One of the tough realities in the SEC is that you can stack up double-digit wins and still miss the playoffs. Only three teams from the SEC conference can usually get in. For some programs, just making the playoff has become the bare minimum, especially in the 12-team era, to decide if a season was a success or a failure. But Missouri’s head coach isn’t buying into that mindset, and plenty of college football analysts are standing with him.

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz has made it clear he’s not a fan of the “playoff or bust” culture that has taken over college football. He feels that focusing only on the College Football Playoff (CFP) makes all the other games and achievements during the season feel unimportant:

“I talked about this at SEC Media Days, we gotta get out of this ‘Oh man, it’s playoffs or bust,” Drinkwitz said on Tuesday night’s Tiger Talk radio show. “Yes, again, we’re shooting for the moon, we’re going to put our whole self into that, but only 12 teams make the Playoffs and we put ourselves in a position in November to be there. Didn’t get it done, I got that. But if the season only counts for 12 football teams, and we got a 127 D1 football teams, that math’s not gonna math very well. There’s a whole heck of a lot to be proud of.”

Kirk Herbstreit seems to agree with that take. The former Ohio State captain basically agrees with the idea that a college football season shouldn’t be judged only by whether a team makes the College Football Playoff: “So true. Great to have the CFP obviously as a goal, but the season isn’t over if that’s out of reach. People that view it this way aren’t being realistic or fair to the players or coaches.”

He points out that for over a century, teams that finished with near-playoff records, like 9‑3 or 10‑2, would go to New Year’s Day bowl games and celebrate a successful season. Just because the playoff now has only 12 spots doesn’t mean a team that finishes 10‑3 or even ranked 13th in the country has had a “failure.” Herbstreit supports the idea that teams can still compete hard, achieve milestones, and have a meaningful season even if the playoff is out of reach.

Drinkwitz believes it’s ridiculous that a season’s success is judged solely on whether a team makes the playoffs, especially since so many teams are left out.
The Missouri coach also has some kind of bias feelings about the committee that picks the playoff teams. He compared saying, it’s a “beauty pageant” where personal biases can affect the rankings, rather than just letting the football games on the field decide things. He has openly criticized the committee’s methods, pointing out when their rankings don’t seem to match their own rules, especially with how they weigh a team’s strength of schedule.

Is this case justifiable for Mizzou?

The Tigers have recently climbed to being a competitive team in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), but they’ve struggled to consistently beat the top-tier, ranked teams, which feeds into Drinkwitz’s idea that the system is flawed. Plus, not to mention, he was 1-9 against the top 10 programs. It’s nearly impossible for a program like Mizzou to make the playoffs given the brutality of the SEC schedule and level of competition.

Drinkwitz’s journey with the Tigers has been a real rollercoaster at this point. After starting with a couple of decent (6-7 win range) but not spectacular seasons, things really changed in 2023. That year, he led Missouri to an 11-2 record and a huge Cotton Bowl win over Ryan Day’s Ohio State, which got him named SEC Coach of the Year. Also, last season, the program had another near-playoff season, finishing 10-3 with a Music City Bowl victory. But even with that success, they’ve had their share of heartbreaks. .

The performance of his teams directly ties into his playoff rants. When the Tigers have a great year but come up short against the top teams, he points to the committee and the “playoff or bust” mindset to explain why a successful, double-digit-win season is still a huge deal. The fact that the committee decides the rankings and that Missouri has had trouble getting over that hump in the most competitive games just fuels his arguments.