Wait to watch Arkansas-Duke leads to realization about Mizzou

BRANSON, Mo. — The theater room at the Marriott in Branson was full of Chiefs fans watching their perrenial playoff team turned insurance hypers lose to the Dallas Cowboys.

They were there for the same reason why a handful of Arkansas fans waited patiently from the back for the NFL game to finish up so the Hogs game against Duke could be watched. Whatever service the hotel uses in the rooms was in a contract dispute with CBS, so various apps were making it possible to watch en masse in the theater.

Having grown up SEC country, seeing a large gathering of NFL fans decked out in jerseys was an odd sight. Chiefs fans soon partook in the same walk of shame Arkansas fans would a couple of hours later as they quietly filed out, grumbling under their breath about bad calls and player mistakes.

Afterward, as the place finally sat empty with only the hum of a nearby gas fireplace for noise, the thought trickled in about how odd it must be to have life be driven by the NFL rather than college sports. The thought sounded miserable, but for several cities outside the SEC footprint, that's how life apparently is.

That's when it hit. In all the years of meeting family in Branson Thanksgiving Week to smoke a turkey, chow down on custard pies, watch Arkansas basketball, and wrapping things up with the Arkansas-Missouri football game, it had never occurred to any of us that the country-themed resort town is in the SEC.

After all, Mizzou is in the SEC, and the football team has proven it can compete in the conference to an extent, although it's never been a legitimate threat to actually claim the SEC championship. Still, it's possible Eli Drinkwitz might one day bring a low seed playoff berth Tigers fans.

Still, that being said, somehow years of family gatherings took place in the SEC with no clue, nor realization that was actually the case.

This is why the Tigers have always struggled so hard to fit. They're terrible at baseball, which in itself violates a basic premise of SEC DNA, and they fail to even acknowledge themselves as a whole within their communities.

How is the rest of the conference supposed to take Mizzou seriously as a conference member if it doesn't take its own self seriously? Of course, Tigers fans will argue that Branson is way down in the far southern part of Missouri and Columbia is . . . well, no one in the SEC knows where the Missouri version of Columbia actually is.

(Checks map) Turns out it is a quality bathroom stop along I-70 halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City in North Central Missouri. SEC fans can fly to St. Louis and drive two hours west or land in Kansas City and drive two hours east, just pick your poison and best price on flights.

No matter the choice, when opposing fan bases land, much like in Branson, there will be no sign of the Missouri Tigers because pro sports drown them out. For Mizzou fans, this is absolutely normal, but for those who grew up in the SEC, this is as perplexing as it gets.

For instance, in Arkansas, whether it be Bentonville in far Northwest Arkansas or Lake Village way down in the delta area of Southeast Arkansas, the Hogs are going to be everywhere. Car washes, gas stations, shirts, hats, pajamas and those silver magnetic Razorbacks are as far as the eye can see with Arkansas athletics associations that may or may not be officially licensed.

It's the same everywhere else. From Baton Rouge to Tallulah it's all LSU. From Memphis to Johnson City they can all sing "Rocky Top" and that obnoxious shade of Tennesee orange is everywhere. Even in Nashville, all the way from downtown to Nate Bargatze's house, it's all about Vanderbilt.

It doesn't matter if there is an NFL team in the state. The Titans have always been second to the Vols and are headed that way in regard to the Commodores lately.

If the Titans ever played on the same day as a Vandy baseball game, it might be a 50-50 split in terms of attention in the town, especially if Tennessee or Arkansas were coming to town.

The Atlanta Falcons are a distant second to Georgia in their state and the Miami Dolphins and Jacksonville Jaguars don't hold a candle to the Florida Gators and Florida State, which is why many consider the Seminoles an SEC cousin. Their culture makes sense.

Missouri's just doesn't. How can an SEC team be non-existent in its own state?

There should be black and gold everywhere. It should be obnoxious to walk into the local Wal-Mart to grab a couple of forgotten items on a trip because of all of the Missouri gear and Tigers fans wandering everywhere no matter how far from Columbia it is. Instead, it's all Chiefs, Royals and Cardinals.

That theater shouldn't have been packed out. In SEC country, the NFL is what's on in the background to serve as noise on a Sunday afternoon while family members catch up with each other after church. If someone has a favorite NFL team, it's because a great SEC player happened to get drafted there, so that person is keeping up with him.

If that player gets traded, then the allegiance goes with him. In the SEC, football rankings go as follows:
1. Local SEC team
2. SEC football
3. College football
4. High school football (except Texas)
5. NFL

It shouldn't have taken the better part of a decade to realize Branson is in the SEC. That's something Missouri has to work on if it truly wants to be regarded as a tried and true member of the conference.

It has nothing to do with the product on the field. That has risen to SEC status, especially if the Tigers can fill up the stadium expansion in the coming years despite it still being one of the smallest in the conference. It's all about culture.

Not just the culture in and around North Central Missouri. The culture has to be there from the tip to the heel of the boot.

Black and gold has to drip off everything and the primary clothing of choice outside of Sunday morning church service and anniversary dinner has to somehow include the Mizzou Tigers. If team gear or game tickets aren't a primary part of Christmas and weddings continue to take place on Saturdays in the fall that aren't bye weeks down in Joplin, then you're just not there.

Fans from other SEC schools can't be in your state for five days the week their program plays you and not realize the Tigers exist until two days before the game as the result of a loose association with an NFL team. Please fix this.

Your SEC peers want you to be a recognizable part of the conference culture. However, before they can recognize Missouri, Mizzou has to recognize itself.

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