Missouri Tigers to play in Gator Bowl. Here’s the date and ACC football opponent
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- Missouri Tigers will play Virginia Cavaliers in TaxSlayer Gator Bowl Dec. 27.
- Kickoff scheduled for 6:30 p.m. CT at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville.
- Missouri earns bowl berth under Drinkwitz; program has six straight bowl seasons.
The Missouri Tigers will head to the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl for the first time since 1968, the Southeastern Conference announced Sunday.
Coach Eli Drinkwitz’s Mizzou football team, which finished 8-4 this season, will play the Virginia Cavaliers from the ACC in the Dec. 27 game — a sentence that might have been somewhat far-fetched as recently as last week.
With an ACC Championship win, Virginia would have secured an automatic bid to the College Football Playoff as one of the highest-ranked league champs. But the 8-5 Duke Blue Devils shook up the CFP race by upsetting Virginia in overtime on Luke Mergott’s game-sealing interception.
Now, after going 10-3 in the regular season, the Cavaliers are instead headed to Jacksonville, Florida, to take on Drinkwitz’s Tigers at EverBank Stadium — home to the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. Central.
The Tigers (8-4) have been bowl eligible in all six years of Drinkwitz’s tenure. They’ve earned wins in the Cotton Bowl (over Ohio State) and the Music City Bowl (over Iowa).
This story was originally published December 7, 2025 at 3:07 PM.
