I posted this on another Matter post.

I guess I’m in the minority here, but I don’t think it’s all that bad a deal. In fact, the only negative in my mind, is that we’re playing Navy rather than Minnesota or Michigan State as I think Navy has a slightly better chance of beating us than the Gophers or Spartans.

I understand that it might look bad now. And it does kind of suck that it seems as though Mizzou will have been passed up three years in a row. There’s a simple solution to that. Mizzou needs to travel better. With the exception of the Cotton Bowl, Mizzou fans haven’t exactly blown out their ticket allotments. I think they’ve done OK, but not exceptional. All of the bowl eligible Big 12 teams will likely out-travel us. Travel better and we’ll get the pick of the litter (Full disclosure: The only Mizzou bowl I’ve travelled to was Independence in 2003).

But here’s why I think the Texas Bowl could actually be a positive:

1) The game will be on ESPN instead of NFL Network. More eyes on you. Not debatable, definitely a point for Texas Bowl.

2) It is a definite advantage playing that game in Texas. Mizzou can have every Houston area coach come by practice or at the least they can go by and visit each and every coach while they’re in the area. Face time is important (not sure on the rules about having recruits come by practice). Mizzou doesn’t really recruit Arizona so face time in AZ isn’t as important.

3) The Houston Chronicle and/or Houston TV stations are going to do about 7 stories on Houston/Texas kids playing for Mizzou. Think The Chron would do a story about Jerrell Jackson becoming the next Maclin or ’Nario if the game were in Tempe? Not likely.

4) It really doesn’t matter what bowl you play in, only that you’re playing in one (unless it’s a BCS or New Year’s Day bowl). Five years from now, no one will remember what bowl it was, only that Mizzou won and got to 9 wins in a “rebuilding” year.

…completely missed that you had posted this. Just posted the same thing above.

Here’s the deal: I don’t really mind the thought of the Texas Bowl—it’s on ESPN, it’s in a good recruiting ground, etc. But this would be third straight year that we got snubbed for a bigger bowl than we seemed “entitled” to get. As Gabe put it at PowerMizzou, other conferences better dictate who goes where, and the Big 12 hasn’t even remotely tried to stick up for us on this one, so why wouldn’t we consider jumping if the Big Ten ever decided to expand to 12 and asked us to join? Not throwing a major fit about this as, like mitch said above, there are plenty of benefits to ending up in the Texas Bowl. But it would still be, on its face, a screwjob…which happens to us this time every year.

It’s not that disappointing but damn, we are better than iowa state right now.
/ on the plus side, we will probably draw waaaay more fans to houston rather than we would phoenix. now I might actually get to go.

but I just feel like the Insight Bowl is more prestigious. I feel it would be more impressive to defeat a Big Ten 6-6 team, than defeat a Navy who lost to Temple at home. But maybe I’m just like a Ron Artest after halftime, and not making any sense.

has the 102nd ranked pass defense in the nation…it would be fun to see Danario rack up 800 yards against Sparty.

BTW, don’t look up Mizzou’s rank…

is ranked 60th. If we played them, We’d have to settle for 400 yards from Danario. Sigh.

about the Texas Bowl being in a better location than the Insight Bowl and the tv coverage. But what about the players? They worked for that 8-4 record, and what’s the point if we’re just going to get the same bowl by going 6-6? The seniors will have watched bowls pass over Mizzou for teams that they beat head on three years in a row.

Also….the travel budget for the Texas Bowl is substantially lower than for the Insight Bowl. Alden himself said that it could be the difference between whether Mizzou can afford to bring the band.

Anyway, I agree with what Bill and Gabe said.

has anything to do with travel budget. MU estimates that it will receive $1,349,500 for travel expenses to the Insight Bowl, opposed to $877,100 for the Texas Bowl. Alden says the difference could mean that Mizzou can’t afford to bring its band or spirit squads to the Texas Bowl.

The result of playing in the Texas Bowl as opposed to the Insight Bowl isn’t all that disastrous, as many have pointed out. But it sucks a lot in principle.

I’m glad you guys aren’t pissed at us Clones. Just like anyone else, we’re trying to position ourselves in the bowl process. I think our fans nearly unanimously realize you guys deserve the higher bowl placement, but it’s not something we’d turn down.

We’re more pissed about Dan Beebe, actually.