Good luck trying to make any sense of the SEC East right now.
One week after losing at home to the Indiana Hoosiers, who had previously lost to Bowling Green, the Missouri Tigers upset the No. 13 South Carolina Gamecocks 21-20 in Columbia, South Carolina. As a result, Mizzou is the only team remaining perfect in the East, per the SEC Network:
With a result like this, you know the Top 25 will be affected in a not-so-insignificant way.
The Tigers are a tricky proposition when it comes to a potential place in the Top 25. Missouri's only played two Power-Five opponents and lost to one of them. Victories over South Dakota State, Toledo and UCF don't exactly say a lot. And it's not as if Mizzou completely dominated the Gamecocks on Saturday.
Missouri jumped ahead 7-3 in the first quarter but fell behind 10-7 with 1:36 in the first half. It wasn't until the final 1:36 of the game that the Tigers had the lead again. The Gamecocks outgained Missouri 338-280, held the Tigers to 2-of-16 on third downs and possessed the ball for nearly 12 more minutes.
Tigers head coach Gary Pinkel admitted after the game that even he was a bit surprised by his team's late comeback, per Pete Scantlebury of PowerMizzou.com:
Give the Tigers plenty of credit for the victory, but don't all of a sudden overrate them because of it. If you're going to call the loss to Indiana a fluke, then it's fair to look at the South Carolina win a bit skeptically too:
Conversely, it wouldn't be fair to completely abandon the Gamecocks, either. They still have wins against Georgia and East Carolina on their resume. Losing to Texas A&M and Missouri isn't all that bad.
According to ESPN.com, after dropping out of the Top 25 this week, the Tigers are receiving a few votes in both The Associated Press Poll and USA Today Poll. Meanwhile, South Carolina is 13th in the AP Poll and 15th in the USA Today Poll.
It's entirely possible that both teams will end up in the Top 25 for Week 6.
Below is a brief glimpse at where Missouri and South Carolina could end up when next week's polls are revealed.
//from Bleacher Report http://ift.tt/1BoUxCI
via IFTTT September 27, 2014 at 08:40PM
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