Source: Columbia Missourian

Mizzou has recently become a school that is familiar with ESPN’s popular show College Gameday with the show televising from campus in 2010 for the Homecoming game against No. 1 Oklahoma. The basketball version of the show also stopped by for the past year’s Border War victory against Kansas. Fans now have a chance to bring the program back to Columbia for a third time.

The football edition of College Gameday is holding a fan vote to choose where to film a commercial for the show over the summer. It would be an opportunity to further put Mizzou in the national spotlight, something Athletic Director Mike Alden and the rest of the Mizzou athletic department has emphasized since moving to the SEC. Mizzou also holds the attendance record for the taping of a show, set on Oct. 23, 2010, before Mizzou’s Homecoming upset of then-No. 1 Oklahoma. More than 18,000 people packed onto the Francis Quadrangle that morning, creating a frenzied atmosphere with the iconic columns and Jesse Hall in the background.

Unfortunately, Mizzou has quite a bit of ground to make up before voting ends on May 2. The current standings have Mizzou at ninth with 4,583 votes. The current leader is fellow Big 12-to-SEC transfer Texas A&M with a ridiculous 377,798 votes. NC State (330,584 votes), Nebraska (33,427), Virginia Tech (15,948) and Arkansas (15,212) round out the top five. And in case anyone was wondering, Kansas ranks 79th with a paltry 178 votes.

Mizzou helped create one of the most memorable atmospheres in College Gameday history and it’s apparent that Tiger fans would come out in full force to support their team, given their holding of the attendance record. But Texas A&M and NC State have blown away the competition so far and it appears one of those schools has the early advantage for the TV spot. But Mizzou may have a chance for a return of Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, and Desmond Howard and the rest of the Gameday crew next season when Georgia comes to town in the second week of the season, Mizzou’s first conference game in the SEC. Fans can vote for the TV spot at GamedayVote.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/collegegameday.

November 26, 2011; Kansas City, MO, USA; A general view of the Border Showdown banner before the game between the Kansas Jayhawks and Missouri Tigers at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-US PRESSWIRE

With Kansas advancing to the Final Four this weekend, coupled with Missouri’s shocking early exit from March Madness, these are dark times indeed for Tiger Nation. But there has been a silver lining for Mizzou Athletics that has been slightly overlooked due to the hustle and bustle of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

On March 18, the No. 12 Missouri Tigers softball team beat archrival Kansas 9-0 in six innings, capping a three-game sweep of the Jayhawks which saw the Tigers outscore their opponents 24-0. This is a great feat for Mizzou and its softball program, one of the elite squads in the country, but it also represented something greater than that. It clinched the 2011-12 M&I Bank Border Showdown trophy for Mizzou for the sixth consecutive season.

Everyone knows about the Border War, one of the fiercest and hate-filled rivalries in the nation. The Border Showdown, besides being a more political correct term for the rivalry, is basically a scoreboard for how the two programs fare against one another in all sports offered by both schools.

Each sport is worth three points, which can be split over multiple games, and the points are awarded to the winner of the head-to-head matchups throughout the season. The school with the most points at the end of the year is declared the winner.  For example, when Missouri beat Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium on Nov. 26 24-10, Mizzou was awarded three points, because there is only one football game between the two schools. When there are multiple games played within one season, the points are split, into either 1.5 points for sports like volleyball or basketball that play twice annually, or one point for each baseball and softball game which play three-game series. There are also bonus points to be had based on the teams’ performances in certain Big XII championship events.

Mizzou has won the series every year since 2006-07 and eight times out of the ten years since its inception in 2002-03. Its largest margin of victory came in that 2002-03 year when Missouri won by a score of 32-8.5, but it has a chance to eclipse that mark this year. Mizzou has been dominant this year over Kansas, currently holding a 21-4 lead in the series with 14 points still to be had. Kansas has only gained points by splitting both men’s and women’s basketball series and finishing third in in the Big XII indoor track & field championship meet. It shows the overall strength of Missouri’s athletic program, especially in playing Kansas, and that Tiger fans can look at several programs that are successful, rather than pouring all their attention into one sport (men’s basketball for instance).

Kansas fans are quick to point to the all-time record between the two men’s basketball teams (172-95 in favor of Kansas) and say that it isn’t even a rivalry because of the disparity of wins and losses. But there is more to the rivalry than just basketball games. It encompasses the entire schools and each sport that are offered on both sides of the border.

Mizzou fans can agree that it’s not a close rivalry, but in a different way. Mizzou has claimed victory in the Border Showdown eight out of ten years that it has existed, an .800 winning percentage. Kansas’ victories in men’s basketball is only a .644 winning percentage, granted with a much larger sample size.

There is no denying that Kansas is an elite college basketball program, with a pedigree that KU fans seem to have engraved in their brains and are quick to bring up in any conversation. But when looking at the rivalry from a broad perspective, Missouri has been dominant when it comes to taking care of business against their rival for the past decade. So while you’re watching the Jayhawks take on Ohio State this weekend in the Final Four, even though it may hurt to see their season continue after the Tigers’ ended so abruptly, Tiger fans can take solace in the fact that, as a whole, Missouri will have beaten Kansas for the sixth straight year.

Mar 9, 2012; Kansas City, MO, USA; Missouri Tigers guard Marcus Denman (2) drives to the basket against Texas Longhorns guard J

When most people were hoping for an epic conclusion to the Border War in the Big XII Tournament title game, only one team held up their end of the bargain. No. 5 Missouri (29-4) cruised to 81-67 victory over the Texas Longhorns (20-13) in yesterday’s semifinal game. The first semifinal of the night, however, was the headline-grabber. No. 11 Baylor (27-6) defeated No. 3 Kansas (27-6), the tournament’s top seed, 81-72 to keep the Jayhawks from reaching the final and creating Kansas-Missouri III in the title game.

Instead it will be a rematch of the 2009 Big XII title game, when DeMarre Carroll’s 20 points led Mizzou to a 73-60 victory over the Bears, giving the Tigers their first Big XII basketball title. Baylor was the ninth seed and 20-14 that year, but this year’s Baylor team is much more formidable and is playing some of the best basketball they have played all year. The Bears lost handily in their first two games against Kansas this season, 92-74 in Lawrence and 68-54 in Waco, but were able to beat back the Jayhawks in their third try with a balanced scoring effort. Six Baylor players scored in double figures, including 18 from sophomore forward Perry Jones III (13.9 PPG, 7.6 RPG), who was coming off a 31 point, 11 rebound game against Kansas State in the quarterfinals. Baylor led by 13 early in the second half, but Kansas made a run, behind 20 points from senior guard Tyshawn Taylor (17.3 PPG, 4.8 APG) to take the lead midway through the half. But Baylor was able to hang on and fend off KU, using two dagger threes from sophomore guard Brady Heslip (9.5 PPG, 43.2 3P%) in the final minutes to seal the deal.

The Missouri Tigers had a little easier time dealing with their semifinal opponent, taking the lead with 15 minutes left in the first half and never giving it back. Their scoring  was not as balanced as it usually is, but dominant performances from senior guard Kim English (14.7 PPG, 4.2 RPG) and sophomore guard Phil Pressey (9.9 PPG, 6.3 APG) led them to victory. English scored 23 points on 9-10 shooting, while Pressey, who had 12 assists the night before against Oklahoma State, passed up the role of distributer to add a career-high 23 points of his own. Senior forward Ricardo Ratliffe (13.9 PPG, 7.6 RPG) added 18 points and 14 rebounds, his eighth double-double of the year. Texas got the production it usually gets from the Big XII’s leading scorer junior guard J’Covan Brown (20.1 PPG, 3.8 APG), but had no other player score over 11 points. Despite outrebounding Mizzou 37-27, the Tigers’ shooting 52.6% from the field and hitting 10 threes proved to be too much to handle for Texas. (more…)