The Morning Commute for Wednesday, February 19th
Welcome to the Morning Commute
Today we’re talking about the College Football Playoff. More specifically, what the future format could morph into, given some recent meetings held among the muckety-mucks running the show.
If you haven’t seen, meetings have been held this week with officials from the SEC and Big 10 conferences to lead the discussion about the future of the playoff. Popular convention has it that the leagues are pushing to expand the field from 12 to either 14 or 16 as early as 2026. In addition, one of the more controversial proposals coming down the pike would give both of these leagues four guaranteed spots in the tournament field each year, regardless of the size of the tournament.
Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports (a great guy who used to be the Mizzou beat writer at the Columbia Daily Tribune awhile back, if you weren’t aware), had a good piece on it here, if you want to read some more about the details.
Listen, I’m as big a honk for the SEC as anyone, but even I don’t think I like the concept of four guaranteed spots for any conference. And I clearly think that both the SEC and Big 10 are heads and shoulders above the other leagues in terms of quality from top to bottom. I just feel that in the vast majority of seasons, you’ll see the SEC earn four bids anyway, and quite often may put five teams – perhaps even six – in the bracket.
I know I complained a lot this past playoff about the current setup, but I thought the CFP selection committee did a great job picking the teams overall. Their hands were just tied with the seeding because of the inane mandatory bye for the top four conference champions. All that has to be done is take that auto bye component away and you’d have a playoff system that was much more fair.
On one hand, if the SEC was to get four auto bids, that would be a benefit to Mizzou, right? That means the Tigers would enter every season having a 4-in-16 chance of making the CFP (or 25%, according to my limited journalistically-trained math skills).
Even so, having guaranteed bids just doesn’t ring right to me and I can’t imagine the other conferences will sit idly by and allow that to happen without some kind of fight. Just how much juice do the other leagues have in this oncoming battle?
The proof, as they say, will be in the proverbial pudding.
How do you feel about the potential for guaranteed bids?
Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+
- Just who are the top candidates for breakout seasons this fall for the football Tigers? Dan Keegan examined this topic and you can read all about here…
Speaking of breakouts delayed by injury. Georgia transfer Darris Smith was earning rave reviews in camp last year, and possesses the kind of athleticism and versatility that makes Corey Batoon’s “joker” scheme work.
Reports from fall camp last year were very encouraging about Smith prior to his season-ending injury. If he can get back to full strength this year, it should be fun to watch him in action.
- Jumping into his positional analysis from 2024, Nate Edwards yesterday broke down the Tiger quarterback play…
After a mostly injury-free season of quarterback play in 2023, Missouri once again had to deal with a hobbled signal caller and it affected the overall quality of play in 2024. Whether you think he was injured all year (like myself) or just from the middle of the season on, Brady Cook was not nearly as efficient nor effective throwing the ball as he was the year prior, seeing dips in total yardage, touchdowns, completion percentage…basically everything except interceptions.
We’ve all said it time and again, it was a bit of a frustrating watch for Tiger fans last year, as the offense had so much talent but took so long to find its rhythm, but thankfully things clicked well enough down the stretch that the offense was a key to the 10-win season. Cook will be very tough to replace, as Nate explains, and not as much for his statistical acumen, as much as his gritty leadership…
- Rock M Nation is blessed to have an outstanding staff photographer in Cal Tobias, who brings all of us plenty of poignant pics throughout the year. Yesterday, he featured his top ten shots from the week that was…
Caleb Grill— already a fan favorite— showed out after the game to pose with the Antlers. And according to Sticklen & Sticklen Law Firm (who you might know from their Tre “Gomillions” ad,) Grill and the Antlers will star in an upcoming TV spot.
You’ll have to check out this Grill photo, it’s a hoot. And an upcoming Antlers TV spot? Oh boy, the possibilities are endless there…
- In Tuesday’s Morning Commute, Sammy Stava recapped updated rankings for Tiger hoops and gymnastics squads, who are both rising in the polls!…
Mark Mitchell played a huge role in Missouri’s 2-0 week with a career-high 25 points against Oklahoma, and he followed that with a 14-point performance at Georgia. You would think he would have been a contender for SEC Player of the Week, but that award went to Auburn’s Denver Jones.
- Over at Rock M+, we’re talking about lots of hoops topics, including an early look ahead at the ‘Bama game tonight, a thread with discussion about non-Mizzou games of interest, as well as a hoops-centric podcast that featured a special guest last Friday…
Rock M Radio: Big Game for Mizzou Tonight!
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