New Missouri football bowl projections. Will MU head back to Nashville?
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All that’s left is a trip to Arkansas and the postseason.
Missouri football’s 2025 season is winding down toward the end, as the Tigers will head on the road to face Arkansas on Saturday, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, to finish the regular season.
The Tigers (7-4, 3-4 SEC) no longer have a chance to beat a team with a winning record in the regular season after an underwhelming loss at Oklahoma this past Saturday. All four of MU’s games against currently ranked opponents this season ended in losses, and Mizzou now heads on the road to face a reeling Razorbacks squad.
Arkansas (2-9, 0-7) has lost every game since firing head coach Sam Pittman and handing the interim tag to Bobby Petrino.
The game in Fayetteville is scheduled to kick off at 2:30 p.m. and will air on SEC Network.
With one game left to play in the regular season, here is where various national media outlets have Missouri projected to play in the postseason in their updated bowl projections:
ESPN: Music City Bowl vs. Nebraska; Duke’s Mayo Bowl vs. Duke
ESPN’s Kyle Bonagura, in his updated projections, has tabbed the Tigers for a Music City Bowl appearance on Dec. 30 in Nashville, Tennessee, against their former conference rival, Nebraska. The Cornhuskers, like Mizzou, are 7-4 this year.
That would mean Mizzou would play in Nashville for the second straight postseason, as the Tigers beat Iowa in the Music City Bowl last season.
Fellow ESPN writer Mark Schlabach projects Mizzou to go to Charlotte, North Carolina, for a Jan. 2 game against Duke in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. The Blue Devils are 6-5 on the year under head coach Manny Diaz.
Missouri has never appeared in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, where the winning coach gets mayonnaise poured on their head at the end of the game.
The Athletic: Texas Bowl vs Iowa State
Scott Dochterman of The Athletic’s projections see Mizzou heading to face Iowa State in the Texas Bowl on Dec. 27 in Houston. The Cyclones just beat Kansas and are 7-4 this year, with a 4-4 mark in Big 12 play.
Missouri has played Iowa State 104 times in its history, but not since the Tigers left the Big 12 after the 2011 season.
The Tigers’ last trip to the Texas Bowl was in 2017, when they lost to Texas.
USA Today: Music City Bowl vs. Illinois
Erick Smith of USA Today has Mizzou projected to renew the Braggin’ Rights rivalry with Illinois in the Music City Bowl on Dec. 30 in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Illini just lost to struggling Wisconsin and are now 7-4 with a 4-4 record in Big Ten play. Missouri, as mentioned above, played in the Music City Bowl last season. Mizzou hasn’t played Illinois since 2010, but this annual basketball rivalry is set to get a football rebirth soon.
Earlier this year, Mizzou and Illinois altered their upcoming series to drop games in 2026 and 2032. That means the first currently scheduled game in the revived series is for 2027 in Columbia.
CBS Sports: Duke’s Mayo Bowl vs. Louisville
Brad Crawford of CBS Sports projected that Missouri will take on Louisville on Jan. 2 in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte.
Louisville has lost three straight to play itself out of the ACC race. Jeff Brohm, like Mizzou coach Eli Drinkwitz, is likely to be a name you hear often in the upcoming coaching carousel. The Cardinals are 7-4 this season with a game against Kentucky left on the schedule.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Where Missouri football landed in updated national bowl projections
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