It doesn’t get much cornier than the "one game at a time" philosophy, but for the Missouri football program, it might as well be plastered on the team building. The tunnel vision approach is so engrained throughout Gary Pinkel’s team that during the summer, players decided to remove all season schedules throughout the team’s facility.

Gerik Parmele photo

Whether or not Coach Gary Pinkel and the Missouri football team will admit it, Saturday’s matchup with the Nebraska Cornhuskers in Lincoln likely will go a long way in deciding who wins the Big 12 North Division title. Both the Tigers and Cornhuskers head into the contest with 3-2 conference records and are coming off tough losses to Big 12 South opponents.

That doesn’t mean the Tigers don’t peek at the Big 12 standings.

To put it simply, whoever wins today’s Missouri-Nebraska game in Lincoln, Neb., - the 100th meeting in the series - has a road to Kansas City paved in gold. The winner of today’s game essentially earns a two-game lead in the North Division and controls its own destiny for a trip to the Big 12 championship game on Dec. 2 at Arrowhead Stadium.

For the loser of today’s game to win the division, it must win its remaining two games and pray the winner loses its final two.

Missouri (7-2, 3-2 Big 12) plays at Iowa State then hosts Kansas.

Nebraska (6-3, 3-2) travels to Texas A&M then hosts Colorado.

After securing the tiebreaker, today’s winner can afford to lose one of its remaining games and still represent the North in the championship game.

"It’s not an enlightening observation," Pinkel said. "We all know that. It’s a big game. … Obviously, we’re the two top in our division, and when you play, it’s going to be an important game."

Coming off a sloppy effort in last week’s 26-10 loss to Oklahoma, Pinkel has tried to cool the hype surrounding today’s game. For the third time in four weeks, the Tigers are playing in front of an ABC regional TV audience, not to mention a Nebraska home crowd of 81,000-plus.

Said quarterback Chase Daniel: "He told us, ‘Don’t worry that it’s on ABC. Don’t worry that it’s an 11 o’clock game. Don’t worry that this is the Big 12 North title game. Let media and everyone else out there think what it is. But to us it’s just the next game.’ He’s exactly right, and everyone’s buying into it."

Nebraska, meanwhile, has embraced the stakes for today’s game. The Cornhuskers haven’t played in the Big 12 championship game since 1999.

"Our players are very well aware of the whole scenario involving the race," Huskers Coach Bill Callahan said. "They have been since the Big 12 Conference play has begun. We point that out every week when we get together after our Sunday review. We show them exactly where everybody’s at, we give them the schedule for the week, who’s playing who, what significance it can have and what impact it can have on our particular place in the division or where we’re headed in the race overall."

That’s certainly not Missouri’s approach - and probably for good reason. Last year, the Tigers faced a similar scenario through five conference games and traveled to Colorado, trailing the Buffs by a game in the league standings. With a viable shot to win the division, Missouri lost 41-12.

"You don’t want to be thinking about it at all," Daniel said of the division race. "It’s definitely a distraction for us. It’s going to be built up like that all week, but Coach Pinkel’s already addressed that we don’t need to focus on that. … All we worry about is the Huskers."

Which means Missouri should worry about the league’s most prolific offense, a balanced attack that ranks in the top 25 nationally in just about every offensive category.

Against the Tigers, the Huskers probably will use their four I-backs to run the ball mercilessly - a strategy that worked well for Oklahoma last week.

It’s a strategy the Tigers are beginning to expect.

"That’s part of football - pound it, pound it, pound it," defensive end Xzavie Jackson said. "We’re going to try to get our job done and stop that. But teams are going to do it until we stop it."

Stop the run, and Missouri takes a step closer to punching a ticket to Kansas City.