Moss sweepstakes. But I actually think that can work to MU’s recruiting advantage. I think Moss would thrive in this quick throw system where you can run tons of play action.
Here’s hoping that Drink’s sales pitch lands, and fingers crossed that Santa delivers this present for us all this year.
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