Welcome to the SEC… I guess??

The gif going through my head with the official announcement that the SEC unanimously approved the expansion, of course, is this one, which I would have embedded, but you know… NSFW language and such. So instead, I halfheartedly welcome Oklahoma and Texas to our great SuperLeague where we’re reminded incessantly, “it just means more.” Hey, at least we aren’t welcoming a Tom Herman-led Texas team, right? #brightside And I actually am looking forward to having the Longhorns in the conference for swimming, since I AM a longtime Longhorns/Eddie Reese fan. (fun fact: my brother coached for them so my family does have some UT merch in our closets)

Here’s the press release. For the record, I’m not sure anyone thinks this whole thing is actually waiting til 2025 to happen; it seems to be much more likely that it will be the 2022-23 season.

I found this response of interest in Dave Matter’s newest chat at STL Today when asked about the years of waiting time for it all to kick off: (read the whole chat)

If Oklahoma and Texas were to leave the Big 12 for the SEC in time to play football in 2022, the consensus is they’d both owe the Big 12 around $80 million. Even with a gracious loan from the SEC, those two schools aren’t going to be paying that much money. That’s why it’s in their best interest for the Big 12 to dissolve and for the spare parts to be sold off to other conferences

There’s plenty of news out there about the possible dominoes falling all around the country with the news of OU/UT moving, but I’m not linking to all of it, ha.

MOVING ON to the most important news of the day…

IT’S KARISSA DAY!!!

By the time you read this, our golden-haired former Tiger Queen of the Track will have already run the first of her races, the 5000m, depending upon how late you sleep (I will still be sleeping, to be certain). So here’s hoping it went well and we can all catch a rewatch later— please link to it below if you find one.

Onto the Links! GO KARISSA!!!

---

Yesterday at Rock M

• In a new Dive Cuts pod — the season finale — Sam and Matt asked what a new AD means for Cuonzo Martin and Mizzou Hoops. Have a listen!
• Parker identified what he considers to be the key to Mizzou’s wide receiving corps improvement: winning battles in close quarters.
• Josh wrote a lovely piece on one of my faves, DPJ. Read it.
• IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Kortay wrote a really great piece on JJ Hester, who he watched all through high school in Oklahoma.
• COMING UP: Closer looks at Keke (by Aaron) and Tauskie (by BK)

---

More Links:

Football

• LOVE THIS. I want one!

• Calum McAndrew covered the news of the illustrious group selected to help find Mizzou’s next AD.
• 4 star ESPN 300 Georgia DE Joshua White has Mizzou in his Top 4

• If you’re in the area, go support the Tigers at Mizzou Night at the ballpark!

• Nicole Auerbach and Andy Staples of The Athletic looked at an important implication of the the SEC shenanigans: After adding Oklahoma and Texas, what is the SEC’s endgame? The rest of the NCAA fears a super league. (subscribers only, sorry)
• More notes on the conference stuff, from Cecil Hurt:

Hoops

• Top, top, TIPPITY TOP hoops target Aiden Shaw has released a Top 6, and Mizzou finds itself firmly in the mix. Check out Matthew J Harris’ twitter for some more insight on this.

• Robin Pingeton’s squad is getting prepped for their night at ballpark. Looking ready, ladies!

• Welp. This is not exactly news you want to see. Addison Potts, who committed to Mizzou as an eighth grader (!) has reopened her commitment, according to Lauren Rosenberg. She held with her pledge for years, but alas, things change.
• Sam asked a very important pre-pre-preseason question that he would very much like responses to on his twitter:

• Mizzou great Steve Stipanovich sat down with KTRS Big Sports Show on Wednesday night, and Sammy said it was awesome. Have a listen!

Other Mizzou Sports

• Kyle Jones was back with another addition of Summer of Swat, checking in on how Mizzou’s baseball players are performing in their summer leagues.
• Welcome to CoMo, Daniel! Mizzou Baseball will take all the good players they can get!

• Not entirely sure what this is all about, but I do know that Mizzou Sports Properties, which is part of Learfield Sports IMG, is in charge of all the radio stuff for Mizzou and holds a kickass tailgate, so this is nice!

Draft Night/Mizzou in the Pros

• Good luck to our guys, Dru and Tilly! We know they didn’t get drafted Thursday evening, but here’s hoping they latch on to a summer league or G-League.

• Cuonzo Martin, great dude. Dru Smith and Jeremiah Tilmon, also great dudes.

• Gordon Englehardt of the Evansville Courier & Press wrote about Dru Smith’s draft chances, noting that he worked out for both the Kings and the Celtics leading up to the draft.
• From Dave Matter, who earlier on Thursday evening said Jeremiah had worked out for the Lakers recently:

• UPDATE:

• Way to go, Tanner! And thanks to former podcast producer Mitch for the tip.

• CHASE!!

• And finally, RIP to Kentucky’s Terrence Clarke, who tragically died this summer in a car accident after signing his first agency contract with Klutch Sports. Good on the NBA to hold a nice moment for him and his family at the draft on Thursday evening. He had a long, bright career ahead of him.

————————————————————————————————————————————————

If you’re looking to sign up for ESPN+, Rock M Nation now has an affiliate link: click Here for ESPN+ Now!

If you’re looking to sign up for a new streaming service, you can try FuboTV: click HERE for FuboTV access — FuboTV now has ESPN, CBS, FS1 and more sports channels.

(** RockMNation has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence editorial content, though RockMNation may earncommissions for products purchased via affiliate links.**)