'I'm All For It': Mizzou's Eli Drinkwitz Shares Thoughts on Conference Expansion
The landscape of college football is changing thanks to conference realignment. Some rivalries will be coming to a close. Others are reforming after seeing them end in years past.
With the arrival of Texas and Oklahoma in the SEC, the two current Big 12 programs will reignite battles of the 2000s with schools such as Missouri and Texas A&M. It's unclear how Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies feel about facing the Longhorns once more.
As for Tigers' coach Eli Drinkwitz, he's all for adding the Sooners and Longhorns on the schedule.
“I said up here earlier that I think the beauty of college football is the rivalries that we have,” Drinkwitz said Monday at SEC Media Days. “I think it’s the shared traditions and pageantry of the game. I think we got to be careful that we don’t miss that or lose that in search of better TV contracts or better TV exposure. We’re going to lose the basis of who we are."
Initially members of the Big Eight starting in 1907, the Tigers formed a yearly rivalry with the Sooners once they joined in 1920. When merging with programs from the Southwest Conference in 1994, Missouri added both Texas-based schools to its schedule.
The Tigers and Sooners have met 96 times since 1902, with Oklahoma leading the series 67–24–5. Much like the Lone Star Showdown between the Aggies and Longhorns, the rivalry has ceased since Missouri's departure to the SEC following the 2011 season.
Drinkwitz has been one of the few coaches openly willing to speak of the positives of the current changes coming to the sport. One of the main reasons he is content with the SEC adding the two Big 12 programs is to help focus in on the importance of regional rivalries.
“I’m for playing consistent games," Drinkwitz said. "I’m for playing consistent opponents, building a consistent level of expectation that these are the teams that you need to beat, these are the teams that you need to be comparing yourself against.”
Texas and Oklahoma announced Monday that they would "honor" their contract with the Big 12 and join the SEC starting July 1, 2025. Should the two schools leave before the end of the current television contract, they would be forced to pay a fine due to breaking the league's grant of media rights.
"We're in the Big 12," Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte said while speaking at the Texas High School Coaches' Association conference in San Antonio. "We're going to honor our commitments. Those things are all premature."
The Longhorns open the season at home against Louisiana-Monroe on Sept. 3.
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