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ESPN's Will Harris has his weekly column of college football predictions and the Missouri Tigers could use his good will on Saturday against the visiting Syracuse Orange. Harris predicts the Tigers will defeat the Orange by far more than the opening line of four points as the favorites today in Columbia with a final score of 37-17.
"Syracuse is an emotionally drained and error-prone team stepping way out of its element geographically to face a peaking offense featuring radically different schemes and tempo than its defense typically sees in Big East play," writes Harris. "The 5-5 Tigers know Texas A&M will be tough to beat next week and would love to lock up a bowl trip now, while 5-5 Syracuse has a much more favorable mulligan on deck in Temple."
If the Tigers win today, they will become bowl eligible in their first SEC season and can finish on a high note against Texas A&M next week at 7-5 if they can win out. That will be a tall order against the Aggies, who are riding high after their upset of the previously ranked No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide. That makes today's game very important.