If Missouri loses to Texas A&M, Tigers’ College Football Playoff hopes are cooked

This is the biggest game of the Missouri Tigers' season. If they pull off the slight road upset over the Texas A&M Aggies, their pathway of making it into the College Football Playoff becomes far more manageable. Should they falter, the Tigers are going to need so much help with one loss on the season and the Alabama date looming large in a few weeks. At 10-2, Missouri might not make it in.

At 4-0, the Tigers have three non-conference wins over Murray State, Buffalo and Boston College. While the win over BC carries some weight, nearly losing to Vanderbilt in their SEC opener raises some causes for concern. The Missouri offense comes and goes for extended stretches, as quarterback Brady Cook has become too reliant on Luther Burden III to do everything for him.

Fortunately, they can briefly silence the haters with a big road win over Texas A&M. A win over the Aggies gets them to 5-0 and comfortably inside the playoff picture for the time being. Conversely, a loss to Mizzou pretty much ends any realistic notion of the Aggies getting into the playoff. The winner of this game could be the fifth or sixth SEC team that gets in, but the loser has virtually no chance.

How weak is Missouri's remaining schedule? Let's unpack it real quick to see their playoff pathway.

Missouri's College Football Playoff chances dry up with a Texas A&M loss

With a win over Texas A&M to get to 5-0, it takes some pressure off the Tigers ahead of the Alabama game. If they lose to the Crimson Tide, the Tigers would still get in if they won out. After A&M, the Tigers would need to beat UMass, Auburn, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Mississippi State and Arkansas. While a few of those teams could upset Missouri, the Tigers would be favored in all of them.

Should Texas A&M get the best of their 2014 SEC entrant brother, you would basically need for Missouri to upset Alabama to get in. A win over the Crimson Tide en route to going 11-1 absolutely gets the Tigers in. Should they drop another game besides A&M, a shocking upset of Alabama might be enough to get them in at 10-2. If they had to drop another game in that instance, it must be to OU.

While Oklahoma and Texas A&M are in the same spot in the SEC College Football Playoff bubble as Missouri, only the Tigers have been ranked inside the top 12 by me at any point during the season so far. I have reluctantly been putting Missouri in, but with one loss I am kicking them to the curb like I did Utah this past week in their first defeat of the season to Arizona. Mizzou may be good, but not great.

Being good in a Power Two league may get a team into the playoff, but not one with a weak resume.