[BCWWF]

www.showmenews.com

1. Missouri’s a better team. Duh. This was up for debate around 6:59 p.m. on Oct. 24. It hasn’t been since then. Even the most loyal Kansas fans can’t deny that Missouri proved it was the better team nine days ago on a neutral field. Had MU’s defense not backed off its aggressive game plan in the second half, the score might have been more lopsided than 36-28. And don’t tell me Kansas would have done a better job against Oklahoma. If KU’s offense couldn’t block Missouri’s pass rush, Todd Reesing would have been the Sooners’ punching bag from the opening kickoff. 2. The attendance fallacy. Unless the Orange Bowl fell hook, line and sinker for Lew Perkins’ fuzzy math, it’s preposterous to think Missouri wouldn’t have traveled as well if not better than Kansas to Miami. Two weeks ago, Perkins made the claim that the Arrowhead crowd would be 55,000 Kansas fans and 25,000 Missouri fans. Didn’t happen. Either Perkins was way off on his projections or 15,000 Kansas fans unloaded their tickets to Missouri fans. Last week, after a phone interview with Orange Bowl CEO Eric Poms, he asked me if I thought Missouri would travel well to Miami. He seemed concerned based on the crowds for MU’s last few bowls. I made the point that New Year’s trips to Shreveport and El Paso aren’t the most attractive destinations and that I thought MU would travel well to his gam,e. I suggested that MU’s crowds at Arrowhead and San Antonio would be better indicators of the fan support the Tigers have this year. If anything, Missouri fans blew the attendance theory out of the water this morning when they gobbled up MU’s entire allotment of Cotton Bowl tickets in two hours. MU reports that it sold all of its 16,000 tickets by 10 a.m. 3. Star power. Missouri landed eight players on the AP All-Big 12 first team, including the offensive player of the year, junior quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Chase Daniel. Kansas matched Oklahoma with the second-most first-team players with four. Fans outside of Big 12 country might recognize KU cornerback Aqib Talib and perhaps Reesing, but it’s a fairly anonymous cast of players — some very good players, but certainly not a roster of buzz-worthy stars like Daniel, Jeremy Maclin, Martin Rucker and Chase Coffman. It doesn’t help that Kansas shies away from promoting its players for national recognition and awards. Meanwhile, the Cotton Bowl is giddy over its Daniel vs. Darren McFadden showdown.