Hi fans. Would you mind gathering around and having a seat? Are you sure I can’t get you a soda? Okay, okay. Look, this isn’t an easy conversation to have. I don’t really even know where to start. Oh no, please don’t be scared. You’ll be just fine. Let me get you a soda. Are you sure?
 
I guess the only way to do this is just come straight out with it. Sometimes, after a number of years, a program and a basketball coach decide it’s best to stop seeing each other. This doesn’t mean that we still don’t love each other very much, and please know that we will always love you. This isn’t your fault. In fact, it’s not anybody’s fault. Sometimes a coach and a program just drift apart. We’re still your team. We’ll just be living in different cities. That’s all.
 
Are you sure you don’t want a Dr. Pepper? You love Dr. Pepper. Okay, I just want you to be comfortable. Okay, look. Here’s the thing. When we got together, a lot of people said we wouldn’t work, but we were young and in love, and we had a dream of great basketball for years. So, it didn’t quite work out that way, but look it wasn’t all bad. We got you guys, and I wouldn’t trade that for the world. What kind of fans would brave icy frigid roads to watch a sub-500 basketball team get beaten by Eastern Illinois at home? You’re the best fans anyone could ask for, and we will always love you.
 
So here’s what’s going to happen and I don’t want any fighting about this. You’re going to have to live with your team and Kim is going to move out. You’ll still get to see him on weekends and at NAIA events, but you’ll be staying right here in your old arena. You may see a few lawyers come go over the next few weeks, but don’t you worry about that. Let the program and Kim take care of that boring old stuff.
 
What’s that, honey? You want to know if the program has been seeing other coaches? Look, fans, this isn’t the time to worry about all that. Why don’t you just have a soda and relax. After all of this mess settles down, it’s very possible you’ll see some new men come around in nice suits. I’d like you to be as nice to them as possible. They will probably try and tell you lots of nice things and make big promises to win you over, but remember, no new coach will come into this house until your program is absolutely positive that it’s the best fit for you guys.
 
I know, I know. You’ve dealt with some bad decisions and some bad guys in the past. Mike lied to us and left us for an old program from his past. Everybody told us not to get involved with Frank. That he would just break our hearts. But look, we were desperate and afraid we'd be all alone. He took advantage of us and left us in pretty bad shape. This time, it’s different. Kim’s a good guy… he’s just not the right guy for us, together. Please keep rooting for him. But for now, just lean back, have a soda and know that eventually, we’ll find the right man and things will be alright again.
 
 
 
 

Listeners of the Mizzodcast will know that we love the new playoff system and you do too. It is 1,000 times better than the BCS. That’s not to say that there aren’t improvements that could still be made. We all agree that four teams is great, but more would be better. However, we disagree from many who want an eight team playoff system. What we advocate for when we talk to the college football powers (which is regularly as they are our good friends), we push for a six-team playoff.
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Six teams makes more sense for a number of reasons, however the biggest is what made the BCS somewhat tolerable – it makes the regular season important. In an eight-team playoff, this year Wisconsin would be getting creamed by Alabama in the first game. Boring. Also, we’d be letting a three-loss team and three teams from the Big 10 in the playoff.

The benefit to this system makes being ranked number 1 or 2 really important. You get a bye from the first round of games, increasing your chances of making the national championship game exponentially. We are rewarding those two teams for playing really well in the 13 games leading up to this point. Having a basic eight-team playoff offers no such reward and it really doesn’t matter where you’re ranked. Just get in and you’ve got a punchers chance (ask Ohio State from the first year. They snuck in as number four and won the whole thing). Six teams also ensure you get, at a minimum, the top two teams in the playoffs. If Ohio State was left out this year by being ranked fifth, then many would say the best (or second best) team in the country wasn’t even in the playoff. Six teams make it next to impossible to keep the top team out of the playoffs. You’re guaranteed to get the three best teams in with some argument about the other three. Further, if you are the number seven team, then shut up. It probably means you lost three games and you don’t deserve anything.
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Let’s play out our new six-team playoff. 

Penn State fans seem to be the only ones who don’t realize that Ohio State was deserving of making the top four, but here’s their chance to prove everyone wrong. In our playoff, they match up against Washington and Ohio State plays Michigan in what would be a really fun rematch game. (The last time they played, they went to double overtime and then I believe the refs won the game according to Jim Harbaugh)

In our rematch, the Wolverines win the game 28-24 after Harbaugh ran on the field and was not flagged with a 15-yard penalty because the refs were afraid of him. In the Penn St./Washington match, up you have a solid, untested, Big 10 team whose best wins are Ohio State and Wisconsin, vs a solid, untested, Washington team whose best wins are against Colorado and Washington State.  How exciting! Personally, I think Penn State is overrated, so in this scenario we’ll give the edge to Washington.
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In reality, these two “play-in games” are coin flips and I think you could easily see no change from the current four teams, but in the meantime you’ve given us two interesting games to watch before the really good bowl games get started after Christmas. 

In the next round, our two really well rested top seeds square off against Washington and Michigan. Here’s where the fun really begins. Alabama is going to prove that number one ranking by just destroying Washington. The end score may not show it, but this game will be one-sided. Alabama will move on to the national championship.
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On the other side of the bracket, Clemson and Michigan will be a really good game. Clemson has one of the best offenses in college football, and they’ve been forced to play in tight games all season. While Michigan has struggled against teams they frankly shouldn’t have. They only beat Wisconsin, Michigan St., and Indiana by less than two scores. Michigan will be good next year, but Clemson is good right now. In the end, I believe you’ll see the matchup that is to be expected in the actually national championship this year – Alabama vs Clemson. And we’ll sum this game up quickly: Alabama is the best team in the country. Period.

​So that’s it. A six-team playoff that featured some really interesting match ups. Most importantly, you got the best teams in a playoff and kept the regular season intact. Additionally, at the end of this playoff there is no one in the country than can say "Well, our team would have won the championship if we had gotten in." If anyone does say that it, means they were ranked 7+. I don't care who you are, you weren't "screwed" if you were ranked 7th. Win a few more games next time. Actually, that brings one downside to this: no one can complain.

After Tennessee captured the first ever Champions of Life award, it is too early to tell who will be the 2017 Champions of Life. For those of you who do not know, at the end of the regular 2016 season, Butch Jones declared his team not champions of college football, or the SEC, or the SEC East, but instead Champions of Life (frankly a well-deserved honor having just failed at, well, everything else). This has given rise to a new award that we at the Mizzodcast have decided to make an annual one. Forecasting next year’s SEC Champions of Life turned out to be way too difficult. There are just too many contenders. Rest assured, all but one of these teams will retain their proud honor of Failures at Life. Below are the Championship front runners going into the off-season.

5. Kentucky
After a (rather surprising) decent 2016 season the Kentucky Wildcats will play something other than basketball in December! in other words, they made a bowl game. This sets up well for the 2017 Champions of Life as the easiest way to win the award is to fall completely flat with high expectations. Kentucky fans will undoubtedly be excited for the 2017 season; however we’re counting on the more rational ones to tamp down any thought of an SEC East/SEC title. That sanity may cost them the Champions of Life title though.

4. Mississippi (The State of)
Normally the designation “Champions of Life” is given to a team that failed miserably after high expectations, but cannot cope with that failure. However, after finishing last in the SEC West, both Mississippi schools are set up well for 2017. Without a doubt in the offseason you’ll start to hear comments like “We expect a break out year” or some other BS that gets fans excited. Once the games get going though, we’re more likely to see results similar to this year.

3. Arkansas
Similar to Georgia, Arkansas really had a strong showing in the 2016 Champions of Life matchups. The real difference has been the fact that their fans understand their team is not an SEC powerhouse (compared to Tennessee where their fans feel like they just won the SEC last year – even though they didn’t). At 3-5 in the conference, their road to the Champions of Life is going to be a difficult. We cannot overlook our friends to the south though. They had high expectations going into the year and could have similar ones going into next year.

2. Georgia
If not for Tennessee, Georgia may have been the 2016 Champions of Life. Lots of hype heading into 2016 with a new coach, followed by really bad football is usually an easy path to win the Champions of Life. They will have a tough road to the Championship though as, despite going 7-5 overall, their 4-4 conference record from this year may have the ability to be improved. That potential improvement, combined with an unrealistic fan base puts them in the number two spot for the pre-season 2017 Champions of Life.
 
1. Tennessee
With such a strong showing in 2016, Tennessee remains the early favorite for the 2017 Champions of Life. There is zero doubt in our mind that August 2017 will feature predictions from Tennessee fans and coaches for Tennessee to win the East and the SEC. That kind of hype can really put your team in a good spot to win the Champions of Life. Some real roadblocks lay in front of the Vols though, mainly their poor showing in 2016. It is difficult to win this award back-to-back for that reason. You really have to fall off your high horse to become the Champions of Life. We have every bit of faith in Tennessee though.

Mizzou has the mumps. Current estimates has the total number hovering around 200 and most University officials are just hoping to get through finals to send these contagious kids back to their parents. While many news outlets have reported on the outbreak, few have taken time to determine its cause. As not-journalists, we at the Mizzodcast find this kind of laziness unacceptable. Therefore we have narrowed down the outbreak of the mumps to three potential sources:

3. Mizzou’s Defense
After a terrible season, it would stand to reason that Mizzou defense needed to take an edge off. While drugs are strictly prohibited by first year head coach Barry Odom (a major policy shift from the last few years under Pinkel) the team was forced to seek alternative methods of taking their minds off the 4,738 missed tackles from 2016. In their search for coping mechanisms, the team clearly made poor decisions. They concocted a plan where they would get some kind of virus so they could have access to “drugs” to fix the illness. Unfortunately, no one was there to tell them that things like antibiotics do not have the same effects as marijuana or cocaine. We blame the departure of Matty Mauk for that basic lack of understanding of narcotics.

2. Kim Anderson
If it were not for the mumps, the main story at MU today would be the terrible state of the basketball team. The team dropped a game to NC Central (which after confirming with the internet, we discovered is a real college). The team currently sits at 5-4, but two of the wins came by 5 points or fewer against teams you don’t want me to say or you’ll get angry. We suspect that Coach Anderson may have released the virus on campus to hide the fact his basketball team isn’t any good. If this is the case, we have to give the man credit. The poor performance of his team has reduced the number of fans at games to a ridiculously low amount. Combine that with a mumps scare and no one wants to come to campus to watch the Tigers play. No doubt he’s hoping this will allow him to coach an extra year. We’re on to you, Kim.

1. Kansas
While other theories have to be considered, it is safe to say that Kansas is the most likely culprit of the mumps outbreak. In 2006, Kansas had more than 500 cases of the mumps. Considering the lack of basic health care in the state (or any government provided basic services for that matter), it is highly possible that the virus lay dormant waiting for the right opportunity to cross the border in to Missouri. In January of 2016, mumps was reported by Kansas State University, then less than a year later it showed up in Columbia. We’re going to guess that a humanitarian relief team sent from Missouri to the Kansas disaster wasteland accidently contracted the disease and brought it back to campus. Just like when doctors responded to the Ebola outbreak in Africa, Missouri sent our best - um... most expendable - people to Kansas to try and provide average Kansans relief. That effort has clearly failed as the mumps has hit central Missouri hard. 

Are you ready for some really terrible football? It is bowl season! Which means ESPN will be shoving some really terrible football teams down our throats and pretending they are amazing matchups. For example, the first bowl game of the season kicks off on Saturday. Who’s playing? NC Central and Grambling State. I’ve got $10 that says they advertise this game as some big deal since it’s the first one, except it’s between two teams that absolutely no one in the country should care about. But hey, that’s bowl season! If there’s one thing to be said about these games, it is they can unexpectedly be fun to watch. Not because they are quality, but because they aren’t. Late turnovers that decide games, overtime in a game that was begging to be won, and blowouts are all to be expected.

Here are a couple of games that “should” feature actual quality or the matchup is at least interesting:

Las Vegas Bowl - Houston vs. San Diego State (Saturday, Dec. 17)
Remember when Houston beat Oklahoma and we all thought they were going to compete for the national title? Ha. That was funny. They ended the season by BEATING Louisville and then LOSING to Memphis! Who is this team?

Valero Alamo Bowl - (12) Oklahoma State vs. (10) Colorado (Thursday, Dec. 29)
How is there a Big 12 match up in a bowl game? I thought bowls were supposed to be across conferences. What’s that? Colorado isn’t in the Big 12 anymore? Could have fooled me. This game represents the first top 25 matchup on the calendar which signals we’re getting into the good part of the bowl schedule.

Capital One Orange Bowl - (6) Michigan vs. (11) Florida State (Friday, Dec. 30)
Time to find out if Michigan and the Big 10 is any good. This game has all the makings to be a blowout assuming Michigan fans were right and their team was deserving to be the playoff. Michigan fans cant be wrong, can they? Florida State has been up and down all year. Michigan has paid $9 million to a coach to get to this spot.

Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl - (20) LSU vs. (13) Louisville (Saturday, Dec. 31)
I’m not sure there’s a bigger difference in styles in a bowl game. Louisville’s high powered offense will meet an SEC defense. I’m excited to see the result. Also, can Louisville stop a real running game?

Rose Bowl Game - (9) USC vs. (5) Penn State (Monday, Jan. 2)
Penn State was screwed, is something that someone from Penn State would say. If that’s true, then they better put a beating on USC, because if this game is close or USC wins, all that argument about being screwed goes out the window.

Goodyear Cotton Bowl - (15) Western Michigan vs. (8) Wisconsin (Monday, Jan. 2)
Western Michigan went undefeated this year! BUT… Remember that Eastern Michigan team the Mizzou crushed? Western won 45-31. Not exactly dominant. Their best win was against Northwestern. Now they play a real football team. Wisconsin had better win and decisively. Western Michigan has no business in the Cotton Bowl. This game is the classic power conference team vs undefeated nobody. Can they be the Boise State of 2017?

Allstate Sugar Bowl - (14) Auburn vs. (7) Oklahoma (Monday, Jan. 2)
The SEC was down this year, but by how much? This game will help to determine just that. After a mediocre non-conference win/loss record during the last regular season, the SEC came storming back and went 8-2 in bowl games. This is a fun match up because both teams have that hot/cold thing going on.

PlayStation Fiesta Bowl - (3) Ohio State vs. (2) Clemson (Saturday, Dec. 31)
Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl - (4) Washington vs. (1) Alabama (Saturday, Dec. 31)
And the last two games should go without saying. The playoff is going to fun to watch. Ohio State has a lot to prove, but so does Clemson. Washington will most likely just hang on as long as they can, but either way, I’ll be watching. Also, PlayStation Fiesta Bowl? It will forever be the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in my mind. That was bowl/sponsor match up that I could actually respect because it made sense. I guess PlayStation outbid Xbox? Have some self respect Fiesta Bowl.
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For a great guide of what games to watch and which to avoid check out SBNation's post. We highly recommend it.

Here are the Mizzodcast's biggest Mizzou disappointments of the 2016 season. 

1. Mizzou’s Defense
What the hell happened? Mizzou had one of the best defenses in SEC and the country and last year. A drop off from that dominance was to be expected. It’s hard to maintain playing at that level forever. However, going from one of the best (6th overall) to one of the worst in one year is crazy. And when we say one of the worst, we mean it! We were ranked 117 out of 128 in total defense at the end of the regular season – dead last in the SEC. The craziest part though is why. That is what no one can seem to figure out. (Although plenty point to Cross and Odom.) Sure we lost a few good players, but who knew losing Kentrell Brothers would be responsible for a 111 spot drop in the rankings? That’s right. Our defensive ranking went from number 6 to number 117 in one year. Disappointing is probably an understatement here.

2. Mizzou’s Wide Receivers
Their stats look good this year. More than 3,500 total receiving yards, 14 receivers averaging more than 10 yards a catch, and six different receivers had 100+ yard games. Moore had a 1,000 yard season and eight touchdowns. BUT… the stats not counted meant more: drops. Drops are not a stat that is kept by anyone. Probably because it is hard to determine in a clear manor, but that’s stupid. We’re just guessing, but we counted approximately 247 drops this season. If we had a dime for every time Moore dropped a pass in a big situation, we could buy the Rams and move them to Columbia. (Not that we would, because screw them.) Half of Moore’s touchdowns came against Delaware State. And what happened to Chris Black? He started the season with six catches, 102 yards and one touchdown. Then didn’t play in five of the remaining 11 games?

3. Kansas
This year was disappointing for Mizzou fans all around and I think I speak for all of us when I say I’m the most disappointed in Kansas winning two games. Even more disappointing was that they won a conference game. Beating Rhode Island I can let slide simply because I’m pretty sure Rhode Island doesn’t have a home field or practice facility. But beating Texas is painful. I prefer my Jayhawks depressed until December’s basketball season, not “Hey, did you see we beat a real team?” excited in November. To make matters worse, both their wins were at home and their fans were able to storm the field. Granted, it’s funny to watch Kansas fans storm the field after beating Rhode Island, but it isn’t as fun to watch them do the same thing against Texas. WTF Texas? Why do you have to do this to us?

4. Mizzou's Kickers
All of our kickers suck. I understand that it is difficult, and if you miss a couple of 30+ yarders I’ll look the other way. So let me just check how many over 30 we made this year… click, click, click. three. Wait, THREE?!? We made six field goals and missed 12. I’m not sure how I feel about the fact that we didn’t even attempt a field goal under 20 yards. Four teams made fewer field goals than we did this year. FOUR... In the entire country. At least we didn’t miss an extra point. Oh wait. We missed six! SIX!!!! Each of our three kickers missed an extra point. If you missed one, I could maybe, MAYBE, forgive you, assuming it was blocked. When you miss six in one season, that’s ridiculous. Why didn’t we let Fatony kick this year?

5. Corey Fatony
Speaking of Fatony. It PAINS me to put our boy Corey on this list, but I have to. Corey only had one game with 10 punts. Only one! There were two games where he touched the ball less than two times and in one game he only had 45 yards punting. 45! Just such a drop from last season. In 2015, Corey punted for 3,477 yards; in 2016 it was 2,894. In 2015, Corey averaged 26 yards rushing; in 2016 he averaged 0. Here at the Mizzodcast we do not reward mediocrity! Next year we expect you to do better, Corey. We will give credit where it is due. His passing rating jumped this year from 0.0 in 2015 to 192.4 in 2016. Clearly in the offseason he had been working out his arm and not his legs. 

Now that the regular season is over, everyone is asking themselves who deserves to be in the playoff. We could spend hours talking about Ohio State, but everyone is doing that. So let’s stay local and talk about the SEC. The goal here is to give you a bunch of facts and let you come up with your own opinion. This is different from most of our posts where we tell you how we’re right and if you disagree, you're wrong.

It clearly has been Alabama at the top of the SEC this year. They are the only team not to completely fall on their face in multiple games. In fact, they haven’t even stumbled once this year. The rest of the SEC just hasn’t compared. So the difficult thing to tell is how good in the rest of the SEC? Is Alabama just lightyears ahead of the entire country, so by comparison the rest of the SEC looks mediocre, or is the rest of the SEC actually mediocre? The SEC East was literally begging teams to win it, but it took Florida finally winning a big game against LSU to accomplish that (something Tennessee couldn’t do). Only two teams have fewer than three losses in the SEC and only one has more than nine wins. Is that parity or just bad football teams? The AAC and Big Ten have five nine-win teams, the ACC has four, the Big 12 and Pac 12 have three, and the Mountain West, Sun Belt, CUSA and Mid-American have two.

Let’s look at the games against non-conference opponents. Alabama and Kentucky had the best wins against non-SEC opponents this year, beating USC (9-3) and Louisville (9-3). Georgia and Vanderbilt had the worst losses (excluding Missouri's disapointing Middle Tennesse loss); both were against Georgia Tech (8-4). Two of the SEC's losses against the ACC have come against Clemson which looks like one of the best teams in the country. In fact, three teams beat the SEC twice this year: Clemson, Florida State, and Georgia Tech. However, only four SEC teams finished the regular season without a non-conference loss. They are listed below with their best win against a non-con opponent and that opponent’s record:

• Tennessee (Virginia Tech 9-3)
• Alabama (USC 9-3)
• Texas A&M (UCLA 4-8)
• Arkansas (TCU 6-5)

How has this year compared to previous years? Below is the SEC record against non-conference teams during the regular season and bowl season.

​So. Has the SEC (excluding Alabama) lost its dominance? You tell us.