Mizzou Ready to Upset CFP Apple Cart

The SEC's diabolical scheduling scam is working to perfection.

And Missouri intends to cash in on it.

Yes, the Tigers, of all teams. The only SEC  squad to lose to a cupcake.

But here they are, on their way to the conference championship game and intent on giving the College Football Playoff Selection Committee a headache or two.

Fittingly, Mizzou needed to come from behind at home against Arkansas to keep that possibility alive.

Record-whores that they are, SEC teams not only align their cupcake menu to provide breaks before meaningful games, they approach absurdity in ensuring four victories that don't require breaking a sweat. Yes, Florida's stuck with Florida State for a non-con, Georgia has the occasionally pesky Georgia Tech, and they'll agree to tempting neutral-site games now and then, but make no mistake: the only losses these squads will tolerate are to each other.

That way, the CFP worst-case scenario of two-loss teams earning berths in the Featured Four will still make it odds-on that an SEC entrant is included.

Hell, it works. The Selection Committee is currently paying no mind that Mississippi State played absolutely nobody in its non-cons and rests on the laurels of its SEC results.

Mizzou has its shot. A solid game against the SEC West champ, and if the conference is to join the CFP's bracket, it'll do so as a two-loss team.

If chalk stays hard everywhere else, could the unthinkable -- to some -- happen and see the SEC shut out of the Featured Four?

• Missouri's loss to Indiana is no better than Ohio State's upset by Virginia Tech,
• The Tiger non-cons are inferior to Florida State's Notre Dame and Florida opposition, and
• If any conference would post two entrants, it might be the Big XII.

The joy of sports is its unpredictability, and even though the SEC takes pains to eliminate it, if Mizzou got the message, it doesn't appear to be cooperating.