COLUMBIA | Chase Daniel crouches a bit as Jeremy Maclin and Sean Weatherspoon take knees off Daniel&#8217;s shoulders.</p><p>It is a formation no one will ever see on a college football Saturday. Weatherspoon, after all, is an All-Big 12 linebacker for the Missouri Tigers. Daniel is a Heisman finalist quarterback and wide receiver Maclin is an All-America return man.</p><p>This is a setup. Someone with a water bottle hurries in, spritzing would-be beads of sweat on the players&#8217; faces.</p><p>Welcome to the world of <em>Sports Illustrated</em>, the camera crew in town to record images that will grace the Midwest regional cover of <em>SI</em>&#8217;s college football preview issue.</p><p>Here now, No. 9, you stand here. Sean, move slightly to your right. Chase, look straight into the camera. OK. Now, profiles everyone.</p><p>Welcome to the Brave New World of Missouri football. The Tigers have arrived. Other regional covers will feature Ohio State, Southern Cal, Georgia and Florida.</p><p>Select company, to be sure. But then, the Tigers are coming off a No. 4 final ranking, Big 12 North and Cotton Bowl titles and a 12-2 record last season.</p><p>&#8220;Once you&#8217;ve proved you can do it, everybody believes,&#8221; said 6-foot-8 senior offensive lineman Colin Brown, one of seven Tigers selected first-team All-Big 12 Conference in the preseason media balloting last week.</p><p>Missouri football has gone from nearly anonymous just a few seasons past to unanimous among 51 media voters in its selection to win the Big 12 North again this season.</p><p>One <em>Dallas Morning News</em> writer has already predicted the Tigers will play in the BCS national championship game.</p><p>Daniel is popping up all over the place, from a feature presence on the national football front page of Rivals.com to the Davey O&#8217;Brien watch list.</p><p>There are hardly enough hours in the day for Daniel.</p><p>On Thursday, there he was, shirtless in the sun, running the voluntary seven-on-seven session at Faurot Field. On Friday, Daniel addressed about 8,000 people at the opening ceremonies of the Show-Me State Games.</p><p>&#8220;If you don&#8217;t think you&#8217;re as good as you can be, just stick with it,&#8221; Daniel said amid shouts of &#8220;We love you, Chase!&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t let anyone tell you what you can and can&#8217;t do. People said I&#8217;m too short for everything. But look at me now, and look how far we&#8217;ve come.&#8221;</p><p>On Saturday he flew out to California to serve &#8212; for the second straight year &#8212; as a mentor-coach at the Elite 11 quarterback camp. On Monday, Daniel will fly into Kansas City for Missouri&#8217;s turn at the Big 12 Media Days.</p><p>Then it is back to California for completion of the Elite 11 camp.</p><p>Maclin will be in St. Louis on Sunday night, &#8220;speaking to the Walk the Dog charity event,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Tony La Russa&#8217;s thing.&#8221;</p><p>Then he will join Daniel &#8212; and tight end Chase Coffman and safety William Moore &#8212; in Kansas City.</p><p>Too much hype?</p><p>&#8220;Maybe if it was my freshman or sophomore year,&#8221; Daniel said. &#8220;But not now. We can handle this.&#8221;</p><p>Maclin said: &#8220;We don&#8217;t believe in hype. There&#8217;s no such thing as hype. If that was the case, everything would be set in stone.&#8221;</p><p>There are games to be played, after all. Big games, starting with the season opener against Illinois in St. Louis. A trip to Nebraska. Another to Texas. But still MU&#8217;s consensus No. 6 preseason ranking foretells that when Mizzou meets Kansas in the Border War game Nov. 29 at Arrowhead Stadium, the Tigers should have punched, or could punch, their ticket to the Big 12 championship game Dec. 6 at Arrowhead.