FAYETTEVILLE -- Perhaps subconsciously the Arkansas Razorbacks wanted to fuel the "Battle Line Rivalry" with Missouri.
Because in the worst way, that's certainly what they did. Blowing a 24-7 halftime lead to lose 28-24 to the allegedly woeful Missouri Tigers on Friday afternoon in Columbia, Mo., surely in Arkansas should instill the battle to the Battle Line Rivalry. Previously, it seemed regarded more borderline than battle line by many Razorbacks fans.
This whole battle-line business has seemed contrived, an artificial concoction from an insurance company's ad department.
But real rancor manifests in Arkansas now. The bowl bound Razorbacks were skunked in the second half by a Tigers team allegedly dreadful defensively and unabashedly unqualified to go bowling, finishing 4-8 overall and 2-6 in the SEC East.
Coach Bret Bielema's Razorbacks, improved every year from 3-9, 0-8 in the SEC to 7-6, 2-6 to 8-5, 5-3 last year, misstepped backward in Columbia. They finish their 2016 regular season 7-5 with a 3-5 SEC. The conclusion was losing the only SEC game they were favored to win.
That won't be forgotten in Arkansas, when the Razorbacks and Mizzou conclude their 2017 SEC season in Fayetteville.
New SEC rivalries were introduced in 2012 when Missouri and Texas A&M fled the dysfunctional Big 12 for the SEC.
For Arkansas, they became permanent rivals. Texas A&M and Arkansas annually play each other in the SEC West. In 2014, Missouri became Arkansas' permanent SEC crossover East vs. West rival.
Arkansas and Texas A&M are natural rivals from 1927-91 Southwest Conference games.
From 2009-11, they played an annual nonconference game at the Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium, their game site again since 2014 after a 2012 and 2013 campus home-and-home in College Station, Texas, and Fayetteville.
Although Arkansas and Missouri border right up the road from Fayetteville and east along the "Bootheel," they were matched in just one scheduled game (1963) and two bowl games previous to 2014.
An Arkansas-Missouri rivalry did seem natural upon their first SEC meeting. SEC East 2014 champion Mizzou's late fourth-quarter touchdown edged Arkansas 21-14 in Columbia. Controversy, inevitably a key rivalry ingredient, spewed. What seemed a Missouri fumble recovered by Arkansas was declared an incomplete pass by the replay official.
Yet that rivalry spark didn't ignite. Mizzou and the rivalry slipped badly in 2015. With its team abysmal and longtime Coach Gary Pinkel retiring at the end of the season, Mizzou got thumped 28-3 in Fayetteville.
This year's Tigers allegedly were abysmal, too. They looked abysmal against Arkansas for a half.
In the second half, Mizzou rallied and retook the Battle Line Trophy that next year likely will mean far more to all of Arkansas than it apparently did this year.
Sports on 11/28/2016