What a difference two years can make.

After limping into the SEC in 2012, the Tigers reached consecutive SEC championship games, each year as a huge preseason underdog in the East Division.

The entire athletic department is performing well financially, primarily because of an influx in football revenue. Back-to-back impressive years are a big reason for that.

What is the new normal for the Missouri Tigers now? Can we expect them to compete for division titles every year? Maybe not, but clearly the team can win the division with its best iterations.

Excitement is high, and Mizzou aims to capitalize on that by improving facilities and recruiting to promote long-term sustainability.

Let’s take a look at the State of the Union, taking into account the last three years and expectations for 2015.

ON-FIELD PERFORMANCE

SEC standing: Top third

Grade: B+

The Tigers have heard all the excuses and justifications — the SEC East is down, the schedule hasn’t been hard, the team has gotten lucky in close games — but the bottom line is that in three SEC seasons, Missouri has won two division titles.

It’s hard to argue with results, and with 23 wins in the last two seasons, Mizzou has them in spades.

The team lost a home game to Indiana it had no business dropping in ’14 and hasn’t performed well in SEC championship games. The Tigers didn’t qualify for a bowl game during the transition year in ’12.

But with a Top 5 finish in ’13 and a Top 15 finish in ’14, and a strong last decade, the team enters this year as a clear Top 15-25 program in the country.

RECRUITING

SEC standing: Near the bottom

2015 rank: 25

Grade: B-

The Tigers typically hover somewhere between 25 and 50 in the national recruiting rankings. The team targets athletic players with potential, guys who aren’t always lathered with four and five stars by recruiting sites.

It’s proven an effective strategy for Mizzou, and the rankings are a bit misleading given the on-field production. But if the Tigers want to be a national contender and an SEC elite, a slight bump in talent could do wonders.

Whether or not the Tigers broach the Top 25 largely depends on landing players like five-star DT Terry Beckner Jr. and QB Drew Lock, which Missouri was able to do in the ’15 recruiting cycle. Mizzou doesn’t need a Top 10 class — although it would be nice — but classes ranked in the 40s shouldn’t be acceptable going forward.

PLAYER DEVELOPMENT

SEC standing: As good as any program

Grade: A+

Markus Golden was an unrated high school running back, then a three-star junior college inside linebacker, then one of the best pass-rushing defensive ends in the country.

Shane Ray was an unheralded three-star defensive end, then SEC Defensive Player of the Year, a unanimous All-American and a potential Top 10 NFL draft pick.

Those are pretty normal stories within the program, which delightedly refers to the process of converting athleticism to on-field production as “Mizzou Made.” Lest you not realize how good the Tigers are at player development, coach Gary Pinkel reminds us often.

Give Pinkel and the program credit. Whatever internal process they have for evaluating recruits, identifying specific attributes and then converting potential to reality is working. The raw material often isn’t as good as the other teams in the SEC, but the finished product is tough to argue against.

Player development is Mizzou’s No. 1 asset as a program right now.

FACILITIES

SEC standing: Bottom third

Grade: C

The program spent the last two years making significant upgrades to Faurot Field, completing additional seating on the East side of the stadium and creating Truman’s Terrace, a new tailgating area.

Pinkel recently convinced departing athletic director Mike Alden to put off plans on a new indoor practice facility in order to build a new football-only building with an updated, modern weight room, training room, locker room and offices. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Pinkel believes that will make a greater impact on recruiting.

The Tigers have made a conscious effort to improve football facilities in the last several years, and those efforts are ongoing. But the program is a little behind and playing catch-up if it is to be judged among the other elite power-conference teams in the country.

COACHING

SEC standing: Top third

Grade: A-

The career wins leader at two different schools (Toledo and Missouri), Pinkel now also can claim Coach of the Year honors in two different conferences (MAC and SEC).

The man has won a combined nine division titles in 24 seasons as head coach, including a remarkable five in the last eight years at Mizzou.

Although the staff has experienced some turnover this offseason, he keeps one of the most stable groups of coaches around him in the country. He did a terrific job ensuring that defensive line coach Craig Kuligowski didn’t bolt for Illinois depsite passing him over for the coordinator job.

Entering 2013 season, Pinkel’s life seemed to be crumbling on and off the field. He went through a drunk-driving arrest in ’11 and a divorce from his wife of 39 years in ’12, then suffered a 5-7 season as Missouri entered the SEC.

All he’s done since is lead the Tigers to a 23-5 record and two January bowl wins. Oh, and he handled the internal and eventually external attention focused on the team surrounding Michael Sam’s announcement of his sexual orientation as the first major openly-gay football player with class.

When Pinkel eventually steps away, he’ll go down as one of, if not the best, coaches in Missouri football history.