So, how long are Associated Press voters going to hold the Wyoming loss against Mizzou?
I wrote off Mizzou, too.
After the Wyoming game, I completely dismissed any notion that the Tigers would be nationally relevant in 2019. Can you blame me? The Tigers allowed nearly 300 rushing yards to a 6-win Mountain West team and lost as 3-score favorites. Hopes of this being an “us against the world” season for the Tigers following the opening week dud were left in Laramie.
You’ll notice I said “I wrote off Mizzou, too.” As in, I wasn’t alone in assuming Barry Odom’s squad wouldn’t be Top 25 worthy after the opener.
Plenty of Associated Press voters wrote off Mizzou. That explains why at 4-1 coming off their 4th consecutive blowout victory, the Tigers are still unranked.
The question isn’t why Mizzou is unranked. We know that. It’s the Wyoming loss. The question is how long will it take to change that.
To be fair, that almost changed Sunday. Well, kind of.
Mizzou was the second team listed in the “others receiving votes” category, which means it ranks No. 27. Is there a big difference between No. 27 and No. 25? On paper, no. But would it matter a lot for Barry Odom, who has yet to play a regular season game as a ranked team since he took over in 2016? Absolutely.
(The Tigers were ranked No. 24 heading into the Liberty Bowl, but a loss prevented the program’s first Top 25 finish of the Odom era.)
There’s rightfully some skepticism about Mizzou, which has yet to beat a ranked opponent this year and has 1 such win in 8 games against Top 25 foes under Odom. In a way, the Tigers are doing what they usually do. That is, beat up on inferior teams and struggle against elite competition. And this is also the 3rd consecutive year in which Odom’s team rattled off a 4-game winning streak.
Those, however, usually come after Mizzou has already eliminated itself from the division title race. The Tigers are 2-0 vs. Power 5 opponents having outscored them 72-21. Clearly, though, that hasn’t impressed everyone.
Of the 62 AP voters, here was the breakdown on where Mizzou was ranked:
- No. 1-15: 0
- No. 16: 1
- No. 17: 4
- No. 18: 0
- No. 19: 0
- No. 20: 1
- No. 21: 0
- No. 22: 0
- No. 23: 2
- No. 24: 2
- No. 25: 2
- Unranked: 50
Here was the complete breakdown:
All #APTop25 Week 7 Ballots pic.twitter.com/KxJq1VsJVy
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 6, 2019
So yes, that’s 81% of voters who still don’t believe that Mizzou is worthy of being ranked. To be fair, there isn’t a single ranked team with a loss to a Group of 5 team. Every ranked team with a loss suffered that against another Top 25 team, including No. 24 Texas A&M, which has 2 losses.
In other words, it’s not like there are a bunch of ranked teams ahead of Mizzou with a loss to a cellar dweller.
This week, Mizzou will face an Ole Miss team coming off a blowout win of its own. The problem is that the Tigers’ next 3 games are against Ole Miss, Vandy and Kentucky, which are a combined 2-7 in SEC play this year. That’s not a chance for a “how-do-like-me-now” win before Georgia.
But at the same time, I tend do think the Tigers would get into the Top 25 if they beat Ole Miss and Vandy convincingly. That’ll be easier said than done without Cale Garrett, who was playing at an All-American level before he suffered a season-ending pectoral injury.
Here’s the good news. You don’t rank this high (in FBS) in these defensive categories just because of one player:
- Scoring: No. 10
- Run defense: No. 12
- Pass defense: No. 2
- Total defense: No. 2
For those who assumed Mizzou’s defense was a disaster after it allowed nearly 300 rushing yards against Wyoming, it’s been a complete turnaround ever since that Week 1 debacle. Nick Bolton looks like an All-SEC linebacker and Kobie Whiteside and Jordan Elliott are key reasons why that run defense has been so dominant since the opener (average of 36.8 rushing yards allowed in the last 4 games).
It’s not crazy to think that could continue even as they travel away from the friendly confines of Columbia. Well, maybe not at that pace, but why can’t Mizzou have a top 20 defense? And now that we know Kelly Bryant’s injury isn’t as serious as originally thought, what’s in the way of the Tigers creeping into the top 20 ahead of that Georgia game?
Winning 7 games in a row after Wyoming would certainly make Mizzou worthy of at least being ranked. I’ve got to think the vast majority of the 50 voters who didn’t put Mizzou in the Top 25 after Week 6 would come around by then. As brutal as that loss was, it was amidst some atypical circumstances. Playing a season opener in Laramie, Wyoming, it was essentially 1 bad (horribly bad) quarter.
In case you were wondering, Wyoming is now 4-1 and looks like a better team that flirted with bowl eligibility last year. Just sayin’.
That’s still not a good look for an SEC team. Nobody is making excuses for Mizzou, but that’s not a season-long death sentence from the Top 25. At least it shouldn’t be.
In terms of controlling what you can control after a loss like that, Odom’s squad has done everything in its power. Certainly it would’ve been able to expedite its return to the Top 25 if it blew out a ranked team, but that’s not the case.
For now, all the Tigers can do is put their heads down and keep winning games. Eventually, voters will look up and realize Mizzou is a much better team than what they showed in Week 1.
How long??……………
I think if Mizzou handles Ole Miss convincingly and ups their record to 5 – 1, it would be difficult to keep them out of the top 25 conversation.
After all, isn’t it better to lose early than late?
I agree it is better to lose early. In this case, I mean psychologically. In my opinion we showed weak mental resolve as a team vs Wyoming. We thought we could just show up and win. The players got a wake up call and realized they needed to take a look in the mirror individually and as a team. It think it worked, and we’re treated to good brand of football right now from Odom and his staff. Ive enjoyed watching a team, playing one play at a time and taking nothing for granted.
the coaching staff did not have the team ready for Wyomings profile and plan. Adjustments were slow and late. Football games last 60 minutes, you snooze you loose.
Fair assessment of the team and situation Connor. That Wyoming loss was unacceptable and unexplainable. Take the loss, learn from it, and move on. That is what Mizzou has done. Mizzou is not a perennial top-tier SEC team but every year, since the dumpster-fire 2015 season, has improved…I suppose they are the present Phoenix in the SEC…rising from the ashes.
I don’t care about the ranking right now. I just want to beat Ole Miss without Cale Garrett! That MIZZOU pessimism sneaks in whenever I see an article like this and think “well, we’re jinxed now” even tho that’s ridiculous thinking.
And as a reminder, almost HALF of those Wyoming rushing yards were given up on 2 plays. … what a horribly strange game that was.
(Not sure why that posted as a REPLY to you… doh!)
Missouri has won four consecutive games against bottom feeders. They have a bad loss and no quality wins. Some voters may also be holding the probation against them. If they keep winning, I expect them to be ranked prior to the UGA game. They have at least looked good in their wins.
So South Carolina, West Virginia (hung 31 on Texas), and Troy are bottom-feeders (wait, didn’t Troy defeat LSU not long ago)?
I agree that the probation may have something to do with it also. I submit to you that if they handle Ole Miss this weekend they’ll move in to the top25. I think more and more analysts are paying more attention to them and the early loss stench is wearing off (it will never be gone).
Yes they are. The best record there is 3-2 and the others have losing records. The best win of the group is over NC State, who just got blown out by a bad FSU team. Missouri hasn’t beaten anyone that is receiving a single top 25 vote, and don’t have anyone on the schedule prior to UGA that is either. Your only hope is that other teams at the bottom of the top 25 lose. Texas A&M should make for one opening. If another falls this weekend, Missouri should get in.
Easy there Gerry DiNardo …one slip-up (lose to fla/ala/) and you cajuns will be calling for the big goon’s head. So, win over Texas and who else ? You’ve yet play fla, ala (yo daddy), auburn, and some other team you’ll slip up and lose and/or close game.
We will always be better than South Carolina. Your immature trolling just makes you look foolish. Maybe you should become a Bama fan so you can really talk trash about LSU.
You make a disrespectful comment that may include my team (for you what seems like every day on almost every article) and i will respond, yes. Also, come up with something original besides trolling, i rarely comment on this board – you comment on EVERYTHING ! Go away already.
Lol the LSU team that lost to Troy is irrelevant to this LSU team. To bring that up is stupid. And USCjr is trash they have a losing sec record and losing record overall idk why usc fans even talk smack
Well.. actually Wyoming (the one team we lost to) is 4-1 with the only loss being a road game @Tulsa, in which they played them very tight. Wyoming is not terrible. Also, keep in mind Missouri made SC look worse than Bama did, and they also made WV look worse than Texas did. So just something things to keep in mind. I think Missouri will compete with Florida at home for second in the East, and I think that’s a very fair assessment.
It also works that in the run-up to a game with a top 10 opponent, a team with a good record will also start rising in the polls just in case they do beat the top 10 team. The Big 12 and SEC have both worked that way. The SEC will start creating a lot of press in favor of Missouri at that time.
This is so true. MU will be ranked before playing uga if they don’t slip up. For no other reason than it’ll make two ranked teams more attractive to television.
South Carolina is 25th in FPI. I wouldn’t call that a bottom feeder.
I don’t pay much attention to FPI. SC is 2-3 with upcoming losses to UGA, UF, and Clemson. They will have to beat Tennessee, Vandy, App State, and Texas A&M just to reach bowl eligibility. Bottom feeder may be a little harsh, but they are a 5-7 team at best.
You make a disrespectful comment that may include my team (for you what seems like every day on almost every article) and i will respond, yes. Also, come up with something original besides trolling, i rarely comment on this board – you comment on EVERYTHING ! Go away already.
If there was a moderator on this board, you would have been gone a long time ago !
Lol LSUMC is one of the better posters on this board. Just because you’re little snowflake butt doesn’t like what he has to say doesn’t mean he’s wrong. USCjr is 2-3. Do you think that makes uscjr a good team?
Thanks Ben. I understand the guy’s frustration as many SC fans thought this would be a good season for them. Not really working out that way.
Every team has good and bad posters on here but if I had to name the best posters from UGA, LSU, and Bama. It would be boxster, LSUMC, bamatime
“If there was a moderator on this board, you would have been gone a long time ago !”
Really? We don’t always agree, but MC is no troll, and generally has intelligent comments.
They should have been ranked by now, but, if they keep playing the way they have, the ranking will come.
Connor you sorted some of that out. Thanks. Wyoming IS better than a lot of voters think. Craig Bohl’s coaching, in that game at least, was very well done and it should have been. He had a year to get ready for his one shot at a Power Five program. Bohl’s players responded with exactly the kind of break-making muster the game plan called for. I drove out there 16 hours. I hated to see Missouri get beat, especially when they were just a few seconds from over-coming their mistakes….. but if AP voters can’t watch that game and appreciate what the Cowboys executed during the 2nd and some of the 3rd quarter, then they just don’t have enough time to watch football, to be kind.
Even if the voters can’t be expected to appreciate Bohl’s Cowboys, here is what they shouldn’t miss. Look at how West Virginia has played after Missouri won by a ‘margin’. Rewatch the South Carolina game and notice how hard the Frickin Chickens played against Missouri in what was a ‘must-win’ game for them after already losing a conference game to Alabama. Troy’s offense, 42, 43, 35, 43, then Missouri where they score 10.
Those voters are putting relative nobodies ahead of Missouri, and those nobodies are playing nobodies. This is where the AP starts looking like nobodies. 7 million voters in Missouri are not affected much by how uninformed they are. And maybe everyone should expect them to want to be politically mis-informed.
Anyway thanks for being one of the few sportswriters out there that look at other professional writers and ask “how professional are the really being” on any given subject. Good job !!!!
Mizzou has a knack of shooting itself in the foot. Whenever it looks like the tide is going to turn for the better they Wyoming themselves. I’m not sure many Mizzou fans are worried about rankings right now. I for one would be glad if they just beat Ole Miss on Sat.
I can’t argue with where Missouri sits right now. Even decisive wins against the next two opponents won’t be convincing except with others losing ahead of them.
The voters still haven’t forgiven UF for their wins over scUM and KY. It could be a while.
The Ohio State University can lose by 30 to a non top 25 team and still get voted in the top 10.
Honestly I don’t really care. If we keep winning we’ll get ranked. If we don’t, it won’t matter if we are for a week or two. Just win and get to the Georgia game at 7-1 and we’ll probably be ranked pretty high. I’m not going to worry about it in the interim.
Look, it turns out you in fact *do* understand my point.
I definitely understand that you appear to be a bit of an over-aggressive jerk. Enjoy your Wednesday evening.
I’m confused here. Is there some tangible benefit to being ranked in the AP poll that Missouri wants to claim? Will Missouri fans feel a sort of euphoric sensation when they notice their team has cracked the low 20’s by default because enough teams prove to be worse?
Why is it hard to understand that being ranked in the top 25 is better than not being ranked in the top 25?
I get it Mizzou. It does make a difference. Especially when darling schools like ND move magically up the rankings based on playing no one or hardly dropping when losing a close one to a solid team. At the end of the day, rankings do matter. As I pointed out before, UF beats a cupcake and we drop 3 spots. ND beats a cupcake and they stay put. When asked why, voters actually said it was because they thought UF would lose some future games. WTF?!
mudragon,
You seem to be making a case against having rankings that are both meaningless and determined apropos of nothing. Good points, I agree.
You’re asking why it’s hard to understand why something that doesn’t matter matters?
I’m asking the same question, actually.
Okie dokie, bud.
College Football usually has a way of working these sorts of issues out. Mizzou just happened to run into a good “2019” Wyoming team.. If the Cowboys can manage finishing 10-2 with a Conference Championship and Mizzou somehow manages to make the SECCG, that loss early, will make sense. I would hate to read the comments should the same Tiger team, that lost early to Wyoming beat Georgia.
Hahahaha
I’d imagine the voters would hold it against them for, oh I dunno, the rest of the season. Doesn’t mean they can’t be ranked if they keep winning. Losses, no matter how early in a season, should not be forgotten.
It’s true that they shouldn’t be forgotten, but as the Colorado fan previously stated, the context at the end of the season reveals how good or bad a loss was. If Wyoming finishes the season with 1 or 2 losses, that softens the blow against Mizzou. If Wyoming loses 8 games, then Mizzou looks worse. (Yes, any loss to Wyoming sucks – but as UCF has shown, G5 teams can occasionally be pretty good)
I’ll agree with that and add that’s why the preseason rankings shouldn’t be a thing. It could be that Wyoming is decent. As far as rankings at this point in the season go, there’s a lot of teams with a better loss than Wyoming or at least better wins. If Mizz can get some good wins, that will change the perception.
Unfortunately we wont get a chance to change that narrative until we play you guys and UGA. Until then, keep winning so that when we beat you it looks better. ;)
We’ll do our best but we have some serious roadblocks ahead of us before we see you guys. Might have a couple losses by then
This is so true. MU will be ranked before playing uga if they don’t slip up. For no other reason than it’ll make two ranked teams more attractive to television.
We’re right where we started the season- right outside of the Top 25. Six weeks in at 4-1, I can’t argue where we’re ranked. The Wyoming loss was a horrible first impression for 2019. Bad for optics, but the loss has proven to strengthen the internal fortitude within the team. The loss hurt, but now in retrospect I think we were better for it. The team is formidable and fun to watch, everyone is growing together. Most importantly not false ripe. When we get ranked I think we will have earned it because of our play on the field, instead of preseason projections. In the truest sense of reality, we have zero margin of error as a team and in the eyes of AP voters. But If we keep winning, then we keep climbing up the ranks.
With injury prone Kelly Bryant and Albert Okwuegbunam on the ropes and Cale Garrett out for the season, the question regarding Missouri in the AP top 25 has become irrelevant.
Both major polls have a lot of inertia – once a pecking order is established before the season begins, it takes significant results to cause movement in the rankings. Not particularly fair, but we’ve been down the computer path and lots of folks didn’t like that. It is what it is. The S&P+ formula is probably the most accurate in-season ranking, and Mizzou is 10th right now. In fact, 6 of the top 12 are currently SEC teams.
It’s not like they’ve just been squeaking by in their 4 wins… It’s been convincing. TAMU has 2 losses already and they are in the top 25…
Mizzou still has a gauntlet to run with UGA and UF. Time will tell. And the NCAA appeal, any news on that?
Are playing UGA and UF punishment?
Not an SC fan but hard to call them a bottom feeder. How many teams would have a better record with the schedule they have played.
Screw the popularity contests. Just play the games.
The polling concept is severely flawed, lest the BCS scheme would have worked and we’d have a different US president, and so on. AP writers/subscribers might look at a few box scores, but they do little else, same as the other sports media. They also write primarily regional material, which is then distributed; therefore, they promote their own, whether consciously or subconsciously. They have home teams and prejudices too.
Historical bias and lemming mentality plays on the minds of the oldest and youngest AP voters, so the hive-mind goes.
Also, some states have more football acuity than others, and certainly those states have quite differing populations, so the number of AP voters is directly proportional. California, as the most populous state, will always seems to find a way to promote the PAC-12, even if they don’t deserve it. Texas and TAMU, likewise, need an unbelievable excuse to NOT be ranked as the second-most populous state — lest the state revolt. Then comes Florida — ranked two years and Mizzou beats them both years — inexplicably — crickets. And so it goes. Then come the historical teams — the work does itself.
How long is SDS going to keep Mizzou articles on the back pages?
No “bold” or “fearless” predictions for Mizzou vs. the new and unstoppable Rebs?
The only ratings that matter are the committee appointed ones. AP voters are just that, journalists who decide who’s who, very subjective stuff. If we are as good as some believe it will play out in another 3-4 weeks. Just realized we are 6-1 vs Ole Miss, need to make it 7-1.
Mizzou worried about being ranked, when they have bigger problems like praying they are even allowed into the post season. Mizzou could win out and still not even be allowed in the SECCG. Being ranked what difference does it make?
The national perception of a program is influenced by rankings, and obviously most people are interested in good press. Recruits are also interested in playing on competitive teams.
Regarding the bowl ban, we’re in the middle of an appeal that most sensible people believe we will win, especially considering Mississippi State had a similar problem and didn’t get banned. Whether it matters or not, it’s better to be ranked than not ranked.
Agreed. Ranking helps with recruiting
Assuming it gets lifted is putting the cart before the horse. The NCAA is inconsistent beyond words, Mizzou making a bowl means more money for the schools so its good for the conference.
For everyone arguing that rankings don’t matter, they’re hypocrites. On their next breath they’ll talk about how wins against ranked teams are more impressive than winning against unranked teams. Can’t have your cake and eat it too.
You do know there is Missouri fans on this site that say ranking doesn’t matter. They even say recruting rankings doesn’t matter…
Yet here we are with Missouri fans talking about being ranked.. Who are the hypocrites here?
I speak for myself, not all missouri fans. I personally think it’s important to be ranked.
Think about what everyone was saying about Mizzou the last couple seasons – “When was the last time you beat a RANKED team?!” Well if rankings don’t matter then how can you simultaneously dog Mizzou for not beating ranked teams? Rankings matter whether people care about it or not.