College football bowl games today: Iowa-Missouri is on the schedule

After the weekend’s extravagant college football bowl game, Monday’s schedule might seem a little loose. There’s actually only one competition on the agenda for New Year’s Eve, but one is always better than none, right?

As we approach 2025, the lone Monday matinee likely won’t have anything close to a playoff atmosphere, but it offers a potentially interesting SEC-Big Ten matchup and provides another data point in the seemingly endless debate among conference advocates. It’s in an SEC city, but we’ll see if that really means more.

Here’s a quick look at the showdown.

Music City Bowl – No. 20 Missouri vs. Iowa

Time/TV/Location: 2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN, Nashville, Tennessee.

Why watch: Two flagship institutions from neighboring states should provide a compelling viewing experience, with both programs looking to put their best foot forward. Unfortunately, both rosters will be missing a significant number of key contributors, including draft-prep Missouri WR Luther Burden III and Iowa RB Kaleb Johnson. The good news for the Tigers is that QB Brady Cook should be available after being banged up for most of the season. He should also have top RB Nate Noel and WR Theo Wease Jr. in his arsenal. Iowa QB Brendan Sullivan appears ready to go, but he’ll have to rely on freshman RB Kamari Moulton to do the heavy lifting on the ground.

Why it might disappoint: If you like defense, you’re probably an Iowa fan, so you might like this game. But the fact is, the Hawkeyes will probably have to make this a grind to hang on. That’s just the identity of the team, and games like this often involve a lot of drama in the fourth quarter. Getting there might be a difficult task, but we’ve seen unusual occurrences in these bowls before, so embrace the chaos and enjoy the ride.

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College football bowl games today: Iowa-Missouri is on the schedule

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