Another Take from the Mizzou Side of BCS Screw Job - Page 9

Frazod · 12-03-2007, 09:51 AM

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/spo...5?OpenDocument

Mizzou left out of BCS? It's nonsense
BY BRYAN BURWELL
POST-DISPATCH SPORTS COLUMNIST
Sunday, Dec. 02 2007

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Of course it doesn’t make sense. You know it, I know it, even
the doofuses who continue to perpetrate this idiotic Bowl Championship Series
system have to know just how fatally flawed and hopelessly messed up their
multi-million dollar scam is.

So Sunday night was just one more bit of annoying confirmation of how defective
the BCS is.

From the broad national perspective, to the narrower parochial one, I truly
hate it with all my heart. But since sports is very much like politics --
everything is local -- let’s deal with how Mizzou got robbed Sunday night by
the BCS and its convoluted computers.

Missouri finished its finest season in the history of the program with an 11-2
record, won the Big 12 North, knocked off both arch rivals in Kansas and
Illinois, and the Tigers finished with a No. 6 ranking in the final BCS
standings.

Logic says the Tigers had to get a BCS bowl bid, right?

So why are they sitting on the outside of the BCS with an invitation to the
still prestigious (but non BCS) Cotton Bowl, while five other schools that
ranked lower in the BCS standings -- including the 8th-ranked Jayhawks and
13th-ranked Illini -- received bids to the more preferred BCS bowls?

Seventh-ranked Southern California and Illinois are in the Rose Bowl. Kansas is
in the Orange Bowl, ninth-ranked West Virginia is in the Fiesta Bowl and
10th-ranked Hawaii is in the Sugar Bowl.

So how does any of this make sense? As the news began to filter through the
second floor hallways at the Reynolds Alumni Center on Sunday night, the grim
faces of many Mizzou athletes told the story of the night.

“It’s just a shame we got locked out,” said All-America tight end Martin
Rucker. “How does that happen? Mathematically, logically, it just doesn’t make
sense.”

By the time the Fox network BCS bowl selection show began at 7 p.m., Rucker and
his teammates had already left the building. They couldn’t bear to watch it.
They had been instructed to take the high road and go with the company line
that they’re “excited” to be Cotton Bowl bound.

But Rucker, the senior who has seen Missouri football grow from inconsequential
to important, couldn’t play the game. In the course of 48 turbulent hours, he’d
watched his team go from No. 1 in the country with a legitimate shot at a
national championship bid, to disappointed and disgusted outsiders with their
noses pressed to the glass watching the BCS dance cards being handed out.

Someone asked if this obvious slight was further proof of how badly college
football’s top division needs a playoff system to decide its national champions
and perhaps prevent a situation like this where Mizzou was unjustly left on the
outside looking in.

“I don’t know if you need a playoff system to see that it doesn’t make sense
that one team (Illinois) lost three games and lost to you, and you only lost
two games, and they’re going to a BCS game and you’re not,” said Rucker with a
resigned shrug of his shoulders. “I don’t think we need a playoff system to
understand that, do we?”

You could see the disappointment in their faces as the players got the
official word and most of them quietly left the alumni center without saying a
word. “I have a bunch of players who have a bunch of frowns,” said Pinkel.

But those frowning faces told another story of the night, as well. Is there any
surer sign that Pinkel’s emerging program is heading in the right direction
than the fact that Mizzou football is no longer satisfied with a Cotton Bowl
bid?

Three years ago -- heck, last year -- Missouri loyalists and Tiger players and
coaches would have done somersaults down Broadway if you told them that the
2007 season would conclude with an 11-2 regular season record, a Big 12 North
title, a week on top of the national polls, a legitimate Heisman Trophy
candidate, and a Cotton Bowl bid.

After six years of lesser bowls and underachieving seasons, a trip to a
traditional and prestigious Jan. 1 bowl game, with or without the additional
status of a BCS affiliation, would have been considered a watershed mark for
Pinkel and the Tigers.

So even in the aftermath of the crushing defeat to Oklahoma in the Big 12 title
game, even with the obvious insult by the BCS system, even as some folks will
spend a lot of energy and a ton of venom overanalyzing how the biggest game in
MU football history ended up with a less-than-storybook ending, let’s not lose
sight of the essential ongoing story line.

What happened over the weekend wasn’t the sad end of the story.

The rebirth of Mizzou football is a story that’s just beginning.

KCinNY · 12-03-2007, 07:18 PM

I think KU has a good shot against VaTech. The Hokie defense will be, by far, the best the Jayhawks have faced this season. However, their offense is nothing special. They have a running QB and a passing QB that split snaps, so their tendencies are tipped by who's lining up under center.

Mangino's a great coach who'll have KU ready to play.

**DaneMcCloud** · 12-03-2007, 07:28 PM

MU better win it's game against Arkansas.

KU better win it's game against V-Tech.

Otherwise, all of these conversations are for naught.

BOTH teams have a chance to finish in the top 5, along with OU. If that happens, all three teams will be looked upon as possibly the best in the nation.

It would do wonders for MU and KU's recruiting as well.

**Bearcat** · 12-03-2007, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

MU better win it's game against Arkansas.

KU better win it's game against V-Tech.

Otherwise, all of these conversations are for naught.

BOTH teams have a chance to finish in the top 5, along with OU. If that happens, all three teams will be looked upon as possibly the best in the nation.

It would do wonders for MU and KU's recruiting as well.

All that, plus if one team wins and the other loses, it's days of 'I told you so' by the winner... of course, to be brought up before every sporting event between the two teams until they meet at Arrowhead next year, plus any thread about Kansas or Mizzou until then.

Bump · 12-03-2007, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bearcat

All that, plus if one team wins and the other loses, it's days of 'I told you so' by the winner... of course, to be brought up before every sporting event between the two teams until they meet at Arrowhead next year, plus any thread about Kansas or Mizzou until then.

ya it has potential to be trouble.

KChiefs1 · 12-03-2007, 07:36 PM

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.

Pierce · 12-03-2007, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

MU better win it's game against Arkansas.

KU better win it's game against V-Tech.

Otherwise, all of these conversations are for naught.

BOTH teams have a chance to finish in the top 5, along with OU. If that happens, all three teams will be looked upon as possibly the best in the nation.

It would do wonders for MU and KU's recruiting as well.

Yup. Everything else is just blabber.

Although I hope Mizzou doesn't have any recruits on the west coast. Early game New Years morning.

siberian khatru · 12-03-2007, 09:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

Rather than mope, Tigers must play no-respect angle to the hilt
By Jeff Gordon
STLTODAY.COM SPORTS COLUMNIST
Monday, Dec. 03 2007

Look at the bright side, Missouri fans. Your football team now has a rallying
cry for the Cotton Bowl, for its offseason workouts, for spring football, for
summer camp, for the 2008 season and beyond.

The national pollsters regard the Tigers lightly. So do the knuckleheads at the
Orange Bowl, who jilted them after their loss to Oklahoma in the Big 12
Championship Game.

“With the result of that game, you have a two-loss team compared to a one-loss
team,” Orange Bowl chief executive Eric Poms said. “That was probably our most
pressing thing to look at.”

Never mind that Missouri beat Kansas earlier this season on a neutral field.

Never mind that Missouri played a tougher schedule, beating bowl-bound
Illinois, Texas Tech, Colorado, Kansas and Texas A&M.

Never mind that Missouri (naturally) finished ahead of KU in the BCS standings.

Never mind that Missouri has an impressive collection of skilled players namely one Jeremy Maclin,
making it one of the most entertaining teams to watch.

Nope, the Orange Bowl wanted nothing to do with Mizzou. So the Tigers will
prepare to play Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl instead.

Rather than mope about this rejection -– which everybody in the business saw
coming, by the way -– the Tigers must turn it into the ultimate motivational
point.

Beating Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl would allow the Tigers to finish 12-2. It
would be a fitting exit for all the seniors who helped lead this program to the
Next Level.

Yes, it is irksome that the Cotton Bowl isn’t a BCS-level game. Yes, it is
ludicrous that teams Missouri beat are in BCS games instead.

But this is more than a consolation game for a program still establishing its
legitimacy. This is an opportunity to advance the program for years to come.

Missouri got on the big stage against KU and played a terrific game on national
TV. That got them to No. 1 in the rankings. That earned them a week of national
media love.

On the even bigger stage of the Big 12 Championship Game, the Sooners creamed
them. Every Missouri fan I talked to after that game – in cabs, shuttle buses,
airports, airplanes – accepted that Oklahoma is just a better football team.

That lopsided loss refueled the national skepticism about the Tigers. That
reaffirmed the notion that Mizzou was just a one-season wonder.

I don’t believe that is the case, looking at the players returning for 2008 and
the recruits lining up to play for the Tigers. But Missouri has to prove it
will have staying power – and the Cotton Bowl affords that opportunity.

This game will draw ratings, with high-profile stars Chase Daniel and Darren
McFadden playing. Arkansas hails from the SEC, the World’s Greatest Football
Conference in the eyes of the national media. Arkansas earlier upset LSU, which
lobbied its way into the BCS title game.

The Tigers should play the no-respect angle to the hilt and make the most of
EVERY SINGLE SNAP before these seniors get out the door.

The Tigers should fly into this game and never slow down, ever. By drubbing
Arkansas -– the only acceptable outcome of this game -– Missouri could finish
the season with a high national ranking.

That would allow them to open the 2008 season with a lofty ranking, which is
half the battle in this BCS “system.” Reputation accounts for one-half of the
BCS equation and loss total -– regardless of schedule strength -– is the other
half.

I don’t recommend the soft schedule approach. That is the Kansas State way,
adopted nicely by KU this season. I’d rather see Missouri play Illinois in a
marquee game pitting two Top Ten teams.

Playing those sorts of games allows a program to strengthen its reputation.
Showcase games put a program on national television, energize its booster base
and attract top recruits.

Missouri came a long way this year. It played a number of high-profile games.
The Tigers got lots of TV time and Daniel became a cover boy.

Getting stiffed by the BCS system was a setback, but the Tigers can plow
through it by dominating the Cotton Bowl and getting ahead start on their ’08
quest for respect.

GREAT piece. GREAT.

Sure-Oz · 12-03-2007, 09:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KChiefs1

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.

Excellent piece indeed, enough said! Go Mizzou!

|Zach| · 12-03-2007, 11:23 PM

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Talk about misery in Missouri.

For Tigers fans, a Big 12 title game loss to Oklahoma was bad enough. No more No. 1 ranking, no trip to New Orleans for the BCS national championship.

At least Missouri (11-2), could still boast supremacy over archrival Kansas, a team the Tigers knocked from the unbeaten ranks with a late-season victory at Arrowhead Stadium. The win gave Missouri the Big 12 North division crown.

Not so fast. When it comes to Missouri-Kansas, two schools that can't even agree on their all-time series record, nothing is ever quite so easy.

Kansas, not Missouri, earned the coveted Bowl Championship Series at-large berth and a Jan. 3 trip to the Orange Bowl to face ACC champion Virginia Tech. Missouri, shut out of the BCS, heads to the Cotton Bowl and a New Year's Day battle against No. 25 Arkansas (8-4), its southern neighbor.

Missouri coach Gary Pinkel and his players had nothing but good things to say about the Cotton Bowl selection, from the opportunity to play in the program's first Jan. 1 bowl game in nearly four decades to the chance to make a better impression on recruits in Texas after the lopsided Alamodome loss to the Sooners.

But knowing that the dreaded Jayhawks were headed to a more prestigious bowl, despite the loss to Missouri and lower rankings in both the AP and final BCS polls?

The BCS selection process, like making sausage, is a process not easily understood from the outside. All-American tight end Martin Rucker agreed.

"I don't know how it happens, I don't know why it happens, but it happens," he said. "We just have to be thankful for the bowl we got in there and give it our best shot."

BCS coordinator Mike Slive said that once the at-large teams are determined, the matchup choices are up to individual bowls.

Regular-season winners from the six power conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern) earned automatic berths in the BCS, joined by undefeated WAC champion Hawaii.

The at-large berths went to Kansas, Georgia and Illinois -- a team that also lost to Missouri this season. The Illini face Southern California in the Rose Bowl.

"Kansas is very deserving of the BCS," said Slive, who also is the Southeastern Conference commissioner.

He later added, "I certainly would understand that (Missouri) could be very, very disappointed."

Across the Missouri-Kansas border in Lawrence, athletic director Lew Perkins said the Jayhawks earned their spot in the Orange Bowl.

"We don't have to be apologetic for anything," he said. Kansas finished the regular season 11-1.

Kansas quarterback Todd Reesing agreed.

"We're very deserving," he said. "If anyone wants to doubt us, we've proven them wrong all year and we're going to continue to do that because we've earned the spot we got."

Orange Bowl officials cited Kansas's status as a one-loss team as well as the team's historic connection to the old Big Eight Conference.

Of course, Missouri was also a member of the Big Eight.

"Kansas and Missouri were back to back next to each other," Orange Bowl chief executive officer Eric Poms said. "Having a one-loss team compared to a two-loss team was the most pressing thing we looked at. At the end of the day, that was our thought process."

At Booche's restaurant in downtown Columbia, a popular hangout known for its greasy burgers served on wax paper, Missouri fans weren't buying that explanation.

"It just doesn't make any sense. It's not fair," said Tiger fan Chris Huston. "Kansas had only one loss because they didn't have a chance to play in the title game after Missouri beat them."

Missouri now has four weeks to prepare for its next game. The Tigers plan to quickly cleanse themselves of the disappointing loss to Oklahoma, which won its fifth Big 12 title in seven appearances since 2000.

The Tigers hope to avoid a repeat of similar events in 1998, when Kansas State's run at No. 1 ended with a Big 12 title game loss followed by a monumental collapse to Purdue in the Alamo Bowl.

"You've got to flush it out of your system pretty soon," said Missouri wide receiver Jeremy Maclin. "We feel like we still have a lot to prove."

Tits McGee · 12-04-2007, 01:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sure-Oz

I am confident KU will lose to VT, Reesing will get "nervous" like the mu vs ku game. No one will be talking about KU next year anyway, MU will be back in top 15 contention and making a run again with the incoming recruits.

If I remember correctly, it was "jitters."

HMc · 12-04-2007, 05:40 AM

besides the money, i guess the cotton bowl is almost as good as a BCS bowl?

imagine having lure recruits with "the 2007 team boasted a 11-2 record and achieved a comprehensive win over Wake Forest in the Meineke Car Care Bowl"

12-03-2007, 09:51 AM
Frazod Did you hear what I said? Join Date: Aug 2000 Casino cash: $-566615	Another Take from the Mizzou Side of BCS Screw Job http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/spo...5?OpenDocument Mizzou left out of BCS? It's nonsense BY BRYAN BURWELL POST-DISPATCH SPORTS COLUMNIST Sunday, Dec. 02 2007 COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Of course it doesn’t make sense. You know it, I know it, even the doofuses who continue to perpetrate this idiotic Bowl Championship Series system have to know just how fatally flawed and hopelessly messed up their multi-million dollar scam is. So Sunday night was just one more bit of annoying confirmation of how defective the BCS is. From the broad national perspective, to the narrower parochial one, I truly hate it with all my heart. But since sports is very much like politics -- everything is local -- let’s deal with how Mizzou got robbed Sunday night by the BCS and its convoluted computers. Missouri finished its finest season in the history of the program with an 11-2 record, won the Big 12 North, knocked off both arch rivals in Kansas and Illinois, and the Tigers finished with a No. 6 ranking in the final BCS standings. Logic says the Tigers had to get a BCS bowl bid, right? So why are they sitting on the outside of the BCS with an invitation to the still prestigious (but non BCS) Cotton Bowl, while five other schools that ranked lower in the BCS standings -- including the 8th-ranked Jayhawks and 13th-ranked Illini -- received bids to the more preferred BCS bowls? Seventh-ranked Southern California and Illinois are in the Rose Bowl. Kansas is in the Orange Bowl, ninth-ranked West Virginia is in the Fiesta Bowl and 10th-ranked Hawaii is in the Sugar Bowl. So how does any of this make sense? As the news began to filter through the second floor hallways at the Reynolds Alumni Center on Sunday night, the grim faces of many Mizzou athletes told the story of the night. “It’s just a shame we got locked out,” said All-America tight end Martin Rucker. “How does that happen? Mathematically, logically, it just doesn’t make sense.” By the time the Fox network BCS bowl selection show began at 7 p.m., Rucker and his teammates had already left the building. They couldn’t bear to watch it. They had been instructed to take the high road and go with the company line that they’re “excited” to be Cotton Bowl bound. But Rucker, the senior who has seen Missouri football grow from inconsequential to important, couldn’t play the game. In the course of 48 turbulent hours, he’d watched his team go from No. 1 in the country with a legitimate shot at a national championship bid, to disappointed and disgusted outsiders with their noses pressed to the glass watching the BCS dance cards being handed out. Someone asked if this obvious slight was further proof of how badly college football’s top division needs a playoff system to decide its national champions and perhaps prevent a situation like this where Mizzou was unjustly left on the outside looking in. “I don’t know if you need a playoff system to see that it doesn’t make sense that one team (Illinois) lost three games and lost to you, and you only lost two games, and they’re going to a BCS game and you’re not,” said Rucker with a resigned shrug of his shoulders. “I don’t think we need a playoff system to understand that, do we?” You could see the disappointment in their faces as the players got the official word and most of them quietly left the alumni center without saying a word. “I have a bunch of players who have a bunch of frowns,” said Pinkel. But those frowning faces told another story of the night, as well. Is there any surer sign that Pinkel’s emerging program is heading in the right direction than the fact that Mizzou football is no longer satisfied with a Cotton Bowl bid? Three years ago -- heck, last year -- Missouri loyalists and Tiger players and coaches would have done somersaults down Broadway if you told them that the 2007 season would conclude with an 11-2 regular season record, a Big 12 North title, a week on top of the national polls, a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate, and a Cotton Bowl bid. After six years of lesser bowls and underachieving seasons, a trip to a traditional and prestigious Jan. 1 bowl game, with or without the additional status of a BCS affiliation, would have been considered a watershed mark for Pinkel and the Tigers. So even in the aftermath of the crushing defeat to Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game, even with the obvious insult by the BCS system, even as some folks will spend a lot of energy and a ton of venom overanalyzing how the biggest game in MU football history ended up with a less-than-storybook ending, let’s not lose sight of the essential ongoing story line. What happened over the weekend wasn’t the sad end of the story. The rebirth of Mizzou football is a story that’s just beginning.
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12-03-2007, 07:18 PM	#121
KCinNY Chiefs Goon Join Date: Aug 2000 Location: Center Ice Casino cash: $10008350	I think KU has a good shot against VaTech. The Hokie defense will be, by far, the best the Jayhawks have faced this season. However, their offense is nothing special. They have a running QB and a passing QB that split snaps, so their tendencies are tipped by who's lining up under center. Mangino's a great coach who'll have KU ready to play.
Posts: 1,497

12-03-2007, 07:28 PM	#122
DaneMcCloud Supporter Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: Hollywood, CA Casino cash: $10053648	MU better win it's game against Arkansas. KU better win it's game against V-Tech. Otherwise, all of these conversations are for naught. BOTH teams have a chance to finish in the top 5, along with OU. If that happens, all three teams will be looked upon as possibly the best in the nation. It would do wonders for MU and KU's recruiting as well.
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12-03-2007, 07:36 PM	#125
KChiefs1 I’m a Mahomo! Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Mid-Missouri Casino cash: $6771021	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. __________________
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12-03-2007, 11:23 PM	#129
\|Zach\| For The Glory Of The City Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Kansas City Casino cash: $3186768	COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Talk about misery in Missouri. For Tigers fans, a Big 12 title game loss to Oklahoma was bad enough. No more No. 1 ranking, no trip to New Orleans for the BCS national championship. At least Missouri (11-2), could still boast supremacy over archrival Kansas, a team the Tigers knocked from the unbeaten ranks with a late-season victory at Arrowhead Stadium. The win gave Missouri the Big 12 North division crown. Not so fast. When it comes to Missouri-Kansas, two schools that can't even agree on their all-time series record, nothing is ever quite so easy. Kansas, not Missouri, earned the coveted Bowl Championship Series at-large berth and a Jan. 3 trip to the Orange Bowl to face ACC champion Virginia Tech. Missouri, shut out of the BCS, heads to the Cotton Bowl and a New Year's Day battle against No. 25 Arkansas (8-4), its southern neighbor. Missouri coach Gary Pinkel and his players had nothing but good things to say about the Cotton Bowl selection, from the opportunity to play in the program's first Jan. 1 bowl game in nearly four decades to the chance to make a better impression on recruits in Texas after the lopsided Alamodome loss to the Sooners. But knowing that the dreaded Jayhawks were headed to a more prestigious bowl, despite the loss to Missouri and lower rankings in both the AP and final BCS polls? The BCS selection process, like making sausage, is a process not easily understood from the outside. All-American tight end Martin Rucker agreed. "I don't know how it happens, I don't know why it happens, but it happens," he said. "We just have to be thankful for the bowl we got in there and give it our best shot." BCS coordinator Mike Slive said that once the at-large teams are determined, the matchup choices are up to individual bowls. Regular-season winners from the six power conferences (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10 and Southeastern) earned automatic berths in the BCS, joined by undefeated WAC champion Hawaii. The at-large berths went to Kansas, Georgia and Illinois -- a team that also lost to Missouri this season. The Illini face Southern California in the Rose Bowl. "Kansas is very deserving of the BCS," said Slive, who also is the Southeastern Conference commissioner. He later added, "I certainly would understand that (Missouri) could be very, very disappointed." Across the Missouri-Kansas border in Lawrence, athletic director Lew Perkins said the Jayhawks earned their spot in the Orange Bowl. "We don't have to be apologetic for anything," he said. Kansas finished the regular season 11-1. Kansas quarterback Todd Reesing agreed. "We're very deserving," he said. "If anyone wants to doubt us, we've proven them wrong all year and we're going to continue to do that because we've earned the spot we got." Orange Bowl officials cited Kansas's status as a one-loss team as well as the team's historic connection to the old Big Eight Conference. Of course, Missouri was also a member of the Big Eight. "Kansas and Missouri were back to back next to each other," Orange Bowl chief executive officer Eric Poms said. "Having a one-loss team compared to a two-loss team was the most pressing thing we looked at. At the end of the day, that was our thought process." At Booche's restaurant in downtown Columbia, a popular hangout known for its greasy burgers served on wax paper, Missouri fans weren't buying that explanation. "It just doesn't make any sense. It's not fair," said Tiger fan Chris Huston. "Kansas had only one loss because they didn't have a chance to play in the title game after Missouri beat them." Missouri now has four weeks to prepare for its next game. The Tigers plan to quickly cleanse themselves of the disappointing loss to Oklahoma, which won its fifth Big 12 title in seven appearances since 2000. The Tigers hope to avoid a repeat of similar events in 1998, when Kansas State's run at No. 1 ended with a Big 12 title game loss followed by a monumental collapse to Purdue in the Alamo Bowl. "You've got to flush it out of your system pretty soon," said Missouri wide receiver Jeremy Maclin. "We feel like we still have a lot to prove."
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12-04-2007, 05:40 AM	#131
HMc from the very deep south. Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Sydney, Australia. Casino cash: $9944900	besides the money, i guess the cotton bowl is almost as good as a BCS bowl? imagine having lure recruits with "the 2007 team boasted a 11-2 record and achieved a comprehensive win over Wake Forest in the Meineke Car Care Bowl"
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