1. Usually, Christmas Day is the feel-good feature day of the year.

Not for Dave Matter and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which published a funny, in-depth look at the conflicting emotions brought about by the Oklahoma State-Missouri matchup in the Liberty Bowl for the Odom family.

The issue at hand is that Barry Odom’s nephew, Baron, is a redshirt freshman for the Cowboys. Missouri, meanwhile, has Barry and youngest brother Brian Odom on the coaching staff.

Baron’s father — Barry’s oldest brother, Brad — said this to Matter:

“It’s horrible,” Brad said. “You’re happy for both of them obviously. You don’t want anyone to feel like you’re choosing them over the other.”

Something tells me that no matter what happens on Dec. 31, the Odom family will be able to move on. It will be good for Baron Odom to learn the disappointment of a 6-7 year this early in his career, too.

2. Relive some history with a look at Missouri’s 1978 Liberty Bowl season.

Enjoy this very comprehensive piece by Gabe DeArmond on Missouri’s 1978 Liberty Bowl team, which had loads of talent and had a memorable season playing some of the toughest opponents in the nation.

DeArmond writes:

Much is made of strength of schedule in college football today. The Missouri Tigers of the 1970’s could take on anyone in that regard. And take on anyone is exactly what they did.

“That’s what we did all the time,” Downer said. “We had no powder puff teams.”

”We were the giant killers,” Garlich said.

The Tigers would face four teams in the top five of the national rankings that season, in addition to No. 20 Iowa State. They would play two teams that were ranked No. 1, one that was ranked No. 2. Oh, and defending national champion Notre Dame.

While it’s not nearly on that same level, Missouri once again had one of the toughest schedules in the nation this year, went 8-4 and is Liberty Bowl-bound — thus proving that time is a flat circle.

3. Get geared up for the bowl game with some season highlights.

Courtesy of the Mizzou football Twitter account:

Yesterday at Rock M

• Missouri athletics have given us the gift of stability this Christmas season

More Links:

• Four-star 2020 Chicago WR Jadon Thompson released his top six on Christmas day, and Missouri made the cut:

• This article is behind a paywall (and, no, I did not pay 99 cents to read it) but some of you may: