Mizzou In Tall Cotton
By
Bernie Miklasz
I don’t blame Mizzou fans for being upset over the BCS shenanigans.
But no one should have been surprised. Expecting the BCS fixers to display intergrity is like expecting a democracy-based agenda from the Politburo in the old Soviet Union. This is a corrupt process, run with an iron first by those who have no interest but their self interest, and the NCAA should be ashamed to be associated with such a disgraceful enterprise.
And other teams have been victimized worse than Mizzou was in this instance.
My point: this was nothing personal. Mizzou hasn’t been the only team screwed by this BCS shell game.
In 1998, undefeated Kansas State was upset in the Big 12 title game, but rmained No. 3 in the BCS standings. But the ‘Cats were not invited to a BCS bowl game. Wisconsin (9th) and Florida (8th) got the bids instead. And the 2004 Auburn team went undefeated and didn’t get a shot at the title.
All of that said …
Once the anger subsides, the Tigers and their fans will eventually come around to realize that the Cotton Bowl is the best fit for Missouri in a bowl game at this time. I look at this a little differently than most. First of all, there’s the so-called national championship bowl game, and there are all other bowls. Pick one, select the two teams, fill the stadium, arrange the tailgate parties, have a good time. No sweat. They’re all pretty much the same thing: vacation trips for fans; a chance for the team to finish strong. So I just don’t get worked up over where teams go bowling. That’s just me.
The Cotton Bowl, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Mizzou are a great fit.
Here’s why:
Coach Gary Pinkel and his staff have established Texas as a recruiting base:
QB Chase Daniel hails from suburban Dallas. His return home for the Cotton Bowl will be a big deal. The DFW media brigade is vast, and intense. Mizzou will be saturated in positive media coverage for a week; it’ll be a Mizzou-RAH rally. Pinkel and assistants can use this trip as a lengthy promotional campaign. It’s one big recruiting pitch, free of charge, with the bowl people picking up the tab. Mizzou is being sent to one of their recruiting hotbeds, and the exposure will reach dozens of potential recruits, with Mizzou being placed in the best possible light in the days leading up to the game. I don’t know what the rules are, so I don’t know what Mizzou can or cannot do in conjunction for the Jan. 1 Cotton Bowl. But if it’s permissible, the MU staff ought to invite every recruiting target in Texas to come to the game. An all-expenses paid trip for Mizzou to market itself in Dallas-Fort Worth is a gift from the football gods.
Mizzou is playing Arkansas, a team with a high-profile star in running back Darren McFadden:
This game will feature two outstanding players, Daniel and McFadden, who likely will be among the finalists for this year’s Heisman Trophy. Daniel and McFadden could finish 2 and 3 in the voting (in some order). That kind of showcase showdown, should raise the TV ratings for this 10:30 a.m. (central time) game, and that’s more national play for Mizzou. The starting time is good in that Mizzou-Arkansas won’t face much competition for sports-fan attention.
Mizzou can win this game and finish 12-2 and among the top five in the nation:
It’s important for the Tigers to buckle up, get motivated, put on a dazzling show, and win big on Jan. 1. They still have a lot to play for. The Tigers can end up with their best season since 1969. And a rout of Arkansas would only reinforce that the Tigers are moving in the right direction, and that the best is yet to come. And a convincing win over Arkansas will only remind fans around the nation that Mizzou got jobbed by the BCS fixers. This game should not be viewed, or handled, as comedown. This game is another terrific opportunity for the Tigers. Frankly, I hope the team’s mindset isn’t affected by the negative reaction we’re seeing from Missouri fans.
Pinkel has been given a free no-respect card to play with in 2008:
On that ‘08 schedule, Mizzou faces Illinois and Kansas. Of course, the Tigers beat both teams in 2007, only to watch Illinois and KU get rewarded with BCS bids. A smart coach will use that to his advantage. We just saw Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops make superb use of the no-respect card by getting OU cranked up to soaring motivational levels for the Big 12 title game vs. Mizzou. Stoops had his players convinced that no one gave them credit for beating Mizzou during the regular season, and that the media and Mizzou players dismissed OU’s win as lucky because Mizzou handed it to them with late turnovers and mistakes. By the time Stoops finished with his effective propaganda campaign, his team was incredibly jacked up for the return engagement vs. the Tigers. Can you imagine what Pinkel and staff can do with this BCS snub next season before the KU game? If Pinkel is good at this, by the time he’s finished stoking the fire, he’ll have his players convinced that the selection of KU over Mizzou for the Orange Bowl was one of the great injustices in the history of sports, and nothing less than an act of spitting in the face of the MU players and coaches… and that the only way to make it right is to punish Kansas.
Speaking of Kansas in the Orange Bowl:
… so what? If KU absorbs a smackdown from a better Virginia Tech team, then it will only reinforce the belief that the Jayhawks were soft-schedule frauds in 2007. And about the Orange Bowl…other than the bigger payout, what’s so special about it? In last year’s Orange Bowl Classic, Louisville defeated Wake Forest. Does anybody remember it?
Whether they play in the Orange Bowl, or the Cotton Bowl, the best Mizzou can do is finish 12-2, and probably a No. 5 final ranking in the BCS (barring other upsets). So those goals are still in play. The identity of the Bowl simply doesn’t matter, and as I have already explained, because of the recruiting connection, there’s actually
more benefit for this particular Mizzou team to play in the Cotton Bowl than the Orange Bowl.
If things break right in the bowl games, Mizzou will likely be standing in tall cotton at season’s end.