As SEC play looms, can Mizzou stave off a hard reset?

Denny Medley-USA TODAY SportsNew Year’s Day is eternally linked to the bowl season, but for sickos like us, it’s an equally momentous day: new bracket forecasts spring up left and right.

This year, we saw 17 bracketologists drop new predictions, outlooks that expect the SEC to set a record with nine bids come Selection Sunday. Meanwhile, Arkansas finds itself just on the outside looking in. Only a quartet of programs find themselves adrift when conference play tips this coming weekend: Georgia, LSU, Vanderbilt – and Missouri.

The Tigers’ standing, however, isn’t likely to come as a surprise.

Any analysis of Mizzou’s performance in non-conference concludes the Tigers landed at a point between…