Mizzou’s College Football Playoff dream, a daring-yet-prevalent conviction and the talk of Tigers faithful, died Saturday. It was 303 days old. It is survived by eternally hard-luck fans across Missouri and sportswriters who, alas, predicted in the preseason that the dream actually would come true.
The cause of death was the 34-0 final score of Saturday’s game at Alabama. But there were numerous warning signs in recent weeks. An unimpressive win against Boston College. Needing overtime to defeat Vanderbilt. The loss — not that it happened, but by how much — at Texas A&M. Brady Cook’s ankle injury against Auburn.