Why Mizzou's playing Wake Forest in Tampa and not Kansas in Memphis
Let’s say this first: The difference between the Liberty Bowl and the Gasparilla Bowl (or the Las Vegas Bowl or Texas Bowl or Fill-in-the-blank Bowl) isn’t really all that much. Any online angst over it probably isn’t worth the energy it took to pound out on the keyboard.
Of course, that changes a little bit when Missouri and Kansas are involved. Because in that case, to steal a phrase, It Just Means More.
Missouri accepted a bid to the Gasparilla Bowl on Sunday afternoon. The 6-6 Tigers will face 7-5 Wake Forest, or at least some assemblage of players wearing both uniforms will face off on December 23rd in Tampa. In and of itself, that’s not a development worthy of much hand-wringing. But bowl week took on a little different tone when Brett McMurphy reported earlier in the week that the Liberty Bowl was hoping to stage a renewal of the Mizzou/Kansas rivalry on December 28th in Memphis until Missouri said no.
Missouri didn’t want to play Kansas, so the matchup will not happen, industry sources told Action Network.
The Jayhawks, who are making their first bowl appearance since 2008, were not opposed to playing the Tigers in a bowl, sources said.
Mizzou head coach Eli Drinkwitz gave a sort of answer on Twitter later that day. Drinkwitz met with reporters on Monday morning and responded to McMurphy’s claims. In fact, he ended his opening statement with an invitation to discuss the topic.
“I’ll open it up to anybody that wants to ask me great questions about reports from Twitterverse that are related to a guy having a bowl projection,” Drinkwitz said. “If that’s what we’re going to talk about, let’s get those bowl projections out of the way early.”
Schools submit their order of bowl preference to the league prior to matchups being set. These serve as guidelines, with the SEC and television networks ultimately having the most say on the matchups. Sources have repeatedly told PowerMizzou.com over the last couple of weeks that the main consideration for the Tigers was to play a bowl game prior to Christmas to allow players to spend the holidays with their families rather than preparing for a bowl game. The Liberty Bowl is being played on December 28th.
“I realize that bowl selection process is different from conference to conference and if you haven’t been in a bowl game in 12-15 years, maybe that thing’s changed for you. Maybe the way that’s done at other places is different,” Drinkwitz said. “We submit preferences to the conference based on a lot of different factors: What’s best for our University, what’s best for our fanbase, what’s best for our student-athletes and we don’t really factor anybody else in that.
“We take any bowl game that they’ll give us and whatever matchup they give us, they give us.”
Missouri and Kansas are set to renew their rivalry on the football field beginning in 2025.
“We’ll figure that out when the game is scheduled at Faurot Field, I believe that’s September 6, 2025,” Drinkwitz said. “Until then, I can keep getting all the Twitter hate people from Kansas want to put on me. Doesn’t phase me. We’ll see y’all on Faurot Field. Buy your tickets early.”
The Mizzou basketball team also hosts Kentucky on December 28th at the same time the Liberty Bowl kicks off. That’s been mentioned by some as a factor in the Tigers’ bowl preference. Director of Athletics Desiree Reed-Francois has not been made available to the media since the McMurphy report or since the announcement of the bowl matchups.
Very few teams express any discontent on selection day. Everyone says the right things about their postseason destination. It seems the Tigers really did prioritize the Gasparilla Bowl over others and perhaps it had nothing to do with the fact that the Jayhawks could be the opponent in one of those other games. Either way, in the order of selection for SEC teams, Missouri landed on the ladder’s lowest rung. It marks the second straight year that happened. Last year, the league had more bowl eligible teams than spots available. The Tigers were sent to the Armed Forces Bowl against Army, the lone conference team to fill a non-SEC affiliated bowl spot.
“I get that there’s an SEC six and all that, but it doesn’t phase me,” Drinkwitz said. “My goal is to be playing in a New Year’s Six game or in the playoff. After that, any bowl game that we get is a great opportunity for us to continue to finish our season in the postseason, which is what you’re playing for, opportunity to develop our team for the future.”
It’s easy to argue that Missouri ended up in a situation every bit as good overall. Like I said at the beginning, there’s not that big a difference between the Liberty Bowl and the Gasparilla Bowl. Six months from now, the only people that are going to know who won either one are members of that fanbase. And outside of a 200-mile corridor of Interstate-70, not many will probably care if the Tigers were in Tampa because that’s where they were always going to go or because they refused to go to Memphis. It’s a story for this week, but it will fade quickly away once the next thing to cause Internet outrage pops up (probably some time today related to the transfer portal).
There’s probably a bigger conversation to be had here about whether we really need to keep holding these tryout for next year bowl games between skeleton rosters and why the fans care more about them than the coaches, the players or the schools. I asked Drinkwitz about that on Monday morning.
“I would just say this is an opportunity for us to support the University of Missouri and our football program and you get to do it in a great location of Tampa,” Drinkwitz said. “Anything you do represents everything you do. Whether or not we’re in the Gasparilla Bowl or any other bowl game, our fanbase showing out is a great sign to our football team and future recruits of the support that they’re going to have while they’re here.”
So off to Tampa it is to watch whatever’s left of Missouri’s roster against whatever’s left of Wake Forest’s in a game everyone will forget about by the time Arkansas and Kansas kickoff the Liberty Bowl.
It’s bowl season! Catch the fever!
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