Missouri Tigers Announce Home-and-Home With West Virginia
By Ben Brown
The future out of conference football schedule for the Missouri Tigers has started to take shape with the program officially announcing that they have agreed to a home-and-home series with the West Virginia Mountaineers.
The Tigers will be going to Morgantown, West Virginia to play the 2016 Season opener on September 3rd, 2016. The Mountaineers will return the favor by coming to Columbia, Missouri for the season opener of the 2019 season on September 7th, 2019.
“Each program will benefit from playing a non-conference game against a team from a highly visible conference, and the fans will be entertained from what I think will be two highly competitive games.” –West Virginia AD Oliver Luck
This series will be the first time the two storied programs have played each other since 1998 when the Tigers squeezed out a 34-31 win in the Insight.com bowl in Tucson, Arizona to cap an 8 win campaign.
In the game the Tigers, led by coach Larry Smith, held on after a stunning 28-point comeback launched by a West Virginia team led by future NFL Pro Bowler and St. Louis Ram Marc Bulger. The bowl win made Mizzou the leaders in the all-time series between the schools 3-2.
In the first four games the programs met, it was part of two home-and-home series, one in 1926-1927 and another in 1993-1994. The Tigers swept the first two games shutting out the Mountaineers both times getting a 27-0 win in West Virginia in 1926, and a 13-0 win in Columbia in 1927. The Mountaineers swept the second series 66 years later with a 35-3 win in Morgantown in 1993 joined with a 34-10 win in Columbia in 1994.
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Executive Associate Athletic Director Bryan Maggard, who oversees the football scheduling said, “We are very pleased to add a team, the caliber of West Virginia to our schedule. We feel like this is a game that is appealing to the fan bases for both programs, and it helps us both add high-profile non-conference games to our schedules. We’re excited to have a chance to work together, and appreciate everyone coming together to make this happen on all sides.”
West Virginia Athletic Director Oliver Luck added, “I believe this home-and-home series with Missouri will be great for both schools. Each program will benefit from playing a non-conference game against a team from a highly visible conference, and the fans will be entertained from what I think will be two highly competitive games.”