Missouri can secure bowl eligibility while Arkansas will try to raise its bowl profile when these Southeastern Conference rivals meet Friday in Columbia, Mo.

The Tigers (5-6, 2-5 SEC) and Razorbacks (6-5, 3-4) have dubbed this annual game the Battle Line Rivalry. A trophy will be at stake on Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium.

Missouri won five straight games in the series before Arkansas prevailed 34-17 last season.

“The only thing we’re focused on is it’s a rivalry game and it’s trophy week,” Missouri coach Eliah Drinkwitz said. “That’s it. None of the other stuff matters. The most important thing to us is that they have a trophy and we want it and the only way to get it is to play our best game and to prepare the way that we know how to prepare and to play with unbelievable effort.

“That’s the focus and that’s why we did Senior Week last week. This week is all about rivalry week, Arkansas and the Battle Line trophy.”

Missouri rolled to a 45-14 victory over New Mexico State in their previous game after suffering a 66-24 beating at Tennessee. Brady Cook continued his improved play by completing 19 of 27 passes for 251 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran for 71 yards on seven carries.

“I felt like with the way things ended against Tennessee, I thought it was really important for us to bounce back,” Drinkwitz said. “Offensively, to score on our first three drives, to score on this opening series of both the first half and second half which was the first time we’ve done that all year ? there was real growth there to convert some big third downs and we converted the fourth down.”

The Razorbacks are coming off a 42-27 upset of then-No. 14 Ole Miss. They got quarterback KJ Jefferson back from his clavicle injury and their offensive clicked back into high gear.

“Man, it’s nice to have KJ back,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said. “We weren’t too clean on the first two drives, first two scoring drives, but he made us clean because of his athleticism.”

Jefferson completed 17 of 22 passes for 168 yards and three touchdowns against the Rebels. He also rushed for 47 yards on eight carries.

“When you have a guy behind you like that, it builds confidence in you when you have a big runner that can physically run over people,” Pittman said. “I mean, on the draw play, they all came inside, and he cut outside for 20, 30 yards. When you have a guy back there that can break tackles and make things happen, you play a little bit better, to be honest with you.”

The Arkansas offense has averaged 34.9 points per game with Jefferson and just 13.5 in two games in which Jefferson has been sidelined.

On defense, the Razorbacks may be missing cornerstone linebacker Bumper Pool, who is battling hip and back injuries. Pool is second on the club with 92 tackles.

“Bumper is still Bumper and trying to hang on,” Pittman said. “I don’t know that he’ll be able to or not. He’s beat up, not healthy. We’re bowl eligible. I don’t know if he’ll be able to play or not.”

–Field Level Media

No. 23 Texas will look to keep its chances of playing for the Big 12 Conference championship alive when it hosts Baylor on Friday in Austin in the teams’ final-regular season game.

The Longhorns (7-4, 5-3 Big 12) must beat Baylor and have Kansas beat No. 12 Kansas State on Saturday night to earn a berth opposite undefeated TCU in the league championship game. The Bears (6-5, 4-4) already are bowl-eligible and will aim to derail their longtime rival’s title hopes.

“We all understand the ramifications of where it’s at in the Big 12,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday. “We don’t shy away from those things. We’ve got to do our part and see what happens after that.”

The Longhorns re-entered the College Football Playoff rankings Tuesday after a dominating 55-14 road victory over Kansas on Saturday, their second win in their past three games.

Bijan Robinson rushed for a career-high 243 yards and four touchdowns in just three quarters as the Longhorns finished with 539 total yards — 427 on the ground. Texas also got 108 yards on 11 carries from Jonathon Brooks in an effort that included two TDs in the fourth quarter, one of which covered 70 yards.

The victory over Kansas ensured that Texas will have a winning season, and at No. 24, the Longhorns also moved back into the AP Top 25 as the only four-loss team that’s ranked. Texas’ four losses are by a combined 18 points.

“You can always look back and play the ‘what-if’ game,” Sarkisian said. “‘What if’ this play and ‘what if’ that play in a couple of other ballgames, but in the end, the resiliency our guys have shown, I’m very proud of that.”

Baylor came within a hold-your-breath, last-play field goal of ruining TCU’s undefeated season in a 29-28 loss in Waco on Saturday. The Bears will head into the regular-season finale looking to secure their 11th seven-win season in the past 13 years.

The Bears churned out 501 yards of total offense — their fourth game of the season with 500-plus yards — kept the ball for nearly 34 minutes and effectively shut down explosive TCU until the last seven minutes. Baylor’s Blake Shapen passed for 269 yards and a touchdown while Monaray Baldwin made six catches for 123 yards.

“I think always the emphasis is where I’m at right now, this is who I could become,” Baylor coach Dave Aranda said. “And then further, just collectively, this is where we’re at right now, this is what we could become. You look at that game this past Saturday, and the effort, the speed and just all of it, that’s us right there. We just have to be able to execute better.”

The Longhorns lead the overall series 79-28-4, including a 48-10-2 all-time mark in games played in Austin. Baylor captured last year’s contest in Waco 31-24 but has not won in Austin since 2014, a three-game losing streak.

–Field Level Media

Not that long ago, there was a time when a meeting between Oklahoma and Texas Tech meant plenty of offensive firepower.

The 2016 meeting featuring Baker Mayfield, at quarterback for the Sooners, against the Red Raiders’ Patrick Mahomes, set a handful of NCAA records.

But entering Saturday’s regular-season finale between the teams at Lubbock, Texas, offensive consistency is a problem area.

Proven capable of explosive plays, each team also has encountered flattening lulls.

While the two rank second and third in the Big 12 in total offense, they’re seventh and eighth in the league in scoring offense.

“We’ve been due,” Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel said. “It’s not always perfect. There are a bunch of things to clean up.”

The Sooners (6-5, 3-5 Big 12) showed their explosiveness early last week, turning in one of the most productive quarters in program history in building a 28-0 lead over Oklahoma State.

Then the offense went dormant, with only two first downs in the second half.

Oklahoma was able to win that game thanks to its defense, which Texas Tech offensive coordinator Zach Kittley said is starting to look much more like the defenses Sooners coach Brent Venables had at Clemson.

“These last two to three weeks, they started to play a lot better defense, going kind of back to this basic stuff they were doing there at Clemson, but they’re very multiple, they’re a high-pressure team. They’re going to blitz you.”

Texas Tech (6-4, 4-4) has won back-to-back games for the first time since the first two games of the season.

In the first four games of conference play, the Red Raiders averaged nearly 520 yards per game. Since, they’ve averaged just more than 350 yards.

They were held to just 246 total yards in last week’s 14-10 win over Iowa State.

Tyler Shough is expected to make his third consecutive start at quarterback for Texas Tech.

“Tyler’s done a good job of coming in and doing what we thought,” Red Raiders coach Joey McGuire said. “He’s getting closer and closer to where we really know who he is and what he can be. But Behren (Morton) will be ready to go.”

Morton hasn’t played since Nov. 5.

The Sooners have won the last 10 meetings between the programs. Texas Tech has not beaten Oklahoma in Lubbock since 2009.

–Field Level Media

After losing three consecutive conference games, Iowa stands one victory from the Big Ten championship game thanks to a four-game winning streak.

Iowa, at one point, was 3-4 overall and 1-3 in conference play. Then came victories over Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin and Minnesota, pushing the Hawkeyes (7-4, 5-3 Big Ten) in position to play either Ohio State or Michigan in the Big Ten title game.

A victory over Nebraska (3-8, 2-6) on Friday at Iowa City, Iowa, will make it happen.

“Really happy for our guys,” said Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, who was embroiled in criticism after the early struggles this season. “Really happy locker room. That’s November football, whatever it takes to get it done.”

Iowa has won seven straight games against Nebraska, which is likely playing its last game under interim head coach Mickey Joseph.

The Cornhuskers lost five consecutive Big Ten games after starting 2-1, including a painful defeat last week.

Nebraska was competitive in the 15-14 home loss to Wisconsin but fell short when the Badgers scored on a touchdown run with 35 seconds left.

The Cornhuskers’ offense totaled 171 yards, with 106 yards passing and 65 yards on the ground.

Casey Thompson completed 12 of 19 pass attempts for 106 yards, with two touchdowns and no interceptions.

“Take a hat off to these kids,” said Joseph, whose team has lost three of the five games in the losing streak by a touchdown or less. “Just a good character group. A group that’s not going to quit.”

Iowa limited Minnesota to 87 passing yards in the 13-10 victory last week — the third time this season an opponent has passed for less than 100 yards.

This is the first season since 1929 that the Hawkeyes’ defense has allowed 10 or fewer points in eight games. The 1929 team gave up 28 points the entire eight-game season.

Jack Campbell, a linebacker, had a fourth-quarter interception against Minnesota and also tallied 10 tackles — his seventh game of 10 tackles or more this season. Campbell is now 20th in school history with 287 career tackles.

–Field Level Media