ESPN’s FPI predicts the outcome of the Missouri-Iowa bowl game

ESPN’s FPI Predictor has released its early analysis of the Music City Bowl that will match up Missouri and Iowa on Dec. 30 in Nashville.

The showdown is one of those difficult (and cute) weekday afternoon adventures that we only get during the holiday season. The Tigers and Hawkeyes will play Monday afternoon with kickoff shortly after 2:30 PM ET on ESPN from Nissan Stadium.

Missouri posted a strong 9-3 sub season Eli Drinkwitz. The Tigers even had faint hopes of making the College Football Playoff heading into November, but those hopes were dashed when they lost a heartbreaker at South Carolina on November 16th. That gave Missouri 3 losses and that was the end of any playoff talk in Columbia.

So the Tigers head into their bowl game with a chance to reach double-digit wins for the second straight season under Drinkwitz, who led Missouri to 11 wins in 2023. The only thing standing in Mizzou’s way is a team from 8-4 Iowa, which has won 4 of its last 5 games to end the regular season.

With 2 teams so similar in record and playing on a neutral field, it’s no surprise that ESPN’s FPI predictor is quite divided in this matchup. The FPI gives Missouri a 52.8 percent chance to prevail and reach 10 wins in 2024. Iowa, on the other hand, has a 47.2 percent chance to end its season with a win.

Cory Nightingale, a former Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post sportswriter and sports editor, is a South Florida freelance writer covering Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.