It will be consolation prize time for the Missouri and Illinois football teams, with the big intrigue Sunday morning reserved for teams still in the chase for a spot in major college football’s vastly expanded playoff field.
The realistic hopes for the Tigers and lllini have been extinguished for several weeks, so the announcement of the bowl game each will be invited to will be relegated to the latter portion of ESPN’s five-hour extravaganza in which the 12-team playoff bracket is unveiled beginning at 11 a.m.
ESPN’s focus for the first part of that production will be on informing viewers which teams are in the playoff field, who they will be facing and where the first-round contests will be played.