It’s about time.

The defending SEC East champions, currently in position to repeat, finally entered the College Football Playoff poll at No. 20 on Tuesday night.

Missouri (8-2, 5-1) won its seventh consecutive road SEC game Saturday, beating Texas A&M, 34-27, at Kyle Field.

The Tigers are two wins away from back-to-back SEC division titles, needing to beat Tennessee (5-5) and Arkansas (5-5) to avoid a tiebreaker with Georgia. If Mizzou gets back to Atlanta, it likely will have a chance to beat No. 1 Alabama or No. 4 Mississippi State, which surely would launch the Tigers into the Top 10 at 11-2.

Coach Gary Pinkel has done an outstanding job with one of the teams talked about least on a national scale despite flirting with the Associated Press Top 25 for much of the season.

It’s unreasonable to expect Missouri to compete for a national championship this year, but it will be hard for the country to ignore them for long if the wins keep piling up.