Eli Drinkwitz shares thoughts on regional rivalries, Mizzou renewing series with Texas and Oklahoma
Eli Drinkwitz is on board with Mizzou renewing its rivalries with former Big 12 foes Texas and Oklahoma who are heading to the SEC. The Tigers head coach sees regional rivalries as an important part of college football that could be threatened by expansion driven by potential TV revenues.
At Monday’s SEC Media Days, Drinkwitz was asked, “What are your thoughts on Missouri renewing those old rivalries with Texas and Oklahoma when they join the league?”
“I’m all for it,” the Missouri coach responded.
Drinkwitz used the question as an opportunity to focus on the importance of regional rivalries in college football. The recent round of expansion has raised concerns in the college football community about the potential loss of some of those games.
“I think I said up here earlier that I think the beauty of college football is the rivalries that we have,” Drinkwitz continued. “I think it’s the shared traditions and pageantry of the game. I think we got to be careful that we don’t miss that or lose that in search of better TV contracts or better TV exposure. We’re going to lose the basis of who we are.
“I’m for playing consistent games. I’m for playing consistent opponents, building a consistent level of expectation that these are the teams that you need to beat, these are the teams that you need to be comparing yourself against.”
Im glad Drink is saying it, and it’s frustrating that there aren’t more voices in the coaching world speaking up about it.
Speaking as a Mizzou fan that got torn from all of our traditions and rivalries, it really sucks the life out of college football when you don’t give a cr@p about your opponent that week. We are trying to rebuild that in a conference with extremely toxic, unwelcoming fans. After a decade, we have winning records against many SEC teams and played in 2 championship games, yet we still have these morons telling us we aren’t worthy of the SEC. Comically, many of them haven’t done what we have since 2012.
man – with all due respect – get in line…
South Carolina and Arkansas have 20 years head start on yall and we still get entitled fans from schools (looking at you ut) that have won fewer national championships (in any sports) than we have complaining about how good it used to be back in 1980s….
I hear it all ready, wearing faded orange must turn your brain into pumpkin mush
Man what a bunch of crybabies. Can I offer you guys a tissue or ten.
Fuzz, you think we are crying about it when we are setting the facts straight, there’s your trouble son. And that same mistaken attitude is what lead other coaches in the league to have this laugh at your football program’s expense. It’s completely the bed your fiction novel of the week club continues to perpetuate.
The Big 8 was not great because of Texas, Texas didn’t even belong to that conference. It was great because of so many contenders… Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado, K State, Oklahoma….. the big 12 was great but not on the same level at the Big 8. The Oklahoma and Texas that ruined the Big 12 will also ruin the SEC division they join. Cheating and fixing are so deeply embedded in their way of thinking there’s no hope for them as conference members, they need to be independent permanently. I’m not sure why they don’t get that concept, no sooner do they join a conference than they start wanting to own the TV network serves that conference, and they pay everyone not to vote the sensible way against clear conflicts of interest… No you people here just don’t know how stupid you were when you invited Lowborns and their oily cousin Sooners ( a team named after historical cheaters) to join the SEC, you have a fair competition problem to reconcile, you haven’t even nightmared yet.
The rest of the Big 12 had an inferiority complex when it came to Texas and OU. It looks like that continues for some. That won’t be the case for most fans of SEC teams.
I think Drink’s thoughts are shared by a lot of Mizzou fans – its about the history and rivalries, not the money. Or it should be. No matter what Texas wants to believe, there is no longhorn football without the opponents. Longhorn network killed that conference because they wanted to make it a one team show, ignoring that everyone in a conference is important when it’s the games that actually matter. Nobody is watching a Texas game if they’re the only team on the field
I think that’s pretty accurate. Texas didn’t care who left a decade ago because they felt everyone was replaceable except them. It didn’t take long to see the Big12 had no chance because Texas was wrong, they simply couldn’t replace CU, MU, Neb and aTm, that was just too big of a blow for the conference to recover from. It would have been like KY, GA, Auburn and LSU leaving the SEC 10 years ago, the SEC would have no chance with Bama and Florida alone.
Yep, Drink is spot on. And comments from fans like LSUMC are just obnoxious and uninsightful. He talks about some fans having an inferiority complex while ignoring the real problem, which is that too many teams in college football have a superiority complex. (Mostly SEC teams, quite frankly) There is no college football if you take out all the schools like Iowa State, Baylor, Mizzou, Utah, North Carolina, etc. But apparently if you want to be respected and treated fairly, you have an inferiority complex…
I sometimes wish we could take the LSU’s and bamas out and put them in a 8 team national conference with a few other elite programs, and let them live out their dream of only having a conference of foes they deem worthy. And the rest of us can keep college football the way we know and love it.
I honestly do think that the four teams leaving kind of proved the point…without those four programs (not elite, but at some points had big success), the big 12 died on the vine. Texas and Oklahoma weren’t enough to keep the conference alive – without the opponents, the brands mean nothing
Laughing Out Loud, objecting to programs that buy houses for the mothers of their recruits is an “inferiority complex”
Do you think NIL existed all along but nobody knew about it except Oklahoma and Texas?? Pull your head out of ……
Two silverback gorillas will dominate and intimidate a cage full of chimps. Not so much when surrounded by another half dozen silverbacks.
Jane Goodall, …. is that you?
Two kids on the playground that don’t come in from recess when the bell rings will be out there by themselves
Regional rivalries are important. Thankfully, UK has always been in a stable conference, so we haven’t experienced this like some other programs, and the loss of the rivalry with Indiana in football and basketball was due to scheduling “concerns”, not to realignment.
However, if you were to ask, say, a Louisville fan, they would say they’re thrilled to be in a power conference like the ACC, but they would also mention how sad it was to lose the series with Cincinnati and Memphis (also Marquette, in a lesser sense, in basketball).
It’s great that Missouri will be able to play OU again. They had some meetings in the 2000s that decided the fate of the conference championship.
I get that the super conference idea might seem exciting on one front for these megawealthy teams. I think they’d come to regret not playing their rivals, even if there is a big power difference (TN v Ala, Mizz v Oklahoma). The Alabama-Michigan, Notre Dame-LSU games are exciting when they’re played occasionally, but that’s it. Shared history, geographic proximity, close losses, and disrespect create the games that people will actually tune in for every week
To really know where the sweet spot for football competition should be you have to look at a conference where half the members are 1-2 lucky plays from winning it EVERY year. If you look the opposite way at conferences that don’t have this vision and willpower for what members are buying tickets for you are just hopelessly disoriented.
Conference alignment/rivalries are small potatoes compared to the problems NIL/portal are creating.
Even the dude that started SDS has that one figured out.
Not really. Eventually there will be rules regarding the NIL/Portal stuff and those issues will level off.
Conference realignment is not just ending rivalries, the universities that get left out, it will be a death sentence. There are several schools in the Pac12 and ACC who are pretty nervous right now and it’s not because of NIL.
I can believe rules regarding the portal will work, eventually. As far as NIL, not so much, it’s not that any school can’t compete IF enough of their big money alum step up with 7 figure donations to a collective, but most schools simply don’t have those alums willing to throw money at college sports. The schools already on the big stage recruiting will not have any problems.
Won’t happen. Limitations or rules on NIL will result in a class action lawsuit and the politicians will jump in with both feet claiming it will disproportionately affect minorities. That tooth paste is out of the tube and you won’t put it back, even a little.
Maybe, but the Supreme Court might say amateurism is legitimate and institutions have a right to enforce it. OR the supreme court might say that amateurism is colorblind and people of all colors have access to professional options! The Supreme Court had to do something to justify those paychecks.
Even better the courts could say that individuals who knowingly undermine amateur standards are financially liable for lost income those who play by the rules experience when compared to cheaters??
You might think that would be unpopular today, but after a couple years of NIL it may look like “college” football has no other choice.
Yes…. and no, sometimes we have to lose complete control of something before we can put it back in good working order.
NIL cannot work in the NFL and it sure can’t work in COLLEGE football.
I’m laughing my a. off at the morons who think it will work and laughing even harder at the idiots that didn’t notice how messed up it was to make NIL appear to be the answer.!!!
Clarify renewing “what rivalries we have”.
Glad2bnoone, Stop being such a troll on Mizzou stories.
Then stop making stupid comments.
Missouri’s all time record vs Oklahoma in football is just a little better than Vanderbilt’s all time record vs Alabama. Unfortunately, it’s been a one-sided rivalry at best in football.
Just in!!!BREAKING 4-star WR Joshua Manning has committed to Missouri. MIZ-
I don’t worry about the anti-Mizzou trolls here. I’ve been to most the of SEC venues and the fans there, for the most part, are super nice and friendly. We visited Knoxville a few years ago and while we were in line some Vol fans offered us free tickets! We went to Athens and it was free beer and food at almost every tailgate we passed. I love the SEC and their fans so don’t confuse the fat old guys sitting in their underwear on their computer posting on SDS as real SEC fans. They are not. Do you hear me glad2besec?
Tony who’s to say your not some fat guy on your computer commenting lol. It’s the internet don’t take it to serious.
You should..there’s a reason for it. It’s not Missouri fans, it’s just some here. Like calling your brief time in a conference with Texas a rivalry. Pretty funny.
It wasn’t brief enough by a long shot
Texas being a rivalry is more telling of someone’s age. If they are under 30, that’s what they grew up with even if it was brief. I’m hesitant to say Mizzou has much of a rivalry with anyone anymore.
Go to the K-State game.
Or to the Kentucky game
Or to the Florida game
Or to the Arkansas game.
Who cares if someone says “rivalry”. Just score in over-time and go for 2