New rivals. New traditions. New stadiums.
When a program such as the University of Missouri leaves for a new conference there are many new encounters across the board. While football is the revenue sport that drives the decision, it also also noteworthy to look at your current facilities and see how they match up with the facilities of your soon to be brethren in the SEC.
Missouri's Faurot Field, the home football stadium of the Tigers since 1926, has seen many transformations over the years. The current capacity of 71,004 will place them fifth overall of the seven teams in the SEC East Division next season, while it will be 10th overall of the 14 teams in the SEC in 2012. The average size of SEC football stadiums will become 78,505 which means while Mizzou is smaller than average, it still is close enough in terms of size.
Let us not forget that seating hasn't been the only change in recent years at Faurot Field, as the university added a 15-story press box at the beginning of the millennium, field turf in 2003, and a $5 million 30x80 scoreboard in 2009. It will be the seventh largest screen in the SEC, and is the 24th largest in all of FBS football.
Moving to basketball, the average size of an SEC arena in 2012 will be 14,716. MU's Mizzou Arena, which opened in 2014, seats 15,061. The Tigers have a 104-20 all-time since moving to Mizzou Arena from the Hearnes Center, and basketball might be what Missouri has the opportunity to excel the most at in their new conference. After Auburn's Auburn Arena, Missouri will have the second newest basketball facility in the SEC.
In the SEC, baseball is another big sport and Missouri has a newer baseball facility in Taylor Stadium, which opened in 2002. Though it currently would be the second smallest baseball stadium in the SEC with just a 3,031 seat capacity, Missouri has gone to efforts to keep the facilities up to date for the athletes. Recently in 2010, McArtor Baseball Facility opened, giving players a chance to practice indoors all year long. You can read more about the MU baseball facilities here.
While Mizzou may not have the largest facilities in the SEC, they will have one of the larger enrollments and hopefully the fan base will support continued improvements to the facilities to keep up with the rest of their new conference.