Missouri Tigers vs Oklahoma Sooners

The Oklahoma Sooners can likely play themselves into a National Championship game with a win in the Big 12 Title game over Missouri. The Sooners have been absolutely destroying all comers of late. It appears they are a different team than the one that lost to Texas and followed with an uninspired 14-point win over Kansas. In their last five games against Big 12 opponents (including some good ones), the Sooners are winning by 32.6 ppg - simply amazing. For Missouri the season was a good one, but fell short of expectations as they too felt like they had a National Championship-caliber team. But they just couldn't survive against the better teams in a very tough conference. The Tigers dropped three games, and that was without Texas Tech or Oklahoma on the schedule. Oklahoma is on a mission and Missouri was blown out by Texas. Missouri just hasn't measured up to the standards set by last year's team - and that team lost by 21 to the Sooners in the Championship game. These teams met twice last year, and although they were both high-scoring teams, both games went UNDER the total set for this one as they scored 72 in their regular season matchup and just 55 in the Championship game. As explosive as the Sooners have been over the last month, they are 8-0 to the UNDER in December games in their last eight, while the Tigers are 4-1 to the UNDER after allowing more than 280 passing yards in their last game. This total has reached the point where the only value is in the UNDER. Take the UNDER as well as the Sooners to win convincingly and move into the National Championship game.

Missouri took over the #1 ranking in the country with its win vs Kansas last week. A win here will lockin a spot playing for the National Championship. If Oklahoma wins, and they get some help, could still lead to them playing in a National Championship game as well. Missouri gave Oklahoma all it could handle in Norman, and in fact led the game in the 4th quarter, when Oklahoma ran in a Missouri fumble to seal the outcome. Missouri out-gained them in that contest. Since that game Missouri has gotten even better, has built momentum, rattling off six straight. In those games, they have played good, with no opponent coming within 8 points of them, and that was the #1 team in the country, Kansas. Oklahoma has some key injuries at RB, and most noteworthy on defense. Defensive End Austin English (9.5 sacks) sat out last week, and is a maybe this week, but not 100% if he plays. Chase Daniel has emerged as a Heisman hopeful with a brilliant season, completing over 70% of his passes for nearly 4,000 yards, and 33 TDs with only 9 INTs. Jeremy Maclin, only a freshman, could be the X-factor in this one for Missouri. Maclin has caught 69 passes for 954 yards and 9 TDs, but that's not all. He has returned two punts for TDs, as well as rushing for 309 yards, with four more TDs. Since the start of conference championship play, there have been 28 games featuring teams playing for the second time in the same season. In 23 of them the team that lost the first one has won, or played closer in the rematch. We like Missouri, who has revenge, motivation, and all the momentum to come away with the win.