Sports

MIZZOU AFTER BCS BID

SAN ANTONIO – What a wild and wonderful week for Missouri.

The Big 12 North champions are ranked No. 1, their quarterback is a Heisman Trophy candidate and if the Tigers can beat No. 9 Oklahoma in the league title game tonight, they’ll play for the national title.

Good times for a team that hasn’t won a conference football championship since 1969 and wasn’t even ranked when the season started.

Now Tigers fans are streaming into the Alamo City to join the party, dancing to the mariachi music and slugging back margaritas on the Riverwalk as cool-headed and cleft-chinned quarterback Chase Daniel and teammates steady themselves for the biggest game in Missouri (11-1, 7-1 Big 12) history.

Last week’s victory over bitter rival Kansas may have felt like the mountaintop, but the games, and the stakes, keep getting bigger.

Lose to OU – the team that has all but owned the Big 12 in recent years – and it all falls apart.

The Sooners (10-2, 6-2) won the South Division. And they walk into the Alamodome with the cool swagger that comes with having already beaten Missouri once this season behind Bob Stoops, a coach with a 4-1 record since 2000 in Big 12 title games – part of the reason why the Sooners are slight favorites to beat the Tigers.

Oklahoma beat Missouri 41-31 on Oct. 13, a game the Tigers feel they should have or could have won if not for some late turnovers.

Daniel (3,951 yards, 33 TDs this season) has been unflappable and unstoppable since then. Coach Gary Pinkel said he expects his junior quarterback to shrug off the Heisman talk until after the game.

“This isn’t about him winning an award, it’s about us trying to win a championship,” Pinkel said. – AP