SEC Welcomes Missouri As 14th Team (Sort Of)
A bit of a slip up as the SEC accidentally released its press release announcing Missouri as the 14th member of the Southeastern Conference.
Here’s the text that was accidentally released:
Given the ever-changing conference paradigm over the past year, the Southeastern Conference has continued to demonstrate its commitment to maintaining its stature as one of the nation’s premier conferences by welcoming the University of Missouri as the league’s 14th member, Commissioner Mike Slive announced Monday.
Missouri joins Texas A&M University as the league’s two new institutions who will begin full membership on July 1, 2012. It is the first expansion of the SEC membership since Arkansas and South Carolina joined the conference in 1992.
Missouri was a charter member of the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1907, which became the Big Six Conference in 1964, the Big Eight Conference in 1964 and the Big 12 Conference in 1996.
Geographically, it is a natural fit as the state of Missouri touches more states (Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee) that currently are home to an SEC institution than any other state that is not in the league’s previous 13-member footprint. Like the majority of the cities in the SEC, Columbia, Mo., is a college-centered town with a metropolitan population of 164,283, making it the fifth-largest city in the state of Missouri.
With an enrollment of 32,415, the University of Missouri boasts a strong academic resume, as it is one of only five universities nationwide with law, medicine, veterinary medicine and a research reactor on one campus. Six of Missouri’s sports teams last season led the Big 12 in graduation rate for their respective sports.
Culturally, Missouri is as well known for its barbecue, country music, history and rich tradition as the majority of the current states of the SEC.
Missouri is one of only 35 public U.S. universities invited to membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU). It will become the fourth SEC school that is part of the AAU, joining Florida, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.
I’d say we’re close!
h/t USA Today
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I am so disappointed in the SEC. I thought we would do better than this. Mizzou sees the SEC as a fallback because the Big Ten doesn’t want them. There are at least 4 schools to the east that would be a much better fit. I really hope that something happens and this doesn’t work out. We should not sacrifice longstanding tradition and excellence to have an even number of teams.
I completely agree with you jethahn! What a disappointment!
JETHAHN, I totally agree. I’ve spent a lot of time in Missouri, the people there are great, but they don’t in any way consider themselves to be Southerners, nor do they want to. So we’re Missouri’s SECOND CHOICE. I can’t believe it either.
Southern? My family in Kentucky and Missouri fought and died on both sides of the Civil War. You may think we are not Southern, remind me why most Missourians don’t like the University of Kansas and its counterpart, that I refuse to write. Lots of Missourian’s consider themselves Southern.
The point is I would rather see Missouri stay in their conference and not join the SEC. Someday we will have the big 16″s conferences, so quit crying and try helping the SEC get to that point.
As the premiere conference in college football I warned of expansion! We already have other conferences poaching our recruiting grounds and now we give two other teams the open honor of a pass to these prised recruits! We are the SEC!! We don’t need to bend for anyone!! We should remain a 12 team conference, PERIOD!!
Sorry for any typos and or grammatical errors ,as I am on a “smartphone” and cannot proofread or make corrections!
hey this means I will now have three more opportunities (maybe) a year to watch Bama play close to Oklahoma where I live. Awwww yeah. For me Missouri’s induction is worth it.
Why? why? why? stupid decision. Should’ve gotten Clemson. They’re going to get slaughtered.
And you think Clemson wouldn’t get slaughtered?
They don’t have a defense, it’s non-existent.
Mizzou could field a team that could take the abuse of a SEC schedule way before Clemsux ever could.
I seem to recall Clemson already having one SEC win this year…..
That’s pretty much the point. If you wanted to make a super conference of Bama and LSU from this year, UF from post-crying Tebow press conference, almost any Nebraska/FSU teams from the 90s, etc… The winner of that conference would have at least 3 losses and not be in the running for the National Championship. The reason for expansion was to invade 2 things: new tv markets and new recruiting areas. Mission accomplished. The current teams wouldn’t vote to accept a school that takes easy wins off the schedule in order to add a team that is good enough to steal wins from you without being good enough to bring another championship to the league. Put simply, they give us another Vandy.
Great Post, DUSTINKOSAR.
Wow!!! This is a horrible decision. We already added A&M to the West, why in the hell would we add yet another team to the west??? Not to mention, we all know that Mizzou is absolutely no competition for the SEC. This is ridiculous. Get Clemson, Florida State, even Georgia Tech…..just quit stacking up the West. This is going to throw the entire conference off.
Hannah, I’m sure the next move by the SEC will be to move Auburn to the SEC East. Auburn has more longstanding, natural opponents in the East than the West anyway. Auburn used to be on an annual schedule with Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, but had to give up the annual games with Florida and Tennessee with the first expansion. This will allow them to resume their annual rivalries with Florida and Tennessee, and keep Alabama on an annual basis as their West opponent.
The one blow this will cause will be the “3rd Saturday in October” game between Alabama and Tennessee, but while Alabama and Tennessee lose their annual rivalry, two annual rivalries will be renewed; Auburn-Florida and Auburn-Tennessee..
This has already been discussed Missouri will be going to the East because the SEC didn’t want to break apart traditional rivalries like Bama and Auburn. For those of you that thinks this is a bad Idea think again Missouri can easily handle teams like Vandy, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and given a few years in the SEC they will be a second tier team.
I don’t know what the final scenario will be, as it now appears Alabama is balking on Auburn going to the SEC East, but I’d almost bet that Missouri won’t be in the SEC East. This would create an undue hardship for their fans who travel to the games. Either Alabama or Auburn would be the logical choice geographically to move to the East, but Alabama has no interest in moving to the East, and now seems intent on preventing Auburn from doing so, as well.
Alabama and Auburn will be moved to the west. Good news for LSU & Ark.
If they moved both Alabama and Auburn to the East, you’d then have 6 teams in the West and 8 teams in the east. To make it work with Missouri, you’d either have to move EITHER Alabama or Auburn to the East OR move both to the East, and move either Kentucky or Vanderbilt to the West. The problem with the latter option is that you would concentrate almost all of the power teams in the East, and only LSU and Arkansas left to battle it out in the West.
Hannah Mizzou will be joining the EAST…that’s how they got the votes.
wow really??? WTF where they thinking… Im a Carolina fan and I think Clemson would be a better pick them mizzou, there not going to stand a chance..
Clemson makes NO sense. The SEC already has that tv market and recruits that area very well. What would they gain? South Carolina’s athletic director would veto that suggestion on the spot.
You are correct South Carolina would Veto Clem’s son Just as UGA would veto GA. TECH! I am totally aginst expansion. The only state that would make sense is N.Carolina and all N. Carolina teams are more concearned about ?basketball? LOL! Sad because UNC or N.C.STATE would help open the “SOUTHERN” market of Charlotte! I am still opposed to opening our treasure chest to anyone!! If it ain’t broke dont fix it!Don’t water down our talent pool!!! Look at a team like Vandy. This only makes it tougher for them to build s contender,and they have maintained class &dignity through years of losing seasons. They Clearly need new facilities! How do Mizzu’s & A&M’S stadium’s Capacity stack up with our other SEC schools? The SEC leads the nation in attendance,we need to keep this distinction in tact!! I was hoping with the SEC’s new 2 billion dollar TV deal Vandy & UK could update thier stadiums? Then again UK is almost a basketball school!!
What about Central Florida or Clemson?
They wanted to get a school in a state that they don’t already have a recruiting presence in.
Clemson and UCF would bring no new recruiting footprint to the table, that’s all this decision was about.
Guys, relax…the release was sent out in error…Mizzou isn’t in the SEC yet.
The point that there is a press release already written up is enough to worry about. They will be in soon enough.
Horrible decision, we should of gotten VT, at least then neither the Alabama-UT or Auburn-UGA rivalry would be at risk. This was a very greedy and selfish move here.
Move AU to the east. AU-UGA stands. Tenn picks up either Mizzou or A&M for its yearly meeting (UGA gets the other one) and Bama/AU continues. Problems solved.
The SEC could care less if Missouri is a better or worse team than a Clemson, It’s all about the money these days (unfortunately) and University of South Carolina already has the market for the whole state. With Missouri the SEC is getting the Kansas City and St. Louis markets, 2 large cities that will bring in LOTS of TV $$$. It’s pure and simple. Why do you think they went with A&M over say TCU. A&M has a much much much larger audience and TV market than TCU does. Plain and simple.
In related news, the NCAA has a new slogan:
NCAA ….”Show me the money!!!”
Missouri is a good fit for the SEC. It was well known that the SEc home office wanted to add another school that was not in a state that already boasted a member university. Florida State, Clemson, Louisville, and Georgia Tech would have been nice fits as well, but the SEc already has viewers in those given states. This isn’t about making current fans happy. This is about money, cash, moolah, greenbacks, dead presidents, lettuce, dollar bills! Gaining A&M with the Houston and Dallas markets was huge. Adding Mizzou with the St. Louis and Kansas City markets is just as lucrative. The SEC had only one city ranked in the Top 10 viewer market, in Atlanta. Now, they will have 3 in the Top 10, and 7 in the Top 30 viewer markets, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, St. Louis, New Orleans, and Tampa. MONEY people….that’s the name of the game with conference expansion. Our likes or dislikes are irrelavant in the grand scheme of SEC expansion.
Lets face it,the SEC would have prefered UNC or N.C. STATE! There is no team from North Carolina and the Charlotte TV market! But those schools care more about basketball and will never leave the ACC ! But I think with the right pitch N.C.STATE may have made the move?
Well said Gates.
This begs to ask another question. What will the implications of the SEC Championship game be? Atlanta was chosen because of the dome, and being as centrally located a neutral site as possible. With Texas and Missouri now having a team in the conference, will Atlanta still host the game every year, or will there be a rotating venue between Atlanta and a stadium farther west?
Then Tex A&M and Mizzu travel to ATL! But that will be a while ,longer for Mizzu!
Will all of you stop complaining about the conference realignment. All the SEC have to do is move Auburn to the east where Auburn has already said they would be comfertible. Auburn already has many rivals in the East anyway. And for you who say Mizzou won’t compete very well in a conference as tough as the SEC, you are probably right. But they have been good in the past, and will probably have another few good seasons in the coming years. And if you think they wont ever do well in the SEC, look on the bright side, an easy game on the schedule when you face them (unless you are Ole Miss, Vandy, Kentucky, etc.)
THE SEC WITH MISSOURI AS IT’S 14TH MEMBER
__West__ __East__
Alabama Auburn
Arkansas Florida
LSU Georgia
Miss. St. Kentucky
Missouri South Car.
Ole Miss Tennessee
Texas A&M Vanderbilt
Missouri beat Bama & Bear in the ’68 Gator Bowl & again in the season opener at our place (well, Legion Field) in 1974 or ’75……They’ll be alright eventually – we’ll just have to pout a while.
Now thats goin back! I love the SEC “CLASSICS”channel but jeepers! LOL As i’ve said ,the SEC really wanted a team from North Carolina but they are all tied to the ACC,basketball,tobacco road club! But they are smack dab in the southeast! Only N.C. State (with the right pitch)may have been lured away? But the Charlotte TV market was the SEC’s 1st choice!
this is stupid! Missouri is not in the south or the east, so why the heck are they going to be in the SOUTHEASTERN Conference? No A&M isn’t in the east, but they are at least in the south so I don’t mind them.
Think some of you will be suprised at how competitive Missouri is in the sec…yes we are the best conference but the big 12 is a close 2nd if not even this year when looking at the conferences as a whole. Missouri has no less than 8 wins since 2005 and is 2-0 against sec teams in bowl games since then(albeit arkansas and sc). Pinkel has built agood program and I think they will be a good fit.
What I want to know is how does a presumably professional PR dept. accidentally release a press statement? What does it mean that such a thing could happen? Was it issued “accidentally-on-purpose” for some reason, or was it really someone’s screw-up? Has this kind of thing happened before in college ball? & what was the truth about it then? I don’t mean to be suggesting some kind of paranoid scenario; I am sincerely puzzled.
By the way, I am sure the choice of expansion teams is chiefly driven by economics (aka $$$). Overall, I would say that Mizzou seems as good a choice as any.
They’ll jump to the Big10 as soon as that conference is ready to expand to 14.
I can’t see Missouri leaving the SEC for the Big Ten. It’d be step backwards for their football program.
OMG,that would be awesome…maybe A&M will follow!! Then we can close our treasure chest! We need Clem’s son to lose to keep the acc away from the SEC’S recruits!
I heard Missouri is where you go to hook up with fat chicks you met online.
Missouri?? YYYAAAWWWNNN !!!! Can’t wait for that !!
Thanks for thinking about the fans.