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1) As of today there is still no update on the NCAA situation. I checked with someone in the athletic department this morning. Missouri has heard nothing. That means there will be no ruling until at least next week.
And now we are getting to "this is the NCAA's worst nightmare" timing. Here's why:Mizzou should win its next two games (we'll talk about that later, but the Tigers shouldn't lose to Vandy or Kentucky). That means Missouri should go to Athens, GA at 7-1 to play a game for control of the SEC East. Missouri would likely be ranked around 15, knowing if it wins its next two games its winning the East and if it wins its next four, it's not only in line to play in the SEC Championship Game, but also to get a spot in the College Football Playoff (I'll lay out some different scenarios in a minute). And if there is no ruling prior to the Kentucky game and Missouri is 7-1 at that point, whatever happens to the Tigers becomes the biggest story in college football when it does happen.
Either a team that is 7-1 that everybody thought was out of the bowl picture is suddenly in it or a team that has a chance to play for the sport's biggest prizes is going to be denied that chance no matter what it does on the field. And that's the biggest story in the country either way.
I want to be clear that I don't believe the NCAA is sitting around waiting to see how Missouri's season goes before making a ruling. I truly don't believe that's the case, largely because I don't think the people involved in this process are rabid college football fans. I'm not suggesting a nefarious conspiracy theory. I'm just saying that by letting it take this long, the NCAA has put itself in a position where this is going to be a bigger story than it would have been if it had been done three weeks ago.
From Missouri's perspective, I actually think that's a good thing. Either it's "Yeah, we get to play in a bowl game" and the fanbase is incredibly fired up or it's "Can you believe the NCAA waited four months and we're sitting here with a legitimate chance to play for all the marbles and they stole it from us?" and the school might be able to take advantage of that and rally the fanbase around this team again.
2) Okay, so let's talk about the schedule. We're going to do this in three parts.
