Decision day is getting close.
In the middle of one of the busiest weeks of the college football calendar, Missouri football signed a 17-player Class of 2025 on Wednesday. The Tigers, according to head coach Eli Drinkwitz, will have conversations with prospective returning players this week about their future plans. The transfer portal, and all its typical hoopla, opens Monday.
And on Sunday, after the Tigers finished the 2024 regular season 9-3 last Saturday with a win over Arkansas, Missouri will learn its bowl destination.
Here is everything you need to know about Missouri’s current bowl projections, and when the Tigers are likely to find out where they’re playing:
Mizzou finished the season 9-3, making the Tigers eligible to play in a bowl game.
Missouri is likely to play in one of the six aptly named ‘Pool of Six’ bowls affiliated with the SEC. Those are as follows:
Those are as follows: The Las Vegas Bowl (Dec. 27, Las Vegas); the Liberty Bowl (Dec. 27, Memphis, Tenn.); the Music CIty Bowl (Dec. 30, Nashville, Tenn.); the Texas Bowl (Dec. 31, Houston); and the ReliaQuest Bowl (Dec. 31, Tampa, Fla.); and the Gator Bowl (Jan. 2, Jacksonville, Fla.).
The Tigers are likely too far back to get a berth in the Citrus Bowl, which takes the top-ranked SEC and Big Ten teams left out of the College Football Playoff field.
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Action Network — Music City Bowl vs. Iowa: Brett McMurphy’s latest projection for Mizzou on Thursday is a repeat of the Bowl That Never Was. Missouri was supposed to play the Hawkeyes in Nashville in 2020, but the game was canceled due to the pandemic.
The Athletic — Music City Bowl vs. Iowa: Ditto from Scott Dochterman and Stewart Mandel of The Athletic: Nashville on Dec. 30.
Sports Illustrated — Las Vegas Bowl vs. Colorado: Patrick Andres of SI has the former Big Eight foes meeting in Sin City. Eli Drinkwitz vs. Deion Sanders. Who says no?
CBS Sports — Music City Bowl vs. Michigan: Jerry Palm of CBS Sports has projected Mizzou and Michigan in Nashville in a Battle of Block Ms.
ESPN (1) — ReliaQuest Bowl vs. Iowa: Mark Schlabach of ESPN has Mizzou projected to face Iowa in Tampa on New Year’s Eve. Missouri has made a recent trip to the city for a bowl game, falling against Wake Forest in the Gasparilla Bowl in 2022.
ESPN (2) — Las Vegas Bowl vs. USC: Kyle Bonagura of ESPN has picked Missouri to play Southern California in Vegas. The Trojans, coached by Lincoln Riley, finished the regular season 6-6.
The 12-team College Football Playoff will be announced during a live selection show on ESPN on Sunday, Dec. 8. The show starts at 11 a.m. CDT.
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Shortly after the CFP field is announced, the Citrus Bowl will pick the top remaining team from the SEC and Big Ten for its matchup.
After that, the Pool of Six bowls, the conferences and each team’s athletic department will meet to discuss — and essentially negotiate — potential landing spots.
Bowl announcements will roll in throughout Sunday. You can expect to know the Tigers’ bowl destination early Sunday afternoon.
How is Missouri athletic director Laird Veatch going to attack Sunday’s discussions? He spoke to the media at halftime of the Tigers’ win over Arkansas last Saturday about just that:
“To me, the bowl experience is first of all about who you’re playing,” Veatch said. “And, so, it can be a meaningful game against a brand that you want to play against. And ideally, it can be a place or location our fans want to get to. Something warm is always nice. But in the end, it’s about the opponent.”
