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Hello, BCS Standings: Mizzou Deserves A Serious Bump

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The Mizzou Tigers deserve a serious bump in the BCS standings after beating No. 1 Oklahoma 36-27 on Saturday night.

By Joel Thorman
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The Missouri Tigers have officially arrived.

On Saturday night with the nation watching. Mizzou took care of business against the Oklahoma Sooners, 36-27. Mizzou has now dominated the Big 12 to this point with their biggest test yet coming up next against Nebraska in Lincoln.

So where does Mizzou deserve to be ranked in the next set of BCS rankings coming out on Sunday?

One projection from ESPN suggests the computers will put Mizzou at No. 2 and the final standings will put them at No. 6 in the BCS. They were No. 11 and they just beat the No. 1 team in the country so clearly they're going to jump a few spots.

Can you put any one-loss teams ahead of Mizzou? I'm not sure that you can this far into the season. Going 7-0 is no joke, particularly when you beat the No. 1 team in the country.

What's convincing about Mizzou, and a reason I think they're legitimate national title contenders, is that defense. Heading into the game they were a top 3 defense in the country. They were very, very good. However, they had only played a few decent offensive teams with Texas A&M being near the top.

They shut down down Colorado 26-0 in the opening of Big 12 play. They followed that up with a 30-9 victory over Texas A&M the next week and then last night against Oklahoma they won 36-27. That's 36 points over three games to their first three Big 12 opponents. 12 points per game in the Big 12 to this point. I don't care what that offense does -- oh, they're really good, by the way -- as long as that defense performs.

They have a perfect match on offense and defense to this point. The dominating defense is complemented nicely with Blaine Gabbert's efficiency. He completed nearly 70 percent of his passes against Oklahoma. The running game was perhaps the most impressive part of Mizzou's win against Oklahoma.

They're doing a lot of things right. They should be in the conversation for top 5 with the way they've been playing.

We'll find out Sunday afternoon where the BCS standings will place those Mizzou Tigers.

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