The University of Missouri has accepted an invitation to play the 15th-ranked (CFP) and 6-2 Iowa Hawkeyes in the 2020 TransPerfect Music City Bowl on Dec. 30, at 3 p.m. (Central) on ESPN. The 23rd edition of the Music City Bowl will be played in Nissan Stadium, home of the NFL’s Tennessee Titans.
Mizzou, under the direction of first-year Head Coach Eli Drinkwitz, finished its first-ever all-SEC schedule with a 5-5 record, with four of its five setbacks coming at the hands of teams that were nationally-ranked at kickoff, including three that finished in the College Football Playoff’s final Top 10 and will play in New Year’s Six Bowls. After an 0-2 start, the Tigers rallied to win five of their last eight outings to close the season.
Drinkwitz joins Warren Powers as the only head coaches in program history to lead Mizzou to a bowl game in their first season along the sideline, and his five victories equal the second-most by a first-year Tiger coach in the AP Poll-era (1936-present) behind Powers’ eight-win debut season, which was capped by a 20-15 victory over LSU in the Liberty Bowl. Frank Broyles and Dan Devine also won five games in their first seasons along the Tiger sideline in 1957 and 1958, respectively.
Mizzou will make its first-ever appearance in the Music City Bowl, and will face its border state rival to the North for only the 14th time ever, with the last time being a 27-24 Hawkeye victory in the 2010 Insight Bowl at Tempe, Ariz. Mizzou leads the all-time series, 7-6, but 13 of those meetings came between 1892, a 24-0 Tiger win in Columbia, and 1910, a 5-0 Mizzou win.
