2014 Cotton Bowl: Missouri beats Oklahoma State, 41-31

Cotton Bowl wins for Missouri in the last seven seasons. The Tigers currently hold a strange distinction: they are the at this moment the last SEC team to win the Cotton Bowl and the last Big 12 team to win the Cotton Bowl (in 2007). But an even odder tidbit is this: Mizzou’s passing game, perhaps the most noteworthy aspect for both of those teams, stunk in each Cotton Bowl.

In the 2008 Cotton Bowl, a 38-7 win over Arkansas, quarterback Chase Daniel completed just 12 of 29 passes for 136 yards, an interception, and a sack. But Tony Temple rushed for a Cotton Bowl record 281 yards, and the Mizzou defense not only held Arkansas to 4.3 yards per play but also scored a touchdown of its own (a 26-yard pick-six by William Moore).

Dudes in the background look kinda disapproving, no?

Not OL Anthony Gatti, though. BEARDY DANCIN’

Cowboy wide receiver Josh Stewart went on to tie the game just 1:16 later, scoring from 40 yards out on a ridiculous catch-and-run.

The Tigers continued to lead by that score through most of the third quarter, despite Franklin’s erratic play and general ineffectiveness in moving the ball -- at one point, his stat line read 10-of-30 passing for 93 yards and an interception. In fact, after going up 17-7, the Franklin-led Missouri offense stalled in place, going three and out on three consecutive third-quarter possessions.

Jason Kirk [12:45 AM]:

ajkst1 [12:39 AM]:

On Friday, Oklahoma State and Missouri will take the field inside Cowboys Stadium. The stage will be big, and a handful of players will have their last chance to impress NFL scouts in game action.

Between the two defenses, there could be two first-round picks on the field Friday. Quietly, these two teams are deep with prospects ready to play at the next level.

Two old Big 12 rivals will meet up in the Cotton Bowl when Oklahoma State and Missouri will square off in one of the marquee non-BCS bowl games. Television coverage begins at 7:30 p.m. ET on Fox.

Oklahoma State started the season 3-0, but an upset loss to West Virginia seemed to end its season early. The Cowboys then won seven straight conference games, including blowout victories over Texas Tech, Texas and Baylor, and suddenly found themselves in the driver’s seat for a BCS bowl game. A loss to Oklahoma in the finale ended those dreams, however, and Oklahoma State now finds itself in the Cotton Bowl.

Old friends, winter companions, the old men … lost in their overcoats, waiting for the sun … the sounds of the city sifting through trees … settles like dust on the shoulders of the … old friends. -- Simon and Garfunkel

Missouri and Oklahoma State played each other 45 times as conference rivals before Mizzou’s move to the SEC, occupying a relatively similar space in the national landscape and rarely managing to be particularly good at the same time. In their five decades as conference mates, the two schools managed to finished ranked in the same season just three times (1997, 2008, 2010), though two of those three have come since head coaches Gary Pinkel and Mike Gundy assumed their current roles.

The Cotton Bowl pits two of the nation’s best bets against each other, as Missouri takes on former conference rival Oklahoma State.

Oklahoma State finished the season tied for second in the Big 12 with a 7-2 SU mark in conference play. The Cowboys ended their regular season on a down note, however, with a 33-24 loss to rival Oklahoma on Dec. 7 as a 10-point home favorite.

I want to play in a bowl game. Any bowl game. They all have good presents. I get that college football players are-- perhaps unfairly-- denied gifts of any sort until bowl season, but that haul is worth it. Those Missouri players just got an entire damn wardrobe for their trip to the Cotton Bowl.

And they appreciate it, too. Here are the top three Missouri player Cotton Bowl gift reactions in reverse order:

In mid-November, it looked nearly impossible that Oklahoma could find their way to a BCS bowl. Sure, they had wins over ranked Notre Dame and Texas Tech teams, but neither was looking quite as good as the numbers to the left of their names might have suggested. The only real challenges the Sooners faced were against Texas and Baylor -- both resulted in blowout losses.

But Oklahoma recovered, easily defeating Iowa State and Kansas State before pulling out a dramatic upset win in Stillwater to rob rival Oklahoma State of the conference crown while simultaneously taking away their BCS berth.

Michigan started the season 4-0, with tight wins over suspect opponents like Akron and Connecticut balancing out a win over a ranked Notre Dame. A four-overtime loss to Penn State ruined the team’s perfect record, and Michigan would end up losing to Michigan State, Nebraska, Iowa and Ohio State. The Wolverines will hope to get more consistent play on both sides of the ball against Kansas State.

Well, this isn’t exactly where either of these teams wanted to end up, is it? This is one of those situations where you have to decide whether you want to judge a bowl by its reputation or its matchup, because this is certainly a fun matchup.

The initial lines for every bowl game have been released, giving us a rough watchability index of sorts. Notre Dame opened as the biggest favorite among all bowl teams; the Irish are expected to dispatch Rutgers by at least three scores. And those two BCS bowl matchups you saw and figured will probably stink? Vegas agrees. Baylor is a 16.5-point favorite over UCF, while Alabama is favored by 16 over Oklahoma.

Here are the opening odds for each bowl game (courtesy of Odds Shark), ordered from largest to smallest spread:

The important thing to do when confronted by a set of 35 things is to rank them. Whether those 35 things are rankable things or events that have not happened yet, they must be ranked.

So we’ve polled 11 football fans on this year’s college football bowl schedule, with each giving a 1-to-10 rating on all 35 games. The full results are below, but first, some recognition for some of this year’s noteworthy matchups.