A hot start to the 2025-26 campaign has now been followed by a cold finish. With only a hanful of games left, head coach Eliah Drinkwitz and the Missouri Tigers have already picked up their third loss of the season.
Despite starting the year consistently climbing the official AP Top-25 rankings, they've now fallen the last few weeks, and this time, won't even hold a ranked spot, according to the rankings. With the second College Football Playoff Rankings coming out early this week, don't expect Mizzou to make an appearance.
The loss exposed some of the biggest flaws that this Tigers team has, as they were simply obliterated by an undefeated Texas A&M team. It would have been nice to at least see true freshman quarterback Matt Zollers and the rest of the squad at least make this one interesting, but that wasn't the case.
The College Football Playoff is now realstically out of the picture for this hungry SEC Conference team, and they'll now hope for a high-end bowl game, as the season concludes in the next few weeks.
Apart from Mizzou, nine SEC programs cracked the list, with six of them appearing in the top-ten, the most of any conference. The Tigers did however recieve 59 votes towards a potential ranking, the second most this week, behind Tulane's 83.
The 6-3 Tigers, who's trio of losses have all come within the conference, did remain ranked in the official Coaches' Poll, falling slightly to No. 24 overall. Ten SEC teams appear in that list, again the most of any conference.
With a decent schedule still remaining, most noteably including red-hot No. 11 Oklahoma in less than two weeks, the Tigers have a plethora of opportunities to end the year on a high note, solidifying their spot in the top-25, and clinching a good bowl game, especially with the help of the inevitable weekly upsets across the country.
The result of the last few weeks is disappointing, but with some season left, the hope is that Drinkwitz and co are able to salvage this season, as they head into the next with some momentum.