COLUMBIA, MO. — For the third straight year, the Mizzou football team was relegated to a bowl beneath its perch in the Big 12 order when it accepted a bid Sunday to the Texas Bowl to play Navy on Dec. 31.
And, yes, MU coach Gary Pinkel and Mizzou administrators are agitated by the free-form system that allowed Oklahoma (7-5), Iowa State (6-6) and Texas A&M (6-6) to be awarded bowl assignments before MU (8-4).
"The process in the Big 12 has really been frustrating; I also don't think this is really the appropriate time (to comment on it)," Pinkel said. "That's a conversation and discussion (for) a later point. I'm real excited about this game and feel real good about it."
And why not?
For the third straight year, the Tigers might be better off for the dissing — even if the official $750,000 payday is nearly $500,000 less than it would have been for the Insight Bowl ($1.2 million).
"In many, many ways," Pinkel said, "this certainly works very well for us."
For starters, MU's school-record fifth straight bowl appearance also will mark its fourth straight in Texas — a key recruiting ground for MU and home to a large alumni base.
Houston also offers easier and more economical travel options for fans than Arizona would have, as well as accessibility for families of current players from Texas.
"It will be my biggest moment, I think," said linebacker Sean Weatherspoon, who is from nearby Jasper, Texas.
And unlike the Insight, to be telecast on the subscription-based NFL Network, the Texas Bowl will be telecast nationally on ESPN.
Then consider the match-up.
Instead of playing Minnesota (6-6), which lost to the 3-9 Illinois team that MU beat 37-9, Mizzou will take on the Midshipmen in their first meeting since the 1961 Orange Bowl with President John F. Kennedy looking on.
The Middies are 8-4 entering this week's Army game.
"Someday when I retire from coaching ... I'll go to that game, because we all know what that game is all about," said Pinkel, who called playing a service academy "a great honor."
And probably a great challenge. Navy beat Notre Dame and nearly upset Ohio State in Columbus before falling 31-27. Its signature is an unusual triple-option offense that has been racking up 280 rushing yards a game — third in the nation.
As for the idea that the process continues to be unfair to MU (particularly vexing: see Mizzou to Cotton Bowl, Kansas to Orange Bowl in 2007), athletics director Mike Alden said Saturday that it would be "valuable" to talk to the Big 12 further about different models and tweaks to the system.
The Big Ten, for instance, doesn't allow its top four non-BCS bowl affiliates to pick a team that has two fewer wins or two more losses than another eligible team. Thus, they couldn't pick a 6-6 team over an 8-4 team.
But the Big Ten situation isn't a panacea. The Insight Bowl is No. 5 on the league's list of non-BCS affiliates, so it has no such restriction.
Meanwhile, Pinkel knows there's no benefit to moping about it now — and that he won't make it a rallying point.
"I don't know if that's real wise," he said.
As for his message to indignant fans?
First, he remarked on the tremendous support that included about 65,000 for home games this season and some 30,000 at the Cotton Bowl in 2007.
By the same token, the traveling numbers weren't as impressive for the Sun (2006) and Alamo (2008), and he challenged fans to help change the culture by getting over their frustration and going to Houston.
"You have to travel well to bowls; that's part of the deal," Pinkel said. "Bowl reps call other bowls and say, 'How did Missouri travel?' And they've got all the numbers, so that is a huge factor."
Being picked last or not ...
"You're going to a bowl to watch your Missouri Tigers play," he said. "That's what it's about."
