Missouri appears headed to its biggest bowl game in more than half a century, since losing to Penn State 10-3 in the Orange Bowl to wrap up its 1969 season at 9-2 and finishing sixth in the final Associated Press poll.
There were 11 bowl games then. There are 41 now, and on Sunday, the Tigers will find out in which of them they’ll be playing, as well their opponent.
The matchups for the two national semifinal contests, in the Rose and Sugar bowls, are set to be unveiled on an ESPN show that is to be simulcast on ESPNU and set to begin at 11 a.m. It will be anchored by Rece Davis for the 10th consecutive year.
MU won’t be going to the Rose or Sugar bowls, on Jan. 1. But barring a wild set of developments in conference title contests this weekend, the Tigers are likely to be selected to play in one of the other so-called New Year’s Six big-payday bowl games. The four New Year’s Six matchups outside the playoff games are set to be announced at 1:30 Sunday on ESPN, after the semifinals are analyzed.
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But “New Year’s Six” is a misnomer — only three of the half-dozen bowls under that designation are played on Jan. 1. Other than the playoff games, the only other actual New Year’s Day contest is the Fiesta Bowl, in Glendale, Arizona. It’s scheduled for noon (Ƶ time). Then comes the Rose (4 p.m. in Pasadena, California) followed by the Sugar (7:45 p.m. in New Orleans).
If there was truth in advertising, the others would be called the “Around New Year’s Six” bowls. The Cotton (7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 29, in Arlington, Texas); the Peach (11 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 30, in Atlanta); and Orange (3 p.m. on Dec. 30, in Miami Gardens, Florida) are played before the holiday.
If the Tigers miss out on that mix, they’d tumble into the group of remaining bowl matchups that will be covered later in the ESPN program that rolls on until 3 p.m.
RATINGS ROAR: Mizzou continued its strong surge on Ƶ television last Friday when CBS showed the Tigers’ throttling of Arkansas to wrap up their regular season at 10-2. It was the ninth time that network has aired the Tigers-Razorbacks matchup on the day after Thanksgiving, and it drew the best rating in Ƶ of all of those years. According to Nielsen, which tracks viewership, 11.9% of the market watched the game locally on KMOV (Channel 4). The previous high was 10.7, in 2014 — the first of those meetings.
MU finished the regular season with its last four games shown on major networks after having spent the first two-thirds of it mostly on lesser outlets. They were on CBS two recent times other than for the Arkansas game, drawing ratings in Ƶ of 10.8 (against Georgia) and 11.1 (Tennessee). They also had a November contest on ESPN (against Florida), and that rating was 9. All are outstanding numbers.
BIG PRODUCTION: Disney networks (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, SEC Network, ESPNU) take over the full SEC football package next season and plan to have an two-hour, NFL-style televised unveiling of the schedule.
That has been set for 6 p.m. on Dec. 13, a Wednesday, on ESPN and SEC Network. It will be interesting to see if the MU-Arkansas matchup stays scheduled for the day after Thanksgiving.