Old Foes Rejoining Missouri Tigers In SEC

Missouri will be facing old rivals Oklahoma and Texas in the SEC this season. (By Breakyunit - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=134256202)

That old Bob Dylan staple The Times They Are A Changin’ could be the theme song for the NCAA football offseason. As a matter of fact, it could be adopted annually as the go-to tune for college football in general.

Once more over the winter, there was plenty of movement afoot as the top conferences in the FBS were again undergoing significant realignment. The Missouri Tigers will be welcoming a couple of longtime rivals back into regular competition, as the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners officially are making the move from the Big 12 to the SEC. The planned relocation of these two famous football schools was originally revealed last year.

It was in 2012 that Missouri left the Big 12 and made the move to the SEC. The Tigers previously competed in the East Division of the SEC. However, beginning with the 2024 season, the SEC is eliminating the divisional format. This season, the top two finishers in regular-season play will clash for the SEC title. 

Missouri will open its SEC schedule September 21 at home against Vanderbilt. Other conference home opponents include Auburn, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

There are away SEC dates against Texas A&M, Alabama, South Carolina and Mississippi State. 

At Onlinesportsbetting.net, Missouri is given +3300 odds to win the national championship. The Tigers are the co-11th betting choice along with the Penn State Nittany Lions. Missouri is set at +250 to make the 12-team playoff and +1400 to win the SEC title.

Last season, the Tigers went 11-2 and beat Ohio State 14-3 in the Cotton Bowl. It was Missouri’s best football season since going 12-2 in 2013 and also winning the Cotton Bowl. The Tigers finished the season with the No. 8 ranking in both the AP poll and Coaches poll. It was their first top-10 finish since the 2013 season.

Sooners, Tigers To Be Annual Rivals Again

Oklahoma and Missouri will be playing for the first time since 2011. (CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=902005)

Missouri and Oklahoma first met in 1902 and were regular rivals from 1910-2011 in what was originally the Big 8 Conference and grew to become the Big 12 Conference. The Sooners and Tigers clashed in the Big 12 Championship game in 2007 and 2008, with Oklahoma winning on both occasions. The Sooners took a 38-17 decision in 2007 and a 62-21 verdict in 2008. 

Oklahoma has won eight of the last nine meetings with Missouri. However, the last time they met at Missouri on Oct. 23, 2010, the Tigers were 36-27 winners. The Sooners hold a 20-2 record in the past 22 meetings with Missouri. Missouri won four of the first five meetings between these long-time rivals. However, in the overall picture, Oklahoma has a 64-27-5 edge in the all-time series between the two schools.

The SEC has decreed that Missouri and Oklahoma will be annual opponents in conference play. The rivalry will be renewed on November 9 in Week 11 of the college football season, with the Tigers playing host to the Sooners. It will be the first meeting of the two schools on the gridiron since September 24, 2011 at Oklahoma. On that day, the Sooners were 38-28 winners.

Longhorns Not A Traditional Missouri Rival

Although they first met on the gridiron in 1901, with Texas coming to Missouri and winning 11-0, the history of competition between the Longhorns and Tigers is not nearly as rich as the clashes between Missouri and Oklahoma.

Seven of the first nine meetings between the Longhorns and Tigers resulted in shutout victories. Six of those goose eggs were posted by the victorious Longhorns, the most lopsided of which was a 65-0 rout at Missouri in 1932.

In 1996, Texas left the Southwest Conference to join Missouri in the Big 12 Conference. The two schools would meet nine times as conference opponents. Texas went 7-2 in those games. Both Missouri victories were home-field triumphs. The Tigers beat the Longhorns 37-29 in 1987. And in 2011, Missouri was a 17-5 winner.

The most recent meeting between the two schools came in 2017 in the Academy Sports Texas Bowl. Played in Houston, the Longhorns were 33-16 victors over the Tigers. Texas holds a 17-4 edge over Missouri in the all-time series between the two schools.

They’ll have to wait at least another year to renew hostilities. Texas is not on Missouri’s 2024 SEC schedule. 

Old Tigers Foe Returning to Big 12

Another long-time Missouri rival is switching conferences this season and it’s a bit of a homecoming. The Colorado Buffaloes, the team coached by Deion Sanders, is leaving the Pac-12 to return to the Big 12. 

For years, Colorado played against Missouri as conference rivals, first in the Big 7 from 1948-57, then in the Big 8 from 1957-95 and finally in the Big 12 from 1996-2010. That’s when the Buffaloes left to join the Pac-12.

For decades, Missouri and Colorado were the fiercest of rivals. The two schools met on the gridiron every year from 1946 through 2010. However, they haven’t lined up opposite each other since the Tigers posted a 22-0 home-field victory over the Buffaloes on October 9, 2010. When they’ll meet again is anyone’s guess.

Missouri has won the past five games against Colorado. Overall, the Tigers are holding a 41-31-3 advantage in the all-time series with the Buffaloes, a rivalry that began in 1930, when Colorado won 9-0 at Missouri.

Other Key Conference Realignment Moves

The Big Ten has truly become a coast-to-coast operation. For decades, schools such as USC, Oregon, Washington and UCLA competed in the Pac-12 to earn the right to play against the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl. Now, those four schools will become part of the Big Ten. With 18 members, the Big Ten has nearly twice as many schools as its name claims. Meanwhile, the once-powerful Pac-12 has ceased to exist as a conference.

Along with Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State. UCF, Cincinnati, BYU, Houston and Utah are joining the Big 12. The ACC is welcoming Cal, Stanford and SMU. The Mustangs are among four schools leaving the AAC, along with Houston, UCF and Cincinnati. Army is surrendering its independent status to join the AAC. Other schools coming into the conference are Charlotte, FAU, North Texas, Rice, UAB and UTSA.