Oh Well...

Mizzou lost. Very disappointing, but Mizzou fans know how to handle disappointment. Though some of us do handle it better than others.

I find it hard to be disappointed for very long when the Tigers have given me the best season of Mizzou football I've ever experienced. By the time they send Mizzou off to the completely unsexy Cotton Bowl tomorrow I'll be fine with it. When your team is simply outplayed there is nothing to say, except "Congratulations OU. Now who and when do we play next so I can focus on that?"

I would like to thank Pitt for upsetting W. Virginia so Mizzou doesn't get the blame for Ohio State in the BCS Championship as is being widely predicted. In fact, we now return to the days of yesteryear when the polls by anonymous writers and, supposedly coaches, but often actually the sports information director, decide who is "the best in college football." The speculation will be endless on sports talk on all media forums. Ohio State and someone else is the most common prediction, but I'd like to see the writers and "coaches" just sit down and pick the two teams they actually do think are "the best in college football." With no playoff to pick a real champion, why not? The votes could split so wildly that it borders on a random choice. Then perhaps people will realize that the BCS is built to do one thing: guarantee a #1 ranked team plays a #2 ranked team. That is all it does. It doesn't choose "the best two teams in college football" any more than the polls used to choose a "national champion" before the BCS began. The bowl system was seen as preventing #1 from #2 from playing one another as conferences were locked into certain bowls. So they created a #1 vs. #2 game and a system to declare who those teams are. By the way, I would write this even if Missouri had won tonight. I have witnesses to my views on this system.

Who would I pick? Based purely on what I'd like to see on Jan. 7th, I think I'd pick USC and either LSU or Georgia. I'd pick LSU if I knew their players would be healthy again, but right now they are really beat up. I don't want to watch Ohio State, Florida, Oklahoma, Kansas (PLEASE NO!) or Virginia Tech. So I'll take the healthy SEC team and the team that has gotten healthy and once again looks solid.

Who do I want Missouri to play in Dallas on New Year's Day? The chart on ESPN says "SEC 3/4" and SEC standings have Georgia 3rd and either Florida or Auburn 4th, but, again, actual standings aren't the point. The decision will be about who hasn't been picked by the BCS bowls and who the white guys in funny colored jackets from the Cotton Bowl think will make them the most money. I'd kind of like to play a Georgia or Florida and see where Mizzou stands versus two good teams from what is the top conference in the country.

And now I retire for the night and dreams of football glory for my university. Dreams that once again reside in the ephemeral world of REM sleep. At least until next year... Go Tigers!

MIZZOU RAH!

Have already experienced one version of "the greatest Mizzou game of my life." I await the next one in a about an hour and a half. I have spent the week listening to the consensus that Mizzou will lose. We are ranked #1 in a game on a neutral field, but the bettors have put their money on Oklahoma. I have heard Ohio State fans have already booked hotels in New Orleans for the BCS Championship Game in anticipation that Oklahoma will win and restore some order to the traditional football powers universe. Having watched Mizzou lose to Oklahoma two months ago and watched them win every game since to even get to San Antonio, I am sure they can when this game. I am too much of a longtime Mizzou fan to actually say they will. I can promise you that if they do, I will be buying appropriate merchandise two days after Christmas when I visit my sister and her family and my brother who both live in Columbia. I will then sit in front of my lovely HDTV on January 7th in total shock with the DVR running so I can convince myself later that it actually happened. If the Mizzou Tigers are playing for the BCS trophy in January, I will expect other miracles to soon follow. Such as.... George W. Bush and Dick Cheney resign after a visit from Billy Graham shows them the error of their ways. President Pelosi immediately begins our withdrawal from Iraq and a change in Afghanistan of building the country first not bombing the guys we hire to build the country. My brother Larry will tell me he will vote for a Democrat for president even if it is Hillary Clinton. My sister Janet will decide she likes football. My friend David begins to make optimistic predictions of success for the Democrats and the overall improvement of the human condition.

I will be yelling loudly from my TV room for my beloved Tigers. As an undergraduate I was in the crowd when the Tigers shutout a Barry Switzer coached Oklahoma team. I still have the headline from the next day's paper with the picture of the goal posts going down. I skipped that, but did go on the field and congratulate a few large, exhausted young men. I would love to be in San Antonio tonight to yell myself hoarse in the latest "biggest game in Mizzou history."

Here's to having another "biggest game in Mizzou history" in a little over a month.

Go Tigers! Beat OU!