Missouri will be trying to replace the painful memories of its last visit to the Alamodome when the Tigers face Northwestern in the Alamo Bowl on Monday.

Missouri was ranked No. 1 last season and rolling toward a spot in the national championship before those hopes were dashed by a 38-17 loss to Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game at the Alamodome.

Despite that difficult loss, quarterback Chase Daniel, who grew up near Dallas, is looking forward to playing his final college game in San Antonio in front of a large group of friends and family.

"It's something that I like to do and obviously I have a lot of family down here just as every other Texas player is going to have," Daniel said of the about two dozen other Tigers from Texas. "It's an exciting time. I have played in this stadium a lot so I'm familiar with it and hopefully just come out with a win."

The Big 12 championship game wasn't Daniel's only difficult loss at the Alamodome. Long before he took over the Tigers offense, Daniel and Southlake Carroll lost the Texas high school Class 5A Division II title to Katy in a 16-15 heartbreaker there in 2003.

The 25th-ranked Tigers (9-4) are playing in a bowl game for a school-record tying fourth straight season, but No. 22 Northwestern (9-3) hasn't been to a bowl since a 50-38 loss to UCLA in the 2005 Sun Bowl and is looking for its first bowl victory in 59 years.

The Wildcats' are 1-5 in bowl games, with the lone victory coming in their first appearance, a 20-14 win over California in the 1949 Rose Bowl. A win would give Northwestern 10 victories for just the second time in school history.

"We just want to have a springboard into next season," Northwestern defensive tackle John Gill said. "This is a really special group of seniors. We want to leave our mark here. Ten wins — not many teams have had 10 wins and it's been a really long time since we've won a bowl game so doing both those things would really help."

Papajohns.com Bowl

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Rutgers and North Carolina State looked nothing like teams bound for bowls halfway through the 2008 season.

The Scarlet Knights of the Big East and the Wolfpack of the Atlantic Coast Conference survived terrible starts, then rode the their rejuvenated quarterbacks to late-season rallies and berths in the Papajohns.com Bowl.

Rutgers (7-5) takes a six-game winning streak into Monday's game at Birmingham's Legion Field. North Carolina State (6-6) closed the season with four straight wins, and needed every one to become bowl eligible.

The Scarlet Knights started 1-5 and fans were crying for coach Greg Schiano to bench quarterback Mike Teel. The senior responded with the best stretch of his career, throwing for 1,737 yards and 20 touchdowns in his final five games.

The Scarlet Knights ended the season with a 63-14 rout of Louisville. Teel passed for a school record 447 yards and seven touchdowns.