cactuswatcher (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cactuswatcher) wrote2011-11-06 12:44 pm
cactuswatcher) wrote2011-11-06 12:44 pm
Missouri Secedes from the Union
According to the short lived Confederates States of America it actually happened. What really happened was that fearing the state's pro-slavery governor would initiate such a move, militiamen mostly from St. Louis, chased the governor and his supporters out of the state capital permanently. The governor gathered an ersatz legislature in a corner of the state, far away from St. Louis. That group voted to secede, however, by early 1862 two major battles effectively ended the idea of Missouri being part of the Confederacy.
One hundred fifty years later, ties between Missouri and the South will become closer again, for better or worse. Missouri secedes from the Big XII and joins the SEC as of fall 2012, as officially announced today after weeks of everything leaning in that direction.
When I was in college the SEC was reviled for:
a) being racist.
b) being the home of universities of mostly questionable academic merit.
c) having football schedules which were full of push-over opponents. Actually most of the SEC was only scheduling 5 conference games per year in a ten team conference.
d) having officials who frequently, if not openly cheated for the home teams.
Times change. The football teams in the SEC have gone from lily-white to mostly black. The SEC was the first conference to have a championship game. After Kansas State's sudden success virtually all major college football teams have reverted to scheduling badly out-classed warm-up opponents, something that had mostly been abandoned in the 1930's. SEC officials, at times, still seem happily unaware of the rules, but the rules now seem misapplied fairly. Strangely thanks to Missouri joining the SEC next year, that conference will have more members of the prestigious American Association of Universities (4)than the Big XII(3). Strange because the Big XII started last season with seven members of the AAU.
It's probably just as well Missouri won't have a special school rivalry again any time soon. The Kansas-Missouri rivalry was more hateful than healthy a lot of the time.
St. Louis is a laid back city. It loves the Cardinals, but doesn't get insane if they lose. The state of Missouri has a number of regions that are quite different in social structure, but in terms of sports they are all a bit laid back like St. Louis. The state likes the University of Missouri, but doesn't fight for tickets to the football games. I don't know that Missouri has the passion to compete well in the SEC in football. When I was in school, Missouri's stadium was bigger than most in the SEC including the one in Tuscaloosa, partly because Alabama was playing half their home games in Birmingham, AL. Now Missouri will enter the SEC with one of the smallest stadiums, though it has tens of thousands more seats than when I was attending games. Missouri's basketball arena will be one of the largest, but Missouri fans tend to cringe at the thought of being considered a basketball school.
The Missouri football team has played most of the SEC teams in bowl games, but fewer in the regular season. Missouri played Vanderbilt twice in the 1890's and never since. Missouri has never played either Kentucky or Tennessee in football. Both of them are likely to be in Missouri's division next year.
Though I'm glad I went there, I have to shudder at the thought of Missouri being considered a leading academic institution in its new conference. ;o)
One hundred fifty years later, ties between Missouri and the South will become closer again, for better or worse. Missouri secedes from the Big XII and joins the SEC as of fall 2012, as officially announced today after weeks of everything leaning in that direction.
When I was in college the SEC was reviled for:
a) being racist.
b) being the home of universities of mostly questionable academic merit.
c) having football schedules which were full of push-over opponents. Actually most of the SEC was only scheduling 5 conference games per year in a ten team conference.
d) having officials who frequently, if not openly cheated for the home teams.
Times change. The football teams in the SEC have gone from lily-white to mostly black. The SEC was the first conference to have a championship game. After Kansas State's sudden success virtually all major college football teams have reverted to scheduling badly out-classed warm-up opponents, something that had mostly been abandoned in the 1930's. SEC officials, at times, still seem happily unaware of the rules, but the rules now seem misapplied fairly. Strangely thanks to Missouri joining the SEC next year, that conference will have more members of the prestigious American Association of Universities (4)than the Big XII(3). Strange because the Big XII started last season with seven members of the AAU.
It's probably just as well Missouri won't have a special school rivalry again any time soon. The Kansas-Missouri rivalry was more hateful than healthy a lot of the time.
St. Louis is a laid back city. It loves the Cardinals, but doesn't get insane if they lose. The state of Missouri has a number of regions that are quite different in social structure, but in terms of sports they are all a bit laid back like St. Louis. The state likes the University of Missouri, but doesn't fight for tickets to the football games. I don't know that Missouri has the passion to compete well in the SEC in football. When I was in school, Missouri's stadium was bigger than most in the SEC including the one in Tuscaloosa, partly because Alabama was playing half their home games in Birmingham, AL. Now Missouri will enter the SEC with one of the smallest stadiums, though it has tens of thousands more seats than when I was attending games. Missouri's basketball arena will be one of the largest, but Missouri fans tend to cringe at the thought of being considered a basketball school.
The Missouri football team has played most of the SEC teams in bowl games, but fewer in the regular season. Missouri played Vanderbilt twice in the 1890's and never since. Missouri has never played either Kentucky or Tennessee in football. Both of them are likely to be in Missouri's division next year.
Though I'm glad I went there, I have to shudder at the thought of Missouri being considered a leading academic institution in its new conference. ;o)
no subject
Kansas City is bit more into sports than St. Louis, I think, do to the Chiefs
and the Royals. But has no clear contenders in college sports.
no subject