Until Texas and Oklahoma joined the SEC, Missouri was one of the two programs that was a part of the last conference expansion in 2012, alongside Texas A&M. 

Located in the fourth most populous city in the state of Missouri, Columbia, Mizzou shares a nickname with another SEC school. The school’s athletic programs have long been called the Tigers, in reference to what many called the armed guards who defended the city of Columbia from attacks from Confederate guerrillas during the Civil War.

The nickname was given to the university when the first football team was formed in 1890. But the mascot didn’t get an official name until 1984, almost 100 years later. Truman the Tiger was named after former American president and Missouri native Harry S. Truman.

The 134-year-old program has had plenty of time to develop traditions, and Mizzou is rich in those. 

Two hours before a football game kickoff, the team follows a ritual called the “Tiger Walk,” in which the players walk across the Pedestrian Bridge and down the South Tunnell from the Mizzou Athletic Training Complex to the locker room. The Tigers play in the Memorial Stadium/Faurot Field, open since 1926.

Faurot Field was named after Don Faurot, a former football coach and director of athletics at Mizzou. In almost 20 years leading the Tigers, Faurot recorded 101 wins, 79 losses and 10 ties, including a first Big Six title and bowl bid in 1939.

Not only a coach, but a Missouri graduate, Faurot helped lay the sod on the field in 1926 as a graduate student in agriculture, and in 1972 the stadium he helped build got his name. 

Mizzou might not have a standout athletic team, but the University’s school of journalism is up there with the Moody College of Communications as one of the best, if not the best, in the country.

Missouri has won 15 conference and five division titles and has two national championship selections recognized by the NCAA, but none since joining the SEC in 2012, finishing 55th in the 2024 Learfield Directors’ Cup.