Analysis: Missouri football goes bowling

The Tigers finished with a 10-2 record on the season.

By Brian Haenchen

Published Dec. 3, 2010

As the dust begins to settle on a wild Big 12 football season, fans' attention turns to the mess that is the bowl selection process.

There is a set order in which bowls are allowed to select teams from each conference. In the Big 12, the BCS picks first, followed by the Cotton, Alamo, Insight, Holiday, Texas, Pinstripe and TicketCity Bowls. For Missouri, the first three bowl games are essentially out of the question.

The BCS announced Wednesday that Missouri is one of seven teams still eligible for an at-large bid. But, that announcement was just a formality, as the top 12 teams are automatically eligible for at-large bids. There is still no scenario for the Tigers to somehow steal a BCS bid.

Next in line would be the Cotton Bowl, but the selection committee announced Tuesday that Texas A&M has been selected to represent the Big 12 as part of the Bowl’s 75th anniversary game.

The third game teams are selected for is the Alamo Bowl. Two years ago when Missouri played Northwestern in the Alamodome, the Tiger faithful only bought about half their allotted tickets, a nightmare for any bowl committee. Look for the Alamo Bowl to go with either Oklahoma State or the loser of the Big 12 Championship game.

The Insight Bowl is a toss-up. It could go with Missouri, Oklahoma State or the loser of Oklahoma vs. Nebraska. It’s hard to predict, because though Missouri will have a better record, it does not travel as well as the other three schools.

In terms of an opponent, the Insight Bowl will have the fourth pick in the Big Ten conference, assuming there are two Big Ten BCS teams. Because Missouri already played Illinois this season and was matched with Northwestern two years ago in the Alamo Bowl, Michigan, Penn State and Iowa are the only bowl-eligible teams left.

It’s difficult to give an edge to any of those three teams, but it appears Iowa and Michigan are two contenders for an Insight Bowl bid.

Iowa vs. Missouri would provide an interesting match-up because the Tigers recently canceled a nonconference series they had with the Hawkeyes.

Michigan’s offense is led by one of the nation’s most prolific quarterbacks, Denard Robinson, so having one of the nation’s top run defenses pitted against one of the best running quarterbacks around could draw in the viewers.

The bowl committee might also elect to set up a match-up between Big Ten-bound Nebraska and one of its future foes from the Big Ten conference as a sort of mini-preview of things to come. That would obviously depend on if Nebraska wins the Big 12 Title game or not, but should it lose, a Nebraska vs. Big Ten game might prove more appetizing than Missouri vs. the conference that overlooked it this summer.

Should the Insight Bowl snub Missouri again, that leaves the Tigers for the Holiday Bowl.

Projecting an opponent for this game is complicated, but it boils down to this: If Washington knocks off Washington State this weekend, it would become bowl-eligible. Assuming Oregon State loses to Oregon, the Holiday Bowl would have to select Washington by default, because the Pac-10 doesn’t have enough bowl-eligible teams. But if Washington State wins, Notre Dame, an independent, appears to be the odds-on favorite to take the vacant spot.

All these scenarios and breakdowns are dependent on the respective bowl selection committees. This is a political process, and to say any bowl projections are a lock would be foolish.