Hopes are soaring for Missouri football fans heading into this season, with dreams of the Tigers surging into the playoff field that has been expanded from four teams to 12.
One of the three sportsbooks in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ market already has posted pointspreads on four MU games this season, and some interesting numbers have emerged. Mizzou is favored to beat Southeastern Conference newcomer Oklahoma, but not holdovers Alabama and Texas A&M.
DraftKings (Casino Queen in East ºüÀêÊÓƵ) has the over Oklahoma on Nov. 9, when the Sooners roll onto Faurot Field for the first time in 14 years — since one of the most epic contests in MU football lore.
The schools were in the same league for many decades, whether it be the Big 6, Big 7, Big 8, or Big 12, and have played often — 96 times. But they haven’t met since 2011, the last year MU was in the Big 12 before bolting to the Southeastern Conference. OU has dominated the series, leading 67-24-5, and has won seven of the last eight meetings.
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But MU’s lone victory in that recent span remains one of the memorable in program history, as both teams were 6-0 in 2010 when they met in Columbia. The mighty Sooners came in No. 1 in the BCS standings, which at the end of the season determined the two teams that would play for the national title. Mizzou also was unblemished, creating a raucous atmosphere on the Mizzou campus. ESPN’s “College GameDay†show was on hand, broadcasting from that morning from near the Columns, and drew what then was a record crowd that was estimated at 18,000. ABC nationally televised the game that night.
Final: MU 36, OU 27 to spark a wild night in Columbia.
DraftKings also has Mizzou as the favorite, by 9½ points, when it entertains Auburn on Oct. 19. The programs have met just four times, with Auburn winning three of them. The latest was a MU loss on the road in 2022 when multiple miscues late in the contest led to a 17-14 overtime defeat.
On the other hand, DraftKings has Alabama as an 8½-point choice when the Tigers head to Tuscaloosa on Oct. 26 — when the Crimson Tide will be well into their first season without Nick Saban as their coach after he won six national titles in his 17 years leading the team.
The Tigers and Tide haven’t played often, just seven times dating to the 1968 Gator Bowl game that MU won 35-10. Mizzou then prevailed 20-7 in Birmingham on a Monday night nationally televised game on ABC to open the 1975 season. ’Bama has won each meeting since, the last four of which have come since MU joined the Southeastern Conference in 2012. The five consecutive victories the Tide have recorded have been by an average of 25.4 points.
On Oct. 5, three weeks before tusslin’ in Tuscaloosa, MU is at Texas A&M and as of now is a four-point ’dog. Mizzou has a more extensive history with the Aggies than with the Tide, mostly from the days MU and A&M were in the Big 12 Conference. The Aggies lead the series 10-7, but the clubs have met only once since 2014, a game A&M won 35-14 in Columbia three seasons ago.
Playoff push
The betting line on the number of regular-season games MU will win this season is at 9½ (out of 12), after it was set at 6½ last year. The Tigers obliterated that by going 10-2, then adding a victory over Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl that was not included in the betting total.
Oddsmakers have MU hovering right at the playoff cutoff line, and their numbers are all-but unchanged from what they were six weeks ago.
DraftKings had them with the 12th-lowest odds then to make the postseason field then, and that’s where they are now — at +175 both times. (That means a successful $100 bet would return a $175 profit.) They also have been 12th both times at Argosy (casino in Alton), with the payout ticking up from +150 then to +160 early this week to +200 at of Friday. FanDuel (horse track in Collinsville) is holding steady with MU just missing out in 13th place, six weeks again as well as now. The return again would be +180.
Burden’s No. 1
Those who set the prices at one of the area books have Mizzou’s Luther Burden III as the favorite to win the Biletnikoff Award, which is presented to the player who is named college football’s top receiver.
Argosy is the only brick-and-mortar shop in the area to have prices posted on key contenders for the honor, and Burden tops the list at 4-1. Burden, who will be a junior, is coming off a season in which he led the Tigers in receptions (86), receiving yards (1,212) and TD catches (9).
Ohio State’s Emeka Egbuka, a grad student, is next at 7-1. He’s followed by two players at 8-1 — Arizona junior Tetairoa McMillan and Miami (Fla.) senior Xavier Restrepo.
If Egbuka makes 78 catches this year, he’ll break K.J. Hill’s Buckeyes record of 201. McMillan led his team with 1,402 receiving yards last year, and Restrepo is coming off a Hurricanes single-season reception record (85).
Egbuka and Restrepo will be working with new quarterbacks this season, and McMillan will be catching passes from a QB he has been with for one season. Burden, meanwhile, will be in his third year lining up outside quarterback Brady Cook.
Cook, meanwhile, is tied with Notre Dame’s Riley Leonard for 11th place on the board in Alton in odds to win the Davey O’Brien Award, which goes the player who best exemplifies “Davey O’Brien’s enduring character while exhibiting teamwork, sportsmanship and leadership in both academics and athletics.†O’Brien, who played at Texas Christian, won the Heisman Trophy in 1938.
Cook is at 22-1. Georgia’s Carson Beck (5-1) and Oregon’s Dillion Gabriel (5½-1) head that list.