Alabama vs. Missouri 2012: SEC football preview

The Missouri football season has alternated between wins and losses, including a pair of wins against relatively strong teams like Arizona State and UCF. Those teams pail in comparison to the strength of No. 1 ranked Alabama, though, as the Tigers would pull off a monumental upset if they could beat the Crimson Tide on Saturday afternoon.

The Tigers are listed as 21 1/2-point underdogs as they most recently came off a loss to Vanderbilt, their third against an SEC opponent. In fact, Missouri is still in pursuit of its first conference win in its inaugural season as members of the SEC. The Crimson Tide have had no problem going through their schedule, as a 19-point victory over Ole Miss in their last game was the closest margin of victory so far this season.

To have any shot at pulling the upset, Missouri will likely have to become the first team in 2012 to score more than 14 points against the defending national champions and will have to work to be the first to hold the Alabama offense under 33 points.

It is the Tigers, though, that carry the better record in the all-time series between the two teams, as they won two of the three times they've face each other. Alabama won the last matchup 38-20, but that was over three decades ago on Sept. 16, 1976.