Why haven't Mizzou fans embraced the SEC like Texas A&M fans have?

quote:

---

Mainly because they are Yankees I think

---

With that being said, would Virginia or UNC/NC State have been similar if they were added instead of Mizzou?

quote:

---

UVA, UNC, NCSU

---

I think UVA and UNC would hold their noses up pretty high. Their student bodies may be less southern than a lot of SEC schools, but their schools traditions and histories are very, very southern.

I think NC State would pretty quickly be a great fit. As would Virginia Tech. NC State has a solid football fanbase. I think they would quickly feel like a natural. Virginia Tech is obvious.

quote:

---

I don't think it's any secret that Missouri lusted after the B1G for decades. Some in the Missouri community are thrilled with the revenues of the SEC, but it still feels like a consolation prize to many.

---

I still think Missouri would be better suited in the B1G playing against Illinois, Northwestern, Nebraska, Minnesota, etc.

I'm happy to have them, especially once they get basketball rebounded (no pun intended) again, but it still feels like an awkward fit.

Simply put, we benefitted more from the SEC move than they did. We leveraged our SEC move to greatly increase the value of our own brand, and to give us the first recruiting advantage in our state since way back in the dark ages when being associated with the military was cool for most young people. Also being the west-most SEC team helps us recruit in Arizona and Cali.

Mizzou's SEC benefits mostly have to do with money. Mizzou was already the flagship of their state, so their recruiting advantages were mostly limited to being the SEC destination for kids from nearby B1G states like Illinois (an advantage I don't think they have completely leveraged yet). Mizzou also was more into basketball prior to the move than we, and for them trading the hated Kansas for Kentucky was a bad trade for the fans.

As far as the intangibles, they got no shite talking boost from the SEC like the Aggies did. Maybe some Jayhawk out there hates the SEC and hates Mizzou more for being in the SEC, but I bet that is a small group. Meanwhile every fan of a Big 12 Texas team considered us to be traitors for our move ("good for A&M, bad for the state" is the mantra), and Texas in particular has watched its recruiting lockdown of the state give way to outright raiding by fellow SEC teams like LSU and the Bama that ruined Mack Brown's program. Seeing as how fandom is made stronger by hate than any other force (aka the Rant's motto) means that we Aggies were quick to internalize the SEC brand to wrap ourselves in that hate.

tl:dr - we got more out of it

quote:

---

cardboardboxer

---

Good synopsis. It also just feels like A&M and Central/East Texas always had much more in terms of SEC folks in them than St Louis or Kansas City. LSU, Arkansas, Ole Miss have always had large groups of people in DFW and Houston, and recently Alabama has started sending quite a few back.

So, with all that, it didn't feel like going into totally uncharted waters.

If people care more about pro baseball in Missouri than they do college sports then they aren't fit for the conference

quote:

---

Good synopsis. It also just feels like A&M and Central/East Texas always had much more in terms of SEC folks in them than St Louis or Kansas City.

---

I used to go to K.C. quite a bit for work. To me they miss their rivalries with KU, OU, Nebraska etc. Most Mizzou alums there just seem indifferent to being in the SEC. KC is so far away for the South its really hard for them relate.

I think Mizzou fans love the SEC. I'm so glad they joined our conference. The SEC was in need of some intelligent and attractive fans and Mizzou was clearly the best choice to better the conference in that regard.

I mean, there are a lot of schools on the fringes of the league. But most of their big cities are at least minority cities of the SEC.

Texas A&M and the big Texas cities (mainly DFW and Houston) has already been covered.

South Carolina has a ton of folks in Charlotte, and it's an ACC town. But seeing Georgia/Tennessee/South Carolina stuff is not uncommon there at all.

Florida obviously has folks in Tampa/Orlando/Miami. But those towns have all sorts of other SEC people.

The only other ones I can really think of are Kentucky and Arkansas, and Arkansas was considered an outlier basically up until Missouri showed up. And Arkansas sends people to Memphis and the Texas cities which, as we said, also have SEC people in them. Kentucky has been in the league for 100 years, so nobody really thinks twice about it, and TONS of Kentucky people end up in Nashville - which is probably the #2 SEC hub behind Atlanta.

Missouri is in a unique situation. Their alums, per everything I've seen (they can tell me if I'm wrong), end up in Kansas City/St Louis and after that Chicago. Every other SEC school sends their alums to cities in their state and then Atlanta/Houston/Dallas/Nashville.