Thanks for the invite and congrats on your championship season!
One quick correction, Mizzou did not used to be SMSU and change to MSU. That is Missouri State, in Springfield MO, which used to be Southwest Missouri State U (SMSU).
We are extremely excited to join the SEC. And so far the SEC has given us some pretty good luck. Since announcing the switch our football team went undefeated the rest of the season, our basketball team is 21-2 and ranked #4, and we just landed one of the top football recruits in the nation (DGB). We realize we have our work cut out for us but the alumni, fans and university are all willing to make the investments to bring us up to SEC standards.
Just a brief history. Mizzou does have a strong football tradition but for the most part that is ancient history. We went through a brutal two decade-long spell of not just bad football, but embarrassingly inept football. During that period, the administration was not just apathetic about football, and sports in general, but most will say they were downright hostile to athletics. Most of the blame goes to a chancellor they hired from Berkeley CA who wanted to make Mizzou into some sort of psuedo ivy league school and looked down upon sports.
We have slowly made our way back to respectability in no small part due to HC Gary Pinkle. Despite losing the blue chip recruits to Big 12 foes like Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and aTm he has done an excellent job finding the diamonds in the rough and building the program from the bottom up.
It will be interesting to see how we make the transition from the offensive minded, spread dominated Big 12 to the defensive oriented SEC. It helps that we're in the East which is down a little but, but I'm cautiously optimistic about our chances. Either way, I'm extremely excited and can't wait for the Tide to roll into Columbia next fall!
One quick correction, Mizzou did not used to be SMSU and change to MSU. That is Missouri State, in Springfield MO, which used to be Southwest Missouri State U (SMSU).
We are extremely excited to join the SEC. And so far the SEC has given us some pretty good luck. Since announcing the switch our football team went undefeated the rest of the season, our basketball team is 21-2 and ranked #4, and we just landed one of the top football recruits in the nation (DGB). We realize we have our work cut out for us but the alumni, fans and university are all willing to make the investments to bring us up to SEC standards.
Just a brief history. Mizzou does have a strong football tradition but for the most part that is ancient history. We went through a brutal two decade-long spell of not just bad football, but embarrassingly inept football. During that period, the administration was not just apathetic about football, and sports in general, but most will say they were downright hostile to athletics. Most of the blame goes to a chancellor they hired from Berkeley CA who wanted to make Mizzou into some sort of psuedo ivy league school and looked down upon sports.
We have slowly made our way back to respectability in no small part due to HC Gary Pinkle. Despite losing the blue chip recruits to Big 12 foes like Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and aTm he has done an excellent job finding the diamonds in the rough and building the program from the bottom up.
It will be interesting to see how we make the transition from the offensive minded, spread dominated Big 12 to the defensive oriented SEC. It helps that we're in the East which is down a little but, but I'm cautiously optimistic about our chances. Either way, I'm extremely excited and can't wait for the Tide to roll into Columbia next fall!
