Mizzou, Oklahoma renew longstanding rivalry in Saturday’s SEC football showdown
For the first time since Missouri joined the Southeastern Conference in 2012, the Tigers face a team newer to the SEC than itself Saturday.
But don’t mistake that for unfamiliarity — the Tigers know Oklahoma all too well. Well, maybe the current players don’t.
“You probably know more about the rivalry than I,” Mizzou defensive lineman Kristian Williams said Tuesday.
Perhaps even the coaching staff doesn’t fully grasp the importance of this game, as MU coach Eli Drinkwitz offered no further analysis than, “We’re aware of (the rivalry).”
But for the fans on both sides of Saturday’s SEC bout, the meaning behind this highly anticipated matchup is clear. Missouri first took the field against the Sooners on Nov. 12, 1902, in Columbia, a 22-5 victory for the Tigers. Since then, the programs have met 95 more times in many different settings.
They’ve played against one another in Homecoming games and conference championship showdowns; they’ve played at the Alamo Dome, in the confines of Arrowhead Stadium and even in Joplin; they’ve played in shootouts and blowouts and have battled to five ties.
Simply put, Missouri and Oklahoma are no strangers. And it’s the Sooners who hold the all-time advantage with a 67-24-5 record with meeting No. 97 approaching.
As the Sooners and Tigers prepare to end the longest drought they’ve had between head-to-head meetings since they started the rivalry, it’s important to dive into how each program has fared in this generally one-sided affair.
There’s no sugarcoating it: The Sooners dominate this series. The program that ranks sixth with an all-time winning percentage of .724 across 129 years of college football history similarly possesses a near-identical .724 winning percentage against the Tigers.
Missouri first took the field against the Sooners on Nov. 12, 1902, in Columbia, a 22-5 victory for the Tigers. Since then, the programs have met 95 more times in many different settings.
They’ve played against one another in Homecoming games and conference championship showdowns; they’ve played at the Alamo Dome, in the confines of Arrowhead Stadium and even in Joplin; they’ve played in shootouts and blowouts and have battled to five ties.
Missouri and Oklahoma are no strangers. And it’s the Sooners who hold the all-time advantage with a 67-24-5 record with meeting No. 97 approaching.
As the Sooners and Tigers prepare to end the longest drought they’ve had between head-to-head meetings since they started the rivalry, it’s important to dive into how each program has fared in this generally one-sided affair.
There’s no sugarcoating it: The Sooners dominate this series. The program that ranks sixth with an all-time winning percentage of .724 across 129 years of college football history similarly possesses a near-identical .724 winning percentage against the Tigers.
Oklahoma’s dominance includes three different decade-long winning streaks over the Tigers, including 14 consecutive wins from 1946-59. Mizzou, meanwhile, has never won more than two straight games over Oklahoma, reaching that mark just five times, most recently in 1965 and ’66.
The Tigers’ best run against their neighbors to the southwest came from 1929-32, when they went 3-0-1 with victories in 1929, 1931 and 1932 and a riveting 0-0 tie in 1930 in Norman sandwiched in between.
Even the games themselves have turned out lopsided. OU owns the top 10 most lopsided wins in the series, most notably a 77-0 thumping on Nov. 8, 1986, in Norman (“The Norman Conquest”).
The Sooners, by most metrics, represent the better program historically of the duo. Perhaps no greater indicator is that seven-time national champion Oklahoma defeated Mizzou not once but twice in 2007 — a 41-31 win in Norman and another 38-17 victory in the Big 12 championship game — to deny the Tigers the opportunity to compete for their first ever national championship.
All of this is to say that Missouri hasn’t usually fared particularly well against the Sooners. So, why are Tigers fans still elated for this matchup to return? Well, the answer lies in the idea of something old becoming new again.
That’s a theme that has largely been shaped by conference realignment and how it is redesigning college football. Oftentimes, traditional rivalry matchups that mean much to college communities are kicked to the wayside as teams leave conferences for greener pastures.
Missouri itself helped kick-start that movement just over a decade over, and as Oklahoma transitions from the Big 12 to SEC, it’ll leave behind its annual Bedlam series against in-state Oklahoma State.
But even amidst this ever-changing landscape, the Tigers and Sooners have an opportunity to show the college football world that rivalries can be rekindled in the new age of realignment.
And they’ll look to do just that at 6:45 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium.
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