Rece Davis, Pete Thamel evaluate Missouri's place as a College Football Playoff contender

Missouri is coming off one of their best seasons in program history after going 11-2 in 2023. Now, with an expanded playoff this year, 2024 could possibly be even better for the Tigers.

Rece Davis and Pete Thamel discussed Mizzou’s upcoming season during a recent episode of the ‘College GameDay Podcast’. Thamel started with his reasoning for the sense of optimism around them with their schedule. With just a few possible stumbling points, he circled only one or two games that could particularly get in their way of something great.

“I think part of the case for Missouri being a playoff contender is built through their schedule, which features a lot of the state of Massachusetts. Their Power Five, non-conference home game is Boston College. They open with Murray State. Then they have Buffalo in Columbia, they have Boston College in Columbia. Then they have Vanderbilt in Columbia. They’ll go to College Station on October 5th. Now, we’ll know a lot more about Texas A&M by then, right,” said Thamel. “That will be a very difficult game. But, if they get past that? They come to Amherst, Mass. – think about that for a second. An SEC team is going to play at the University of Massachusetts at McGuirk Stadium in Amherst. By then, we’ll know if these Missouri Tigers – Brady Cook, Luther Burden – are ready to compete in the SEC and be in this playoff conversation.”

“If they could go win at A&M and they come out of Mighty McGuirk with a win? Auburn visiting Columbia on October 19th could be like a seminal moment for that program,” said Thamel.

Davis agreed in regards to the slate for Missouri. They play an easier draw than others this season, especially considering the circumstances of where a few of their opponents are at as programs and where certain games will be played. That’s why, per the statistics going into the year, the Tigers have as good of an opportunity to have double-digit wins again as almost anyone in the SEC.

“They go (to Texas A&M) – new coach. They go to Alabama, I believe – new coach,” Davis noted. “Because of the schedule things that you have mentioned, a lot of their other difficult games, relatively speaking, are at home.

“Because of that and Bill Connelly’s SP+ and the odds of doing this or that? The odds of an SEC team going 10-2 or better – Georgia has the best odds and Missouri is next. A 63% chance that Missouri will go at least 10-2,” said Davis.

10-2 wasn’t good enough for the SEC Championship or the College Football Playoff in ’23. However, that won’t be the case in ’24, which is why the optimism can be justified in CoMo for kickoff this year.

“There are big things on the horizon for the Tigers,” Davis said.