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TiK's Ten: Week 12 Thoughts on College Football & Mizzou

With each passing in, the Missouri Tigers are making these much more fun to write! I don't think even the most optimistic among us thought that, after losing to Indiana, we would find ourselves 8-2 within 2 games of another SEC East title. It's really quite remarkable and I must credit Coach Gary Pinkel. Yes, we've had the good fortune of the best schedule of any SEC team in terms of conference opponents, but it is still the SEC and you still have to win games.

With that as the preface to this week's thoughts, here we go...

1. Deja Vu. It really is like last year. Last year, South Carolina had completed it's SEC schedule and we had not. Because we had lost to South Carolina earlier in the year, we would lose the tiebreaker and thus had to win out to win the East. Here we are again, with the same task except the team "chasing" us (without chasing us, which is weird) is Georgia. The media doesn't seem to think we can do it -- with good reason, by the way -- but that actually has the benefit of giving our squad a chip on their shoulder heading into Knoxville and the "Battle Line Rivalry" against Arkansas. I like that.

2. OFFENSE! Holy moly, we have one. We have people that can run. We have people that can catch! We even have a quarterback that can once in a while throw it to them, on target! And, lo and behold, look what it can do for the team's ability to score. Granted, it was the A&M defense, which isn't much, but it was still on the road in a hostile environment in terrible weather. No complaints.

3. It gets tougher. I know at the start of the year, we'd all have thought that A&M would be the toughest of these last three tilts, and that was with good reason. Yet, honestly, can anyone say that right now? Tennessee is VASTLY improved the last few games and is a win away from a bowl season. Arkansas is also vastly improved (1 point loss to Alabama, remember) and finally got over the hump with a shut out loss of LSU, who also should have beaten Alabama. Arkansas is also just one win short of a bowl game. Both will be hungry. Both are looking to prove something. A&M's season was already a disappointment, and though they fought hard, I'm not particularly surprised we won there. Interestingly, I predicted 10-2 at the year's start, but had us losing in Knoxville as the "bad loss", not at home to Indiana. I think the nearly even line on this one is about right, because I don't have a good feeling myself, either way.

4. I'm fascinated to see where the Selection Committee puts us. We broke #20 in the two polls. If we are at #19 or #20 in the rankings by the committee, it theoretically puts us within reach of #4 if we would win out. I'm not saying that's likely. It's not. It's really a fantasy. Yesterday, on Tigerboard, I laid out 20 things that would have to happen for us to get to #4. By the way, one already did - Arizona State lost to Oregon State. Remember 07? I'd love to see where we were three weeks out. If we were at 12 or 13, when we were chasing #2, that's not that far removed from being #19 and chasing #4. With parity the way it is, I think a lot of teams between us and say, TCU, lose. Heck, TCU almost lost to the Beaks, for heaven's sake. A lot can happen.

5. On a personal note, it's nice to feel good after a game again. I really didn't feel great after any of the previous SEC wins. South Carolina felt like a miracle. Florida felt weird. Vanderbilt felt barely adequate. Kentucky felt, well, like we beat Kentucky. Yesterday felt good. It doesn't erase all, of course, but I had been pretty hard on Mauk and how we were playing, and it was great to say "Good win!" even if not everything was perfect.

Regarding the rest of college football..

6. Is anyone really that good? Arizona State lost to Oregon State. TCU nearly lost to Kansas. Florida State nearly lost to Miami. Mississippi State did lose, granted to Alabama. Nebraska was smoked by Wisconsin. I'm not really convinced anyone is really all that great and that opens up the door for teams on a roll, like Mizzou, to rise through the rankings fast. I actually kind of like it, but I worry the Final Four will be Alabama, Oregon, Florida State, and Ohio State, who are exactly the four teams I'm really tired of talking about.

7. Is anyone watching? I complain about attendance problems a lot, but it is somewhat depressing watching games and seeing all the empty seats at stadiums around the country. Oregon State's stadium was a ghost town against a #6 team, for instance. I think in the era of HD TV and a million different distractions, sitting for four-five hours (and devoting much longer, I presume a lot of Oregon State fans live in Portland, not Corvallis) is just not on the agenda for a lot f people. It's too bad, really. Not sure what the answer is, either, when people aren't even using the tickets they buy.

8. What did we learn this week? Here are some of the things I picked up on:

- Marshall's legit but will never get a chance to prove it until a bowl.
- Georgia Tech is pretty decent and dangerous and not a team anyone would want to play, including FSU.
- No win is automatic - see TCU/KU. Any sure win can not be so sure two quarters in. One of my favorite slogans is "That's why they play the games". That's why.

9. Who was most impressive in Week 12? Here were my choices:

- Missouri. See above!
- Wisconsin. I was not surprised they won but wow, that was a drubbing. They might sneak up late, much like us, late in the year here.
- Georgia Tech. Showed they are a legit team and FSU can't take them lightly in the ACC title game.
- Arkansas. A huge win for the Razorbacks, they are on the way back up.

10. I'm ready for 8-10 teams in the playoff. I understand the arguments against it and all, but I think one way to make the season more compelling for more people is to give more teams a shot, even an outside shot, of getting to the playoff. I still wouldn't give auto bids to conference champs (16 is my line for that), but 8 or 10 teams would still make the regular season mean a ton but might actually encourage even more tough non-con scheduling if you could even drop 2 or 3 games and have a shot. 8-10 teams is like 6% of the teams in college football -- so the games in the regular season would still mean a ton. So I hope it moves there quickly.

That's it for this week. My Top 4:

1. Oregon. 2. Alabama. 3. Florida State. 4. TCU

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