Mizzou Links, 7-27-12

Well, yesterday certainly turned out to be fun ... from Eric Beisel's commitment, to Ricardo Ratliffe finding a pro team, to Jim Delany accidentally referring to Missouri as a Big Ten school...

Oh, and first things first: Matt Hinton, Brian Fremeau and I will be chatting about the Football Outsiders Almanac 2012 at SBN at 11:00 a.m. CT today. Join us!

Mizzou Football Links

So linebacker Eric Beisel committed last night, choosing Missouri over Arkansas, Nebraska and Illinois. It is a huge commit, both because he is really good -- supposedly the best linebacker on Team USA during the U-19 world championships -- and because he is another in-stater who chose Missouri over Arkansas. Beisel joins Lee's Summit West's Nick Ramirez and Jefferson City's Joe Burkett in the linebacking corps for the 2013 class (safe to say Mizzou is probably done there now). He is the 14th commitment for Mizzou in this class, and incredibly he is the 10th in-stater. According to Rivals, Mizzou has offered 13 Missouri players in the class of 13: 10 have committed to Mizzou, one (Ezekiel Elliott) has committed to Ohio State, and two -- Lee's Summit West DE Jamone Boyd and Rockhurst OL Zach Hannon -- are evidently both visiting Mizzou on Monday with a handful of Mizzou recruits.

We saw the goal for this recruiting class take shape pretty early: try to lock down the state of Missouri before the season, then focus on out-of-staters in the fall. The former has worked to an unprecedented degree. Now, every out-of-stater who visits this fall will likely be surrounded by quite a few enthusiastic, semi-local commits. That alone doesn't win you recruiting battles, but "Look at this family! Don't you want to be a part of this??" sure can't hurt.

• Eric Beisel Commits
  PowerMizzou: VIDEO: The legend continues
  SB Nation: Missouri LB Eric Beisel Commits To Mizzou
  The Trib: Tigers add another in-state pledge
  Post-Dispatch: Summit's Beisel commits to Mizzou football
  101sports.com: Summit's Beisel pledges to Mizzou
• Tickets
  MUtigers.com: Football Non-Conference Single Game Tickets on Sale Friday
  The Trib (Dave Matter): Updates on MU football ticket release dates, prices
  KC Star: MU football tickets start to go on sale Friday
• The Bristol Car Wash
  Mizzou Network: Gary Pinkel in Bristol
• It Begins
  Fox Sports MW: Missouri begins new SEC life with start of camp
• WRs
  KBIA Sports: Plenty of depth at receiver for Missouri, skills might be in question

Other Football Links

This was ... odd.

Mizzou Basketball Links

• I Now Have A Favorite Korean League Team
  The Trib: Ratliffe drafted into Korean Basketball League

  Former Missouri basketball standout Ricardo Ratliffe will begin his professional basketball career in South Korea after being chosen by Ulsan Mobis Phoebus with the sixth pick in the Korean Basketball League draft Thursday. […]

  Ratliffe will join a team that finished fifth in the KBL with a 29-25 record but advanced to the semifinals of the KBL playoffs.

• ESPN Previews The SEC
  ESPN.com (CBB Blog): Five offseason storylines in the SEC
  ESPN.com (CBB Blog): Best-case/Worst-case scenarios for SEC
  ESPN.com (CBB Blog): Five freshmen to watch in the SEC
  ESPN.com (CBB Blog): SEC most important players (by team)
  The Trib (Steve Walentik): Are Tigers the team to beat in SEC?
• Party Starter
  Mizzou Network: Catching up with Laurence Bowers

SEC

• A&M
  The Trib: Aggies excited to step out of Texas' shadow

EXPANSIONAPALOOZA™ 2012

• THE WAC HAS LIFE!!!1! SORT OF! AND PROBABLY NOT REALLY! BUT LIFE!!
  Saturday Blitz: Report: Glimmer of Hope for WAC Comes From FCS East Coast, 2014

Mizzou Diamond Sports Links

• Diaspora
  SimmonsField.com: Mizzou Baseball Diaspora: Summertime

Other

• Random
  With Leather: Sports On TV: Full House's 20 Greatest Sports Moments