AUBURN, Ala. — The last time I checked, Missouri to the SEC was sounding more and more likely with each passing day.
On Tuesday, Mizzou Chancellor Brady Deaton all but said goodbye to the Big 12, likening the decision to a battle between the head and the heart, with the head opting for SEC stability and the heart opting for Big 12 nostalgia.
Only one teeny, weeny, black and-gold spotted problem.
Missouri fits in the SEC about as well as a tractor tire jammed onto the side of a Honda Civic.
Take last week. Oklahoma State descended on Columbia, Mo., ranked No. 4 in the BCS standings and generating national title game talk with a high-powered, explosive offense led by All-World receiver Justin Blackmon.
Bring the No. 4 team in the BCS standings into almost any SEC stadium - no matter what time the kickoff is set - and the stadium will be packed by a fan base foaming at the mouth and looking for an upset.
Only 64,202 fans showed up to Mizzou’s Faurot Field. The place holds 71,004.
Not very SEC, if you ask me.
Missouri is traditionally a basketball school. Until current head football coach Gary Pinkel took the Tigers to the Independence Bowl in 2003, the football team had only made three bowl appearances in two decades. Over the same period of time, the basketball team made 14 NCAA Tournament appearances.
Not exactly SEC there, either, unless we’re talking about the folks up in Lexington, Ky.
During the past decade, Missouri is 80-53 with three 10-victory seasons in the past five and no BCS bowl appearances. In the Tigers’ best season, an 11-2 Missouri team led by Chase Daniel blasted Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl.
Arkansas fans showed up in droves and chanted into the fourth quarter despite getting hammered into submission.
Missouri fans tried to keep up.
From its academic prowess (Mizzou would be only the fourth AAU school in the SEC) to its location to the Spread-offense, sometimes-there defense the team plays, Missouri is more of a fit for the Big 12 than any other conference.
Now, the Big 12 is anything but stable. I understand the desire to get out from under Bevo’s thumb, but a couple of years of waiting might earn the Tigers a Big Ten bid, and in that conference Missouri would actually blend with its brethren.
As a Mizzou alum, I’ve been paying attention to the situation with more than a passing interest. From what I’ve seen, it feels like Missouri is desperate to be seen as a valuable program, the way Nebraska and Texas A&M took relatively easy paths to greener pastures.
But the Tigers, on a yearly basis, will have trouble competing. Pinkel has built his program on Texas recruits, and it’s going to be harder to convince those parents to travel to Gainesville, Fla., or Athens, Ga., to see their sons play.
Granted, all of this talk may not matter. Missouri has been rumored to be moving to the SEC for so long, it almost feels like it’s happened already.
That doesn’t mean that it should.
Sports, Pages 18 on 10/28/2011