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Alabama played their best game of the year against Georgia, then the Alabama team that lost to Texas and struggled with Auburn showed up against Michigan. Yeah, I believe Georgia was the best team in the country this year and would have beat Michigan and Washington if they'd been in the playoffs. Everybody talks about FSU getting screwed (and they did, even though they would have had no shot in the playoffs), but Georgia was screwed as well. Dropping them from #1 to #6 when their only loss was to Alabama in overtime while raising Texas up to #3 based on their win against an awful Oklahoma State team with a bunch of BAD losses made no sense.

Napier is going to struggle to get six wins and keep his job this year. He won't be a bit concerned about 2025. He'll play whoever he thinks will give him the best chance to win.

So what contributed to the Noles abandonment? Here's a list of the factors that went against them – I'll leave it to readers to decide how mush weight was given to each by the various Committee members. 1. They don't want Michigan to win the NC. Harbaugh is not liked by anyone but the Michigan fans and players. And there's a fear that two years from now when the NCAA concludes it's investigation of the program's sign stealing that they would have to forfeit the title if they won it this year. An embarassment and PR debacle they couldn't afford. They couldn't keep Michigan out. So they needed to put a tougher opponent than FSU against them – and Bama fit the bill. 2. They wanted Texas in. There are two teams in CFB that are always overrated: Texas and Notre Dame. But they are powerful in the CFB world and ratings gold. They couldn't get ND in. But Texas was within reach. 3. They wanted lots of offense. Once again – ratings. If they wanted defensive struggles they would have been rooting for Iowa. They want shootouts that keep folks tuned in. They are going to have a lot more ads to sell next year with so many more games. Great ratings from this year's match-ups will help keep the rates up for next year. 4. FSU has no friends on the Committee. Don't expect any other ACC leaning Committee members to go to bat for them. Not after they tried to extort more money away from the other Conference members. It wasn't any of the team members that were behind that, of course, but they'll suffer because of it. 5. The Orange Bowl wanted FSU and Georgia to drop into their lap. No one mentions it, but because the Orange Bowl has a semi-secret contract with the ACC, if FSU had made the playoff they would have had #15 Louisville playing Ohio State or Georgia. Not as bad as Liberty v. Oregon, but not the matchup they wanted. Now they have #5 and #6 – almost another playoff game, and a great human interest story. I predict that the Orange Bowl may now get higher ratings than one or both of the playoff games.

Mizzou played conservatively "not to lose" for most of the Florida game. (How many times did Cook toss the ball out of bounds rather than down the field?) Luckily, Florida did the same thing on Mizzou's improbable last minute drive and it cost them. Mizzou does better when they come out punching, not circling. I hope they'll be a little more aggressive against Arkansas on Friday.

I'll be rooting hard for Mizzou on Friday. But beating Florida at home by two points thanks to an improbable last minute drive leaves a lot of fans worrying. Mizzou's defense has problems with accurate quarterbacks and Jefferson plays well at home. At 10 -2 we should get the Cotton or Peach Bowl. But even if we beat Arky and stay in the Top 10 I won't be surprised if we get screwed by the bowl selection process and Ole Miss and LSU get bigger bowls. Not recently, but it's happened before. Mizzou might find itself in the Gator Bowl regardless of what happens on Friday.

I'll be rooting hard for Mizzou on Friday. But beating Florida at home by two points thanks to an improbable last minute drive leaves a lot of fans worrying. Mizzou's defense has problems with accurate quarterbacks and Jefferson plays well at home. At 10 -2 we should get the Cotton or Peach Bowl. But even if we beat Arky and stay in the Top 10 I won't be surprised if we get screwed by the bowl selection process and Ole Miss and LSU get bigger bowls. Not recently, but it's happened before.

I think this list gives us a pretty good idea of which programs have their QB situation settled -- and which ones may not.

Finally!

Alabama's only chance will be if Michigan loses to Purdue, which would make Ohio State look worse, coupled with an SC loss. An LSU win over Georgia would help them a little -- but not enough. The Playoff Selection committee is a prisoner of the AP rankings. And the AP rankings this year may be way off because of their pre-season assumptions and the incredibly few significant inter-conference matchups. Here's something you can share with your SEC-doubting friends: Not a single Big Ten, Big 12 or Pac 12 team beat a ranked team from another conference all season. Not one. The SEC had six such wins. Ohio State beat independent Notre Dame in week one, just before ND lost to Marshal. USC's only ranked OOC win was at home against #21 Notre Dame who also had no wins against OOC ranked teams (unless you count their win over quasi-conference rival Clemson. A nine-loss Stanford team also beat ND.) So the Committee gives big credence to Ohio State's win over Penn State. But who did Penn State beat? SEC cellar-dweller Auburn and two MAC teams. And Ohio State's other out of conference wins were against Arkansas State and Toledo. Michigan rolled up big scores against their out of conference opponents. But consider that we're talking about Connecticut, Hawaii, and Colorado State who went a collective 12 – 25 against low-level competition. TCU's out of conference wins were Colorado, Tarleton, and SMU (check out the the records and competition those teams faced and you'll get the point). And while TCU's close wins against Kansas, Oklahoma State, and Texas looked good at the time, they have lost some of their shine as these teams dropped down or out of the Top 25. Is the SEC the strongest conference? Yes. Georgia beat a ranked Oregon team. Alabama beat a ranked Texas team. South Carolina beat a ranked Clemson team. Florida beat a ranked Utah team. Kentucky beat a ranked Louisville team. Arkansas beat a ranked Cincinnati team. Are Ohio State, Michigan, Southern Cal and TCU better teams than Alabama, Tennessee and LSU? They might be. I can't say for sure. But neither can the Committee. And the playoffs and bowl games may -- or may not -- clarify the situation. We'll continue to have this same problem of weighing the conferences next year as teams stack their OOC schedule with easily winnable games instead of stiffer competition (three or four cupcake wins can make a mediocre team bowl-eligible), and the AP poll continues to start with pre-season rankings that are based on reputation, past performance and pre-season hype. Thank God there will only be one more year after this before playoff expansion. Meanwhile, I'll spend this weekend rooting for Purdue, LSU, Kansas State and Utah.

I'm tired of watching Alabama play Georgia in the SEC Championship and the Playoffs. (Just kidding, I'm really not.) But I would like to see a rematch of the highly entertaining Alabama-Tennessee game. So I'll root for TN to beat GA and AL to beat Ole Miss. I figure that should do it. But riddle me this... If Georgia beats Tennessee and gives them their only loss, Alabama gives Ole Miss their only loss and wins the conference tiebreaker, then Alabama beats Georgia and gives them their only loss... Which of these four teams makes the playoffs?

Biggest issue for Mizzou is still the dreadful play calling. We know what works and what doesn't. It'salmost impossible to sustain drives when you're 2nd down and 20 so often. The east-west plays don't work against SEC teams -- watch the game videos and see for yourself. Mizzou needs to get the ball going toward the end zone, not the sideline. And folks need to shut up about Burden. Right now Mizzou has two better running backs and three better receivers. Burden may be great someday -- once he learns how to get open and catch the ball when he's tightly covered. Sure, Cook isn't the most accurate of passers, which is on more reason to give the targets to the guys that can help him out. I know it would be hard to get a top offensive coordinator to call the plays at this point in the season. But Jeez, we might find somebody sitting up in the stands that could do a little better. Drink needs to hand the job over.

Exactly. Mizzou's offense was sporadic, no sustained drives to allow the defense to rest. (Ergo the plethora of long field goals and only one TD.) GA has 5-stars and 4-stars backed up by 4-stars and 3-stars. Mizzouu has mostly 3-stars backed up by 2-stars and walk-ons. Alabama wins a lot of games with depth as well, as does Clemson, Ohio State and other top recruiting programs. Had Mizzou cashed in with TDs on some of the opportunities Georgia gave them they might have had an insurmountable lead. Mizzou can't do much about depth right now. But we could change the offensive play calling and play caller as suggested by the author of this piece and every knowledgeable Mizzou fan I know.

Exactly. Our defense was gassed in the fourth quarter. They were on the field way too long. We need to be able to sustain long drives on offense to give the defense time to rest. We need to lose: 1) "Tempo" - when the offense tries to play fast all we get are broken plays and penalties. 2) Trick plays and East-West plays that require a lot of lateral speed which we don't have. 3) Poor play calling from a coach who has too much on his plate. 4) All the concern for not using Burden enough when he is the third best receiver and third-best running back on the team at this point.

You're right about that. We'd be better off if they had beaten TN or Kentucky badly last week. Now they've got something to prove so they'll run up the score if they can. It will be interesting to see the crowd size and reaction on Saturday.

Coach made a bad decision. The odds of scoring a touchdown when you're first and goal on the three and your two running backs are averaging over four yards per carry are much better than making a 20-yeard field goal, no matter how good the kicker. Plus, if 2 or 3 plays don't work you can still kick the field goal. Sure, Mevis should have made the kick and Peat should have held on to the ball. But tired players make mistakes. Mevis may have a chance to kick some 50+ yard field goals on Saturday, since that might be as close as Mizzou gets to the end zone.And any "trick" plays that require a lot of lateral movement will be suicide.

Mizzou may need a couple of 50+ yarders on saturday. Hope he's up for it.

Burden wouldn't have started this year at either Georgia or Alabama.

Mostly he let them fall. He fair caught a couple. I think he returned one for about three yards. If he was injured, he shouldn't have been out there at all. Folks seem to forget, he's an inexperienced freshman. If he'd gone to Georgia or Alabama he wouldn't be starting no matter what the media says. He's got a huge upside... but not that big a now side. If he can't more open Mizzou doesn't have a QB that will be able to reliable get the ball in his hands.

I've seen many games where both teams played well and neither deserved to lose. This was the opposite. Both of these teams have some big beat-downs coming.

The correct answer is "D) The Missouri coach choosing to have the QB take a knee instead of scoring a touchdown when it was first and goal on the Auburn three yard line with a minute left and his two running backs were both averaging over four yards per carry."

Peat and Schrader both averaged over four yards per carry in this game. Mizzou had first and goal at the three with nearly a minute left. The odds of them scoring a touchdown within three safe running plays were very high. And then, if they failed, you could still try the field goal. Brutally bad coaching decision. Easy field goals are always a risk, no matter how good the kicker is. The odds of a miss were much higher than the possibility of a fumble on a simple hand-off running play.

As a Mizzou fan it's what we root for. Get an SEC coach fired. Ruin another team's bowl positioning. Etc. We live for upsets. In my years at Mizzou we lost to Nebraska 69 to 0 and then upset Notre Dame at South Bend the next week (they had four fumbled punts!) and then upset a highly ranked Colorado team. We might have been the best 6 and 7 team in the nation that year, LOL! Shortly after I graduated we upset Bear Bryant and Alabama on national TV on college football's opening opening night. A couple years later we nailed a high-rated Nebraska team. And folks forget that since joining the Conference Missouri has won more SEC East titles than any team not named Georgia or Florida, while Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky and Vandy have collectively won none. And I'm pretty confident that will still be true at the end of this season.

The Mizzou broadcast team is an odd one. The analyst tries to impress by constantly spewing every insider coaching buzz word he knows in virtually a non-stop manner (except when he resorts to phony-sounding down home expressions, even providing malapropisms like "flies on a june bug"). His female partner can't get a word in edgewise, but she doesn't really understand most of what he's talking about, so that's probably okay. And then we had the mystery voice... "Can you hear me? Can you hear me?" But at least that was easy to understand even though the announcers ignored her.

If Drink continues to call the offensive plays Mizzou's freshman sensation Burden will be a sophomore sensation next year... for another team! Who's #3 on the QB chart? #'s 1 and 2 are not going to get it done. Drink is calling plays that require more speed and better edge blockers than he has.

Daniels' main goal was to avoid the interceptions that plagued him last year. He did. But he didn't trust his offensive line or his receivers and, once they realized that, they mailed it in until the fourth quarter when Daniels HAD to throw against a poor prevent defense. Most of Daniel's yardage came on broken pass plays. Daniels will be better if he spends more time in the pocket ready to throw. But if he can't trust his receivers and the O Line against FSU its hard to see him do so against Alabama and the other SEC defenses he'll see.

When the team with the most talent playing a virtual home game loses you've got to look at the coaching. LSU came out flat. And stayed that way until the fourth quarter. Daniels #1 priority, it seems, was to avoid the interceptions that haunted him with his former team. He did that, but his receivers were mailing it in until the 4th quarter when he had to throw. Most of the yardage he gained was on busted plays, and there were a lot of them. Outside of the kickoffs, LSU's special teams were a hot mess. LSU's defensive line can rush the passer -- but only if he stands still in the pocket. They will continue to have trouble with mobile QBs -- and they're going to see a few. Hard to pin down who to blame for the LSU's defense abysmal showing on 3rd downs. They did fine on the first two downs, but then Norvell's monotonous play calling made that pretty easy as everyone in the stadium knew what was coming. FSU was the more energized team from start to finish -- and even after, as I noticed the LSU players whose attitude after the blocked extra point seemed to be "Thank god, we don't have to play overtime!" This game was proof once again that a college football game between two mediocre teams can be exciting and entertaining. If Kelly was still at ND he could start preparing for his only tough games -- Clemson and USC in November. He's facing a very weak OOC schedule -- Southern, New Mexico, and UAB. But he's got a six-week gauntlet from October 1 through early November. He's got Alabama, Tennessee and Ole Miss at home, but that may not be enough to help him. Road games at Auburn (his best shot for an SEC win) Florida, Arkansas and A&M will be tough. A six-win season and a lower tier bowl game might be a reasonable expectation. Florida State has improved and may do alright this year. The ACC Atlantic looks pretty weak to me, despite the inflated ratings of Wake and NC State. But hey, making judgments one game in is a fool's game.

Every year fans of some teams in the SEC - like Mizzou, Kentucky and South Carolina - have to decide if the glass is half full or half empty. Fans of Vandy, however, are still trying to find out where the heck you even get a glass.

Maybe not. In the last 15 years five Mizzou quarterbacks have been drafted and played in the NFL. Four are still making good livings playing pro football. (Maty Mauk would also most likely have been a high draft pick and played in the NFL if he hadn't thrown his career away with cocaine.) JT has probably had enough of playing on teams that stack up high-potential quarterbacks like firewood. JT could do a lot worse.

Note to ND Fans: I didn't even mention your embarrassing collapse against Oklahoma State in the bowl game. You're welcome!

For about the 10th year in a row Notre Dame is overrated for next year. The Irish had exactly zero AP Top 25 wins this year (#27 Wisconsin was their best win) and got beat badly by Cincinnati (and we saw what happened to them in the Playoffs, which they only got into because they beat an overrated Notre Dame!). Now they've lost their QB and their head coach and ESPN makes them #6? How do you explain that?