During Wednesday night’s Missouri-Iowa State game, the girlfriend and I were talking about her sister (a kansas basketball, but not football, of course, fan) talking trash via text message about the Tigers’ humbling loss to kansas State over the weekend.
I stopped mid-sentence, realizing at that moment that the days of talking smack with kansas fans might be numbered with Missouri heading to the SEC next year and the kansas schools possibly heading to the Mountain West in a few years.
Have to admit, I felt a little sadness. As we bid farewell to the football season, here are my favorite and least favorite memories of the remaining Big 12 schools:
OKLAHOMA | Oklahoma leads 67-24-5 | Oklahoma won 8-2 during Big 12 era
WHY I’LL MISS YOU: The 2010 game in Columbia, Mo. Storming the field with my old man after the game is one of those great memories in life.
WHY I WON’T: Because you’re smug and arrogant, and you cheat (see Rhett Bomar, among others). But mostly because you always win. The 2007 win in the Big 12 championship game might have cost Missouri a national title.
OKLAHOMA STATE | Missouri leads 28-23 | Missouri won 5-4 during Big 12 era
WHY I’LL MISS YOU: The 1997 triple-overtime game that defined Missouri’s rise from the ashes to a bowl team and Gary Pinkel’s first Big 12 win … also a triple-overtime donnybrook.
WHY I WON’T: The 2008 upset of the third-ranked Tigers wrecked Missouri’s entire season. Mike Gundy’s ridiculous, misguided “I’m a man” rant. The whining and bitching about being in the championship game this year. YOU LOST TO IOWA STATE.
TEXAS | Texas leads 17-6 | Texas won 7-2 during Big 12 era
WHY I’LL MISS YOU: The year-in and year-out underachievement is great comedy. Ernest Blackwell torching the Horns in a 1997 game that served as the springboard for Missouri’s first bowl team in 15 years.
WHY I WON’T: Because you ruined the Big 12. Adios. And, as the redneck Toby Keith tune says above, you’re everybody’s daddy in the Big 12, regardless of your record.
TEXAS TECH | Missouri leads 6-3 | Missouri won 6-2 during Big 12 era
WHY I’LL MISS YOU: Mike Leach’s era was awesome. Great guy to cover during my newspaper days. Plus, Missouri owns you.
WHY I WON’T: You’re the Cousin Eddie to Texas’ Clark Griswold. The 2010 loss that cost Mizzou a BCS bowl.
BAYLOR | Missouri leads 10-4 | Missouri won 7-2 during Big 12 era
WHY I’LL MISS YOU: The 49-42 triple overtime game in 1996 (Missouri led 28-0 in the fourth quarter). And, of course, Robert Griffin III.
WHY I WON’T: See 1996-2009.
IOWA STATE | Missouri leads 61-34-9 | Missouri won 10-6 during Big 12 era
WHY I’LL MISS YOU: Classy fans. Troy Davis. Paul Rhoads. Missouri has owned you lately.
WHY I WON’T: The pathetic holding call at the end of the 2006 game, plus the failed two-point conversion against Nebraska last year.
kansas STATE | Missouri leads 60-32-5 | K-State won 11-5 during Big 12 era
WHY I’LL MISS YOU: Because Missouri dominated you (60-32-5 all-time) and you’re fun to talk trash with. Also, anything Ron Prince.
WHY I WON’T: Because you hid for 80 years, then became incredibly arrogant when you started winning. Ecokat.
kansas | Missouri leads 57-54-9 | Missouri won 9-7 during Big 12 era
WHY I’LL MISS YOU: I got nothin’.
WHY I WON’T: Where do I start?
YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
More big commitments this weekend!