Which bowl game might they play?

Publish date: 2024-05-02

COLUMBIA, Mo. – For the first time in nearly a decade, the Missouri Tigers are a 10-win team. Mizzou Football also appears positioned for a New Year’s Six bowl bid.

Capping their regular-season slate with Friday’s 48-14 rout over the Arkansas Razorbacks, Mizzou is now preparing for their 36th bowl game in program history and likely their first considered to be a NY6 matchup.

Since the start of the 2014 college football season, NY6 contests have represented a subdivision of college football bowl games that are played annually on or around New Year’s Day. These matchups carry rich tradition, representing six of the ten oldest college football bowl games at the FBS level.

Cody Schrader runs for 217 yards and a TD, No. 9 Missouri beats Arkansas 48-14

The New Year’s Six Bowl games include: The Cotton Bowl Classic, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl, Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl.

Two of the aforementioned matchups pit the College Football Playoff committee’s No. 1-4 ranked teams against each other in a small bracket format each year. The other matchups are largely based on each team’s CFP ranking. FBS football programs considered among the Top 12 in the nation have strong odds at these games.

Mizzou entered the weekend as the No. 9 ranked CFP team. There could be some movement as conference championships unfold next week, but there’s a good chance Mizzou will stay around their current CFP rank.

What does this all mean? For one, Mizzou will not get a bowl game that’s recognized as a CFP semifinal matchup. Essentially, Mizzou will not be an opponent in the Rose Bowl or Sugar Bowl this season.

That leaves four potential NY6 bowl games open: Cotton, Fiesta, Orange and Peach.

As of Saturday, what do college football aficionados project for Mizzou?

There’s a large consensus that Mizzou will earn either a Cotton Bowl or Peach Bowl bid. Most projections also call on Mizzou to face the Penn State Nittany Lions or Texas Longhorns, ranked No. 11 and No. 7 by CFP heading into the weekend.

The Cotton Bowl is set for 8 p.m. CT on Dec. 29 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The Peach Bowl is set for noon CT on Dec. 30 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.

There is a chance perhaps Mizzou could be assigned a bowl game outside of the NY6, but their recent momentum and CFP rankings give them strong odds at one of the classics. More than 40 bowl games, plus the College Football Championship, are scheduled from mid-December to early-January. For a closer look at each bowl game for this college football season, click here.

Also noteworthy, the Tigers have experience in the Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl and Fiesta Bowl stages. Their most recent experience among the ones now considered a NY6 game was in January 2014, a 41-31 win over the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

NOTE: All rankings in this article are referencing the CFP rankings that were released on Nov. 21. Rankings may vary from those from the Associated Press, which releases rankings every Sunday. That said, the final CFP rankings prior to bowl selections will be released on Sunday, Dec. 3.

Close ModalSuggest a Correction

ncG1vNJzZmien61%2Fr7vWZ5qopV%2BovbC%2B06xmnKecobKosY6moLOyn6p6p7vOrZmapJxivbC10p6bZp6fp3qvsdZmsJ6Zoqh6tLXXZpminF2staqvx2aZqK%2BcYrSiucRmpKKfmKl6tbTEsmSppJGufA%3D%3D