It’s Bowl SZN, folks!

Well, it wasn’t pretty, but at the very least it’s happening. After 13 SEC teams qualified for bowl games, it was speculated that Mizzou would be the last team to get a spot, possibly having to fill in a non-SEC slot, despite finishing higher in the standings than more traditional draws such as Florida or South Carolina.

Instead, the Tigers will head to Texas to face off against Army West-Point in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl.

That’s a rough draw for Mizzou as a whole because, as you may have heard, that’s around the same start time and the exact same date as Braggin’ Rights against Illinois. Of course, the football game might be a bit closer, but it’s tough to ask Mizzou fans to give up our yearly chance to beat Illinois.

• The status of Tyler Badie had been questioned since his post-Arkansas comments about playing in the bowl game. On Sunday night, Drinkwitz seemed to answer the question as to whether or not he would play.

I’m going to come out and say this is a bad idea. Badie has proven everything he can at this level, and helping Mizzou to a somewhat meaningless 7th win instead of prepping for the draft is a bit risky. But I won’t begrudge a final opportunity to see him suit up as a Tiger.

• At the Columbia Tribune, Adam Hensley gathered some reactions from the Twittersphere that acknowledge the conflict between football and basketball without seeming too upset about it. After all, one person notes, is there a good reason to watch a very good Illinois team play a very bad Missouri team?
• Also at the Tribune, the Mizzou beat sees its first proper Army preview. Ours will be up sometime in the near future so y’all can get a better idea of what they’re working with (other than the triple option.)
• Echoing Drinkwitz’s statements from the bowl announcement presser, Lila Bromberg for the KC Star writes about the “open competition” at QB, noting the stated differences between a QB competition midseason and one on an elongated schedule.
• Also tackling Mizzou’s QB competition is the Post-Dispatch’s Ben Hochman, who argues that Bazelak has run out of chances and that it’s time to see what Cook or Macon can do with the keys to the offense.
• In case you’ve really got a hankering to bet on this one, DraftKings has Missouri opening as a 3.5 point favorite which... I don’t know, that seems optimistic.

Yesterday at Rock M

• In which Sam opines the importance of a quarterback revealed by Alabama’s dominant win over Georgia in the SEC Championship Game
• In which Lauren sorts through the Mizzou vs. Baylor game and comes up with some takeaways for Mizzou fans
• In which Mizzou gets a bowl game so... yay?

More Links:

• Raise your hand if you thought the team defensive MVP for the season would be... Isaiah McGuire.

I certainly don’t think McGuire was bad during the season, and he definitely had his moments. But the defensive MVP? I guess I’ll leave that up to the players to decide (which they did!)

• Charles Harris has struggled during his time in the NFL, but he seems to have found some footing with the Lions, who notched their first win of the season over the Vikings yesterday.

• Rough day for #TigerStyle, which dropped its first dual of the year to No. 10 Virginia Tech 18-16. The Tigers did salvage the day by taking down No. 17 Northern Iowa, however.
• Mizzou Swim & Dive waltzed (dove?) into Missouri state this weekend and set 13 pool records while sweeping their cross-state rivals away.
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