Some observations around the world of college football, served up in four quarter style.

But before I venture into my weekly thoughts, I would just like to take a minute to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I’ve enjoyed this first year on the Rock M Nation staff, and I hope you’ve gotten a little something out of what I’ve written throughout the football season. You might think a lot of what I produce is drivel, and I won’t effort to dissuade you from that stance, but at least you’ve read some of it, so for that I thank you! And thanks to everyone for chiming in with comments and giving me more things to think about.

With that, onto the weekly thoughts – with my Christmas wish listed for each category at the end. Legal Disclaimer: these views are my own and may be really dumb.

1st Quarter: Mizzou – Portal Makes Tigers Relevant in 2025

No disrespect to the 2024 Tigers, who still have a lot to play for in the upcoming Music City Bowl (more on that later), but the past week of activity in the transfer portal has me thinking eagerly ahead to next season already.

The portal floodgates didn’t open for Mizzou right away, but once the Tiger coaching staff got the tap turned on, it produced in a meaningful way. The past week was highlighted by nice additions at every level of the defense, several positions of need on offense, and of course, on Sunday evening the news filtered in that Drink got his QB for next year – Penn State transfer Beau Pribula.

With Pribula being a back-up at Penn State, he brings a lot of unknown with him. But by all accounts, everyone at Penn State that I’ve seen comment about him has been effusive in their praise for his leadership, his toughness and how he carries himself. Does that automatically translate to a 12-0 season for the Tigers in 2025? Of course not, but I like the highlights I’ve seen of him – especially how he performed in emergency duty in the second half of a road win at Wisconsin earlier this year.

With the addition of Pribula, who despite his back-up status, was largely coveted by numerous big-time programs, as well as the other portal hauls, the Tigers suddenly have put themselves in position to be relevant for the playoff chase in 2025. I didn’t feel that prior to this past week, but I do now and we’ve got the transfer portal – as maddening as it can be at times – to thank for that.

And the great news is that it’s not over yet!

Christmas Wish – Keep momentum rolling in the portal by nabbing another potential starter on the offensive line and defensive line.

2nd Quarter: SEC – Hoops Might Have to Carry the Day?

We must be living in bizzarro world, because the Southeastern Conference has suddenly become a basketball league! I think it’s more likely we’ll see the SEC win a basketball national title this year than a football natty – and when’s the last time anyone thought that?

The SEC had a fine football season, don’t misunderstand – I still think the league is best in the nation from top to bottom. But with only two teams left in the CFP field, the league might make its biggest impression on the hardcourt. Amazingly, eight SEC teams are currently ranked in hoops, including #1 Tennessee, #2 Auburn, #4 Kentucky, #6 Alabama and #7 Florida. And four others – including your Missouri Tigers – are on the verge of cracking the polls.

On the football side, for various reasons, the league’s reputation took a PR hit when it received fewer playoff participants than most everyone thought would be the case. And that left only three teams to defend its honor in the CFP.

Texas held up its end of the bargain and rolled to a fairly stress-free 38-24 home win over Clemson on Saturday. But after that, Tennessee got drummed 42-17 at Ohio State in a game where the Volunteer fans were way more into it than the team, unfortunately. Granted, I do think OSU is absolutely one of the best 5-6 teams in the country, so while there’s no shame in losing to them on the road, the Vols didn’t do any favors to the future profile of the SEC when it comes to getting more teams into the 12-team field.

Georgia had two weeks off to prepare and rest prior to their upcoming game with a red-hot Notre Dame team that has won 11 straight games. And they’ll likely have to face the Irish without their starting QB Carson Beck, who injured his throwing arm in the SEC title game against Texas. Yes, the Bulldogs managed to win a gut-check game against the Longhorns with their backup Gunner Stockton, but it’s one thing for a reserve to come off the bench in the middle of a game and be serviceable as opposed to Notre Dame having a week to study video and prepare a game plan. My hopes aren’t real high that Georgia will be able win this one, and the oddsmakers have installed Notre Dame as an early 1.5-point favorite.

I think Texas wins this weekend, while I fear Georgia will get knocked off, leaving only the Longhorns to represent the SEC. Yuck.

Christmas Wish – A natty on the gridiron, but only with Georgia. I still can’t find myself rooting for Texas just yet, you know? It’s a personal shortcoming I’m sure, but I just can’t do it.

3rd Quarter: National – CFP Provides Opening-Round Duds

There’s no other way to put it, the first weekend of the 12-team CFP was a dud. Four games, four blowouts, four home teams win (and cover) by double digits. That’s boring, especially after a year that seemed to give us so many upsets.

But, post-season football is different, and the cream tends to rise when the stakes are higher (Kansas City Chiefs, anyone?), and that’s what we saw this weekend. Four games where the clearly better team handled their business and advanced.

My fear going into the quarter final round this weekend is that the system that saw fit to give Boise State and Arizona State first-round byes will lead to at least two more blowout games. Boise plays Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl while Arizona State takes on Texas in the Peach Bowl. Both are double-digit underdogs, with Texas favored by 14 points, and Penn State by 10.5 at this time.

If the stupid auto-bye rule for conference champions hadn’t been in place, I feel like we would have seen more compelling first-round games with both Boise and ASU playing this past weekend. Clearly, any of the four teams who hosted in the first round (Notre Dame, Penn State, Texas, Ohio State) would have been more deserving of a first-round bye than those two – but they’ll have every chance to prove me wrong this weekend. Maybe they’ll shock the world, but I sure don’t see either of them winning.

And that’s not me trying to say they weren’t deserving to be in the tournament – they should be in the 12-team field no doubt – just not seeded where they were.

Christmas Wish – I hope the CFP powers that be make some quick corrections for 2025 and eliminate the auto-bye provision for conference champions. Give conference champs an automatic bid into the tournament, but let’s seed the teams based on merit next time.

4th Quarter: Dealer’s Choice – Music City Bowl is Big for Mizzou

Color me crazy, but I think the upcoming Music City Bowl is a huge game for the Missouri Tigers and Eli Drinkwitz’ program.

In this new era of college football, if you aren’t in the 12-team playoff, just how serious do people look at the non-playoff bowl games anymore? It’s a fair question, and then when you see the amount of opt-outs and transfers, it’s hard to put much stock into these games as anything other than exhibitions. For the most part, the teams taking the field in December are a far cry from what they were during the regular season.

All of that being said, I submit that Mizzou’s game next Monday against Iowa is huge for a few reasons.

The obvious take is that it sends guys like Brady Cook and Theo Wease and others out the right way. What they’ve done to help raise the profile of this program over the past several years is immense, and you just feel like they deserve to go out winners.

A 10th win would be big for Tiger fans too, with price increases coming in 2025. What’s a great way to incentivize your fans to overlook a significantly more expensive game day experience? Win a bunch of games. Winning this bowl game would be a boost to a fan base that can be a little fragile at times. Posting a solid dub over Iowa is just the ticket for keeping momentum going internally.

Further, a win would be an historical feat that gives Mizzou a second-straight double-digit win season. Obviously that hasn’t happened a ton in the Tiger program, so it would be a big deal in and of itself. But on the national scene, being able to tout that on the recruiting trails will only help complement Drink and his staff as they’re out there selling the program.

Conversely, a loss would do a lot of damage to the national storyline of this program. The Tigers have gained a lot of national respect over the past two seasons, even though it’s been a battle. I’d hate to see a poor performance against a very pedestrian Iowa team deflate the national vibes around this program. Because trust me, if Mizzou steps on a rake in this game, we’ll hear all off-season about how this team was nothing special and the Tigers will be back in the shadows of the national conversation.

Christmas Wish – Close out the 2024 season with fun victory over Iowa to send Brady Cook out with a win, and to set things up nicely for 2025.