As you likely saw yesterday, the final top-25 polls came out for the 2010 college football season, and your Mizzou Tigers finished 18th overall in both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches' polls.  That marks the third time in the past four seasons, and the 17th time overall in MU's history, that the Tigers have finished a season with an A.P. national ranking.  The #18 ranking is the 11th-highest final poll position for the Tigers, in terms of the Associated Press rankings, which has been what we have always used for historical reference.

Four times in MU history, a Tiger team finished with an equal or higher ranking than the 2010 team, despite having the same, or more losses, than the 10-3 team which just wrapped up the season.  Most recently, in 1978 (a team loaded with all-time historical talents such as Phil Bradley, James Wilder, Kellen Winslow, etc.) finished 15th overall with an 8-4 record under Warren Powers, while the 1973 team under Al Onofrio finished 8-4 but ranked 17th.  In 1968, Dan Devine's team went 8-3 and still finished in the top-10 (ranked 9th), but the ultimate instance was 1959, when Devine's second MU team went 6-5, but still ended ranked 18th overall.

Here's a look at the years when Mizzou finished in the final Associated Press rankings (with the season record in parentheses).  The AP rankings began in 1936, and through 1960, they included 20 teams in the rankings.  Interestingly, from the 1961 through the 1967 seasons, the AP scaled back to having only 10 teams ranked for the season (for reasons I'm not sure about), otherwise, there are a handful of Dan Devine teams which likely would have been added to this list (three times from 1961-67, MU finished ranked in the final United Press International poll - 12th in 1962, 16th in 1963 and 18th in 1964 - but were just outside of the scaled-back AP rankings, although MU did receive votes in the final AP poll in 1962.  Just not enough to merit a top-10 ranking).

MIZZOU'S SEASONS RANKED IN THE FINAL ASSOCIATED PRESS POLL

·         2010 - 18th (10-3)

·         2008 - 19th (10-4)

·         2007 - 4th (12-2)

·         1998 - 21st (8-4)

·         1997 - 23rd (7-5)

·         1981 - 19th (8-4)

·         1978 - 15th (8-4)

·         1973 - 17th (8-4)

·         1969 - 6th (9-2)

·         1968 - 9th (8-3)

·         1965 - 6th (8-2-1)

·         1962 - RV (8-1-2)

·         1961 - 11th (7-2-1)

·         1960 - 5th (11-0)

·         1959 - 18th (6-5)

·         1949 - 20th (7-4)

·         1941 - 7th (8-2)

·         1939 - 6th (8-2)