Missouri football bowl game: Projections, live updates from selection day

The time is here.

Mizzou football will find out its bowl destination during a live selection show on ESPN at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. The MU team is set to gather for a live viewing party in the South End Zone facility inside Memorial Stadium in Columbia.

The expectation: a New Year’s Six Bowl berth.

The Tigers (10-2, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) finished second place in the SEC East after reaching double-digit wins for the first time since 2014. The College Football Playoff committee has consistently given Missouri votes of confidence for a selection-committee bowl, ranking the Tigers at No. 9 for three straight weeks.

Saturday’s conference championship games did little to hurt the Tigers’ chances, either. No. 7 Texas handily saw off No. 18 Oklahoma State in the Big 12 title game, ending any chance of the Cowboys jumping the Tigers. No. 14 Louisville and No. 16 Iowa lost, too.

MU’s hopes of a Cotton, Fiesta, Orange or Peach Bowl berth seem well-founded. In the week leading up to Sunday’s announcement, experts tabbed Penn State and Texas as potential bowl opponents for Mizzou, although the Longhorns have now been confirmed as the No. 3 seed in the playoffs.

Sunday’s selection show will tell the tale, and will be streamed live on the videoboard at Mizzou Arena ahead of the MU men’s basketball’s game against Wichita State at 2 p.m. on Norm Stewart Court.

So take a seat and keep this tab handy. The Columbia Daily Tribune will provide updates on all major updates, rumors and projections as they come in on this page.

It's official: Mizzou football is going to the Cotton Bowl

Missouri vs. Ohio State is coming to the Cotton Bowl.

The Tigers and Buckeyes will head to Arlington, Texas, for the Dec. 29 matchup.

Last-minute projections

With a little more than 30 minutes to go until Mizzou finds out its bowl destination, outlets are shoring up their projections.

Here's where they stand:

The Athletic has Missouri in the Cotton Bowl for a matchup with Ohio State.

CBS has switched up on its earlier prediction, which would have agreed with The Athletic, and now has MU taking on Penn State in the Peach Bowl.

Action Network is sticking with Missouri and Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl.

So, plenty to choose from.

The next updates will come live from Memorial Stadium in Columbia, where the MU team is gathering for a live watch party.

CFP, Orange Bowl matchups set

Alabama and Texas will face Michigan and Washington, respectively, in the College Football Playoffs. Florida State and Georgia are the first teams out, as was announced during a selection show on ESPN shortly before noon.

And that means, according to a report from Action Network's Brett McMurphy, the Bulldogs and Seminoles are set to face off in the Orange Bowl, ruling out Miami as an option for Missouri.

Florida State, as the ACC champion, and Georgia, as the top-ranked SEC/Big Ten team not in the playoff, qualify for the Orange Bowl's criteria.

That leaves the Cotton, Fiesta and Peach bowls — or an increasingly unlikely NY6 snub — as options for MU.

Brett McMurphy projects Tigers-Ducks

Brett McMurphy has Missouri heading west, pitting the Tigers against the Oregon Ducks in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, on New Year's Day.

OU, quarterbacked by Heisman Trophy candidate Bo Nix, was on the verge of a playoff spot, but lost against Washington — for the second time in an 11-2 season — in the Pac-12 Championship on Friday night.

The last season Missouri went to the Fiesta Bowl — 1972 — was also the last, and only, time the Tigers played Oregon, defeating the Ducks 24-22 to open their campaign that year.

McMurphy updated his New Year's Six projections at about 10 a.m. Sunday, but Missouri's outlook remained unchanged.

No movement for Mizzou in AP Top 25

Missouri remained at No. 9 in the AP Top 25 when the latest rankings were released Sunday morning.

AP Top 25: Michigan is No. 1 for first time in 26 seasons, Georgia's streak on top ends at 24 weeks

There was plenty movement above the Tigers: Georgia is down five spots to No. 6; Ohio State is at No. 7; Oregon is a place above Missouri at No. 8.

Missouri football bowl projection from CBS

Now then ...

Jerry Palm of CBS is projecting Missouri football will head to the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 29 in Arlington, Texas, for a matchup with Ohio State.

The Buckeyes lost to Michigan in the final week of the regular season, ending any likely shot at a playoff berth. Coach Ryan Day's team is 11-1 and ranked No. 6 by the CFP.

MU and OSU haven't squared off since 1998, but if Palm's projections are correct, a mouthwatering tie in Dallas is in the offing.

National Football Foundation keeps MU at No. 9

For any anxious MU fans out there, yesterday's matchups haven't impacted the Tigers' rankings, at least in the eyes of the National Football Foundation.

Saturday's games couldn't have lined up much better for Missouri. All three teams with the potential to leap them in the rankings — Louisville, Iowa, Oklahoma State — lost in their respective conference title games.

The CFP is likely to follow a similar path as the NFF. That's good news for an NY6 Bowl appearance.

Tigers to Atlanta? Phoenix? ESPN torn

ESPN writers Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach have Mizzou heading in opposite directions.

Bonagura: To Atlanta and the Peach Bowl for a matchup with American Athletic Conference champion SMU.

Schlabach: To Phoenix and the Fiesta Bowl, where he has the Tigers facing Penn State.

If Bonagura's bowl projections are to be believed, Missouri would be pitted against the Group of Five team that has a reserved place in the New Year's Six bowls. SMU finished the season 11-2 after defeating Tulane for the AAC title on Saturday. Mizzou has never played in the Peach Bowl.

It's worth noting Liberty is currently the likely favorite to take the Group of Five's place in the NY6, as the Flames finished the season 13-0.

Penn State, on paper, might be the more appealing matchup for traveling Missouri fans. The Nittany Lions' only losses in a 10-win season came against Ohio State and Michigan. The Tigers' only trip to the Fiesta Bowl was in 1972.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Mizzou football bowl game: Projections, live updates from selection day