Caught your breath yet?

Missouri football hasn’t done much to help the state’s collective blood pressure this season. But, through the Tigers’ cardiac run, the team has shown some serious grit.

Take that hospital visit and fourth-quarter comeback from starting quarterback Brady Cook on Oct. 19 against Auburn, for one.

Take his backup, Drew Pyne, recovering from plenty of outside skepticism to throw three touchdown passes in the second half to help Mizzou beat Oklahoma for another.

Take two touchdowns in the final 63 seconds of game time for Mizzou to come from behind and stun the Sooners 30-23 on Saturday on Faurot Field.

But how far is all that staying power going to take Missouri in 2024?

More: Drew Pyne said he would respond. The Missouri football QB delivered against Oklahoma

More: Did Missouri football climb in national polls after Oklahoma heroics? Here’s where MU landed

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz Drinkwitz, shortly after triple-zeros hit against Oklahoma on the SEC Network broadcast with sideline reporter Cole Cubelic, said the win “keeps (Mizzou) in the playoff race.”

Let’s take a trip down that rabbit hole:

How is the SEC title race looking for Missouri football?

The only guaranteed path is to win your conference, so let's first take a look where Missouri stands in the SEC.

The conference is a free for all. There’s a not-so-obscure path where eight teams — half the expanded league — finish with a 6-2 conference record and the title game gets decided by each team's opponents’ winning percentage.

Welcome to the chaotic world of Super Conferences ...

Avoiding that scenario (in which Mizzou finishes fifth in the league standings), Missouri needs a lot of results to fall in its favor for a Dec. 8, title-game trip to Atlanta.

There are zero SEC teams with no losses in conference play. There are three teams with one SEC loss: Texas; Tennessee; Texas A&M. There are five SEC teams, including Mizzou, with two league losses: Georgia, Ole Miss, Alabama and LSU are the others.

It goes without saying that Missouri needs to win out in its remaining games at South Carolina and Mississippi State and at home against Arkansas. The Tigers also need to avoid every tiebreaker situation with Alabama and Texas A&M. Here’s what needs to happen:

• Mizzou’s easiest path to the SEC title game is if Texas runs the table, beating Auburn and Texas A&M.

• Texas A&M plays at Auburn and versus Texas, and Mizzou would need it to lose both games to avoid a tiebreaker.

• Alabama faces Oklahoma and Auburn, and Missouri needs the Crimson Tide to lose one of those games.

• Tennessee has Georgia and Vanderbilt on the road left on its schedule. Mizzou needs the Vols to lose to Vandy to hold the tiebreaker.

• Ole Miss has Florida and Mississippi State left. If the Rebels win both games, the tiebreaker would run to the fourth stipulation in the SEC’s updated rules. That means Missouri would likely need the Rebels to lose a game. The Egg Bowl would make the math easiest.

• Georgia only has Tennessee remaining in SEC play. Missouri likely needs the Bulldogs to lose that game to avoid the fourth rung of the tiebreaker rules.

• LSU has Florida, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma to play. Missouri needs it to lose any of those three games.

Sound impossible? Sure is unlikely. But, by the letter of the law, that path sets up Texas-Missouri on Sunday, Dec. 8, in Atlanta.

The overwhelming likelihood, however, is that Missouri is not playing for an SEC title this season. Two losses almost never gets there and realistically won’t cut it this season, either.

Now ... what about, like Drinkwitz said, the College Football Playoff?

How is the CFP race looking?

ESPN’s playoff predictor algorithm gives Mizzou an 8% chance of making the 12-team field.

If Missouri wins out and does not play in the SEC title game, those odds, per the algorithm, increase to 61%. In the three scenarios we ran where Mizzou went 3-0 to end the year, ESPN made Mizzou an 11-seed on the road at Georgia in one; a 9-seed on the road at Notre Dame in another; and, lastly, left the Tigers out of the playoff field in the final simulation.

If Missouri made the title game and lost, the algorithm decreases MU’s odds of a playoff berth to 15%. Something to keep in mind.

With ACC-frontrunner Miami’s loss to unranked Georgia Tech and a Big 12 blender, it’s looking increasingly likely that both of those leagues will be one-bid conferences, coming in the form of conference champions. Notre Dame, if it can avoid a loss against Virginia, Army or USC, looks overwhelmingly likely to earn a berth. The Group of Five, as it stands, only is sending one team, too.

That leaves — love it or loathe it — the potential for eight spots to be divided up between the Big Ten and SEC. Let’s say that transpires.

In the Big Ten, barring disaster, Oregon and Ohio State will be among the 12-team field. Indiana is 10-0 and currently the eighth-ranked team by the CFP, and Penn State is the committee’s current No. 6-ranked team.

If all that plays out, which it almost certainly won’t without some drama, that’s four total spots to the SEC.

Missouri’s best path to the playoffs is almost exactly the opposite of the SEC title game. Mizzou wants Alabama and Texas A&M, the two losses on its schedule, to keep winning and play each other in Atlanta here.

Let's assume the SEC's runner-up is getting an at-large bid. That leaves, maximum, two more at-large spots for the league.

The Tigers are, again, going to need some help. An Ole Miss loss and a Georgia defeat at Tennessee would help the cause. Texas getting stunned by Arkansas or Kentucky wouldn't hurt. Mizzou fans should root for Vandy magic on Nov. 30 in the 'Dores' game against Tennessee. MU may already have the edge on two-loss LSU, one of which coming against a now-sub-.500 USC, but another notch in the loss column in Baton Rouge would help.

Again, it’s possible. But the cards need to fall in Mizzou’s favor.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Is Missouri football's gritty run enough for CFP berth? Here is the path