Congrats, Mizzou football! Your decision to jump to the SEC has been rewarded with a brand new border war against an opponent of higher quality and much more concentrated, easily dislikable social failings: Arkansas!
The bad news is, in terms of road trips, the rest of your away games are usually going to be in Canada. The SEC has decided to adopt a "6-1-1" scheduling format, which puts the road weariness on the Tigers more than anyone else. A quick refresher:
"6" means six games against the SEC Eastern Division (of which the Tigers are joining, because to hell with geography if it means Auburn has to move anywhere). Each year the Tigers will play Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky and Vanderbilt, rotating home and away each year.
"1" means one permanent cross-division opponent. That's Arkansas, the geographic match to Missouri in terms of fostering a rivalry game or making any kind of sense on a map whatsoever.
The other "1" means that Missouri will get one other opponent from the SEC West each year on a rotating basis. The team will change every year, unlike years past where a home/away slate would cause the rotation every other year. Those teams are Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Alabama, Auburn and LSU.
Notice anything? For one, each year the Tigers will make in-division road trips to Eastern Division teams that are far, far away - Nashville being the closest SEC East city, and still about 450 miles away. Meanwhile, closer road games at Ole Miss, Mississippi State and LSU won't happen but once every twelve years.
Welcome to Speed Country! We recommend some ah those books on tape. Cracker Barrel usually has a bunch.
Check out Rock M Nation, Team Speed Kills and SB Nation's college football page for more scheduling chatter.
