By Jeff Arnold

It’s shocking, but somehow, someway the Missouri Tigers could  be one win away from getting the fourth and last bid in the College Football Playoffs. With Georgia’s loss to Florida a few weeks ago, Missouri officially controlled their own destiny when it came to winning an SEC East Title. Despite being underdogs in their last two games, and being down in the second half to Tennessee last week, the Tigers have found a way to keep winning and have earned the right to play Alabama in the SEC Title Game. Obviously a win would not guarantee them a berth in the Playoffs, but it would give them an extremely strong case and, as reported by ESPn, many voters have all but guaranteed them a spot if they pull off the upset.

Missouri are underdogs again, as they should be, but as Georgia coach Mark Richt said just a few weeks ago, “it’s hard to beat a team that’s used to wining.” As much as this will be the case for Missouri, as Alabama is the hottest team in the country and coming off a strong comeback performance against Auburn last Saturday, Alabama could be in more danger of losing. The Tigers have proven time and time again to be a resilient football team. They could have given up on their season after getting rolled by Georgia, 34-0, and thus falling to a 4-2 record, but instead they proved themselves to be fighters.

As much as luck has played a role in their current position, the resurrection of Maty Mauk in the last six weeks of the season are also a very big component of the their success. Mauk threw eight interceptions in the first six weeks of the season, including four against Georgia; however, after that disappointment, Mauk has turned it around and thrown only three in the last six weeks. These numbers are still slightly underwhelming, but considering the usual defensive strength of the Tigers, having a talented leader in Mauk is extremely important. All of this led to six wins to close the year and an overall record of 10-2.

Obviously all of this could have prove to be invalid if Missouri loses tomorrow. The thing is though, I don’t think they will. They have nothing to lose. Every analyst on every network has basically said that Nick Chubb and Georgia deserves to be playing Alabama at the Georgia Dome, not them. They have been underdogs a surprising amount of times this year, yet they still have gotten this far. People have even said that the SEC East should be embarrassed that a team like Missouri, who some some say “aren’t even a real SEC team,” found a way to the title game. Add all of this motivation to the fact that they are red hot and have the type of high-powered offense that last week gave  Alabama fits, and you could be looking at an upset and a possible berth in the inaugural College Football Playoffs.