Missouri might be inclined to thank the SEC for its arcane geography: In relation to its division, the Tigers are in no way an "eastern" located school, but thanks to a lopsided power balance in the conference (leaning drastically to the Western Division, if you're new to these parts), Missouri ended up with the 10th toughest SEC schedule out of 14, according to Football Outsiders.
That doesn't mean Missouri's in for a cakewalk - they host SEC Eastern Division Champion Georgia on September 8, and BCS title contender Alabama will vist Columbia from the SEC West.
But SB Nation's college football number hustler and Rock M Nation member Bill C. is fretting about the Tigers' non-conference slate, though, as Mizzou will be forced to re-jigger games, as the SEC slate doesn't allow for Missouri's traditional early all-non-conference scheduling system:
Who fills out the non-conference schedule? Mizzou initially had Arizona State (9/15, home), Southern Illinois (9/8, home) and Miami-Ohio (9/22, road) lined up, with one more non-conference game needed. Now, with some dates getting seriously shuffled, it is unclear whether Mizzou will retain SIU and Miami. They could be in the market for numerous new non-conference opponents (and on short notice). One thing is quite likely: Mizzou will almost certainly have to dig into the FCS ranks more than once to fill the schedule. This is almost certainly a one-time-only thing, but such is life.