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Yeah, I hope it works out for him. Goodness knows he really wants the job. He's getting his pay cut more than in half for this. We've now learned that there is at least one coach in CFB that apparently isn't in it for the money, which is something I'd probably have never guessed at. But I respect him for doing what he wants regardless of the financial reality of it for him. I guess it is a bit easier when "cut in half" still means $270,000/year.

Kind of an odd deal. He probably could have gotten a decent FBS job after his performance this season, possibly even a major conference gig. You wonder if he just didn't want to have to change his recruiting footprint by moving out of the region. Also, you wonder if he just wants to be out of the spotlight. I say we should give Craig Kuligowski (our d-line coach) the call-up to DC. We really, really don't want to lose him, and I think a promotion would help in that regard as well as possibly being the best available option to keep good things going.

Stoops obviously shouldn't be fired...but some clearly think he is feeling the pressure. Interested to see if he bolts, with available jobs of the caliber of Michigan and Wisconsin. You have to think he'll be pursued, especially by Michigan. Also some slight concern that Pinkel could be on Michigan's radar. Don't know if there is anything to it though. He's aleady turned them down once before Rich Rodriguez was hired.

Well, Pinkel is SEC coach of the year. In other words, the folks who wanted him fired before the 2013 are probably trying to forget their stance on that.

We're gonna have some pretty confused fans if the Florida Gators and Ohio Bobcats show up instead of the 'Noles and Buckeyes.

Yep, it's the top bowl the SEC could have assigned us under the circumstances, so there is certainly no room for complaint. Minnesota is a very good opponent, who is going to be really excited to be in this big of a game. They are not a big name, but that really shouldn't matter. I too am looking forward to Texas/Arkansas. It might be two 6-6 teams, but both of those teams are likely contenders in 2015. Really, among the SEC affiliated bowls there is only one that doesn't sound exciting (ECU/Florida doesn't get me going) but the rest are great. Even the ones with 6-6/7-5 teams, like Tennessee/Iowa or A&M/WVU (scoreboards are gonna break in that one.)

So Missouri will play Minnesota in the Citrus Bowl. It's relatively winnable as January 1st bowl games go, but they're a good team with a great running back. Frankly, it's not a bowl that is going to draw a huge audience outside of the two fanbases......but it certainly has potential to be a fun game and go down to the wire.

I guess I'll root for Bama. Somewhat reluctantly, but they're the only choice in the SEC. I was hoping Baylor would get in. They're easy to root for. So.....Roll Tide? Roll Tide.

The Alabama/Ohio State game could be great.....Oregon/FSU, not so much. It would be a pretty massive upset if the 'noles somehow pulled that off.

Playoff/bowl selection starts here in about an hour. Here are my guesses: 1. Alabama vs. 4. Florida State (Sugar Bowl) 2. Oregon vs. 3. Ohio State (Rose Bowl) Why? First Ohio State was amazing last night, and should jump Baylor/TCU. Also big: that Oklahoma win is a big part of what both Big 12 contenders are hanging their hat on.....and Oklahoma is now only 8-4 with their loss against OSU yesterday. Second, in terms of seeding, I think they're gonna move it around so we get a traditional Rose Bowl. So FSU stays 4th while OSU jumps t all the way to #3 for that reason. As for the bowls, I think Missouri will end up in the Citrus, probably vs Clemson, maybe Louisville or Duke. Failing that, it will be the Outback or Music City. Arkansas is probably headed to Shreveport, against some 6-6 team from the ACC that they are gonna absolutely destroy.

Whether it was targeting by the books.....it was a dirty play, and it could have resulted in a serious injury for Blake Sims. He didn't deserve to keep playing in that game. I like Shane Ray, and it hurts to say that. But there is no place for a hit like that. Pinkel said it was the right call. I'll go with that.

Oh well. It's bama, and they're clearly a lot better than Missouri. I thought it might be closer.....but in the end this was the expected result. I'm not even upset. The Tide are just so much better than Missouri, and it showed. On to bowl season.

I'm the biggest Mizzou homer ever. But that was literally the definition of targeting. It was just a dumb play by Shane Ray. That said, the choice not to review the fumble was insane. Gary Danielson hates Mizzou, and even he thought that was bad. What was going on there? Nice TD to get back in it though. Keeping it interesting, at least.

Let's get this done. MIZ!

Yep. No one watches them much because they tend to play at weird times (being out west.......) but they are really, really good. They are probably the favorite.

Not sure who brought up cuddling....

We already have one NFL, and I don't want college to become a duplicate. I say just get rid of the game control fiasco and stay at four teams. Honestly, better yet just go back to two. It's not because I wouldn't love to have a real 8 (or even 16 team) postseason. As a fan, that's a dream come true. But you just can't ask these guys to play more games unless you are also offering to start paying them a substantial amount of money for that. Because with every game comes an exponentially higher risk of injury. The top teams already will have 15. If anything we need to look at reducing that.

The only thing that irks me is that we are below UGA. At this point the head to head result is basically meaningless. They blew their shot to build on that win while we went on a six game winning streak. I do think we deserve at least a top ten ranking with a win over 'bama, though.

Nothing happens to Winston from this hearing. Book it. It's only so FSU can pretend to care while all they really want is for him to suit up against G.Tech this weekend.

No. Sitting at #16, I don't think even nuclear-level chaos could get us in at this point. I think the only SEC team with any shot in the event of an Alabama loss is......still Alabama. And only then if several top teams lose. I agree with Al about the Baylor/TCU thing. Who cares about "game control"? No one knew that term existed until a few weeks ago when Jeff Long all of a sudden not only decided it was a thing, but the main thing we would be using to decide if teams play for a national championship. I don't care whether a team wins all of their games 63-0 or if it's always 10-7. A win is a win, a loss is a loss. End of story. They should look at the quality of a team's schedule, who they beat, and who they lost to. That's it. All this garbage about "watching them play" and the "eye test" to decide who's better is just that: garbage. We're missing the forest for the trees here: it should only matter whether you win a game, not whether you look pretty doing it. Even with all of that, I don't contend that Missouri should be in the serious playoff discussion. That loss to IU was just so bad. Even compared to the next-worse loss by a contending team (Ohio State to V. Tech) it's way worse because they missed a bowl game and didn't win a conference game until literally the last one of the season. The only thing that irks me is that Georgia stays ahead of us. I know they beat us by a million, but they have three losses, two of them "bad losses" and choked up a sure divisional title by getting trucked by a Florida team that otherwise wouldn't have made a bowl game. They have a lot more talent than Missouri, but I don't get why they're rewarded for being so inconsistent, especially late in the year. Whatever, though. Beat 'bama, get to the Orange Bowl. All of that's still out there, and completely under this team's control. If there is any Mizzou fan that wouldn't be beyond thrilled with that, I don't know what to tell them.

Eh, most of the teams in the east are playing opponents in the ACC the last week of the year, maybe rivalries, but they don't effect the conference standings at all. So I don't see a problem playing a team from the other division. As we saw from the Missouri side, there's still every possiblity of this game being very important for one/both teams on the last week of the season. A year or two from now it could just as easily be Arkansas needing to beat Mizzou for a division title- then I bet it will mean something. I don't like the name either, or trying to call it a rivalry after one game. I think it might get there, but not yet. Give it time, then call it a rivalry and give it a name if/when that actually makes sense. With that said, Arkansas and Missouri are programs that seem likely to be on pretty equal footing in years to come. It should continue to be an exciting, even matchup, with postseason implications as long as both teams hold on to their current coaches. If we keep playing on the last weekend long enough, eventually these two programs will start to circle that game and it will become a rivalry, whether we like it or not.

Chief, it doesn't matter how much Missouri wins....no one will ever give this program any respect. Based on interractions with them, fans of teams like Tennessee or A&M will tell you with a straight face that they were better than us this year, we just got lucky with the right schedule or with injuries or whatever lame excuse they can come up with. Mark my words: on the off chance we beat Alabama Saturday, it will only be because of some injury or lucky break or a bad call. No one will say it has anything to do with Missouri. It's all on us when we lose, but it's just some cosmic prank when we "scrap out a win" or whatever everyone calls it. Most teams get respect by winning. Missouri doesn't. When we win a division, it's because the division sucks. We're 10-2, and all you ever hear about is those two losses, never the ten wins. It gets tiring, but I'm well used to it by now. It was exactly the same way last year.

There were a couple questionable calls in the Mizzou/Arkansas game. I think the fumble recovery at the end was the right call, but overturning Maty's fumble to an incomplete pass in the first half was probably the wrong decision. I would have been fine with that call if it had happened on the field, but it's tough to say it as indisputable. I took it gladly, but I remember thinking at the time, "Man, I bet Arkansas fans are gonna be pissed about that one." But the last thing the SEC would want to do would be favoring Missouri. A Georgia/Alabama title game would have brought in much higher ratings and higher prestige than Mizzou/Alabama. That iffy call was just an example of a call you sometimes get when you're at home, and it probably goes the other way if we're in Fayetteville. At the end of the day, I know Alabama will get a few more calls than us in Atlanta. That's the benefit of the doubt you get when you've been the king of college football for what sometimes seems like an eternity. And this will basically be a road game for Missouri, given the nature of 'bama's fan base and the proximity to Atlanta. So they will just have to expect that and find a way to win anyway.

Goodness, and I thought us Missouri fans could be hard on our players. The reality is that Arkansas was supposed to be 4-8, 5-7 at best. No one outside of Fayetteville thought they had the faintest chance of getting even to 6-6. Don't know why this year would be seen as a disappointment.

Oregon's recruiting isn't actually that great when you compare them to other powers like Alabama, Florida State, etc. Their 2014 class was only #26 , and that's fairly typical. As much as I don't really like the Ducks, they are actually overachieving by a ton giving their supposed "talent" level. Shows how useless recruiting ranks can be if you have a good coaching staff that can evaluate talent and get the most out of it.