Good Riddance Mizzou

Bosses often talk about toxic employees, those that spoil the well and bring down morale for everyone else because they are chronically unhappy and complain about the work environment, maybe because they just aren't a good fit. Well Missouri has been our toxic member for a century and just like some toxic employees, they were somewhat productive (enough to think they deserve more, but not enough to get it) so it may seem like a loss but in the long run we will be much better off with them gone.

Missouri has been the source of this conferences instability for over a century.  Why?  Because they never were a good cultural fit.  Chuck Neinas said that Missouri is a Midwestern state not a Southern state... Well I think many mizzou may beg to differ.  The original Big 12 Conference, the old Missouri Valley Intercolegiate Athletic Association lost the University of Iowa after Missouri refused to let a black player from Iowa play and the Iowa Coach said he refused to ever play the tigers again in 1910, Iowa left the conference the next year in 1911 so they would never have to and became a full time member in the Western Conference (Big 10).  That was the first charter member Missouri ran out and then was the catalyst for the most recent 3 including charter member Nebraska.  A town in Missouri recently passed a resolution calling for the University of Kansas to change its name because it represented a domestic terrorist organization that terrorized confederate towns during the civil war (that is another story all together).  Yes the Jayhawks were named after a Union group of soldiers that fought for the north (albeit using questionable and possibly barbaric tactics) and the Tigers were named after a Confederate Militia Unit, that is a pretty deep divide.  So yes the mizzou do consider themselves southern and clearly still do.  Not to say that Texas and Oklahoma don't either, just that they probably consider themselves more Southwestern and Western Plains than Southern and that was the common bond of the Big 12.  The Agricultural midwest of the plains and farm belt.  Missouri geographically is part of the farm belt but culturally they have always preferred and considered themselves part of the old south. 

 They wanted to be part of the Big Ten and they didn't want them.  So why do we?  We critize college sports for just being about money, but honestly isn't that the only reason anyone outside of the SEC would want to keep Missouri? Hell most of Missourians even talk like southerns so let them go home.  And I am fine with Colorado leaving as well.  Colorado may have made sense originally, but can we really say Colorado is an agricultural state?  Let them go to the Pac 12 where they belong (it's Rado dude, they even talk like surfers they belong there).  The Aggies and the Huskers however, were best fits in the Big 12 and will never be completely accepted in their new homes the Big 10 is rust belt country and the only thing rusting in Nebraska are aluminum roofs and tractors.

So who should we add?  The only folks with no real home...The Hillbillies.  Mining always goes with Agriculture. Sure Kentucky is in the SEC and that kind of works but West Virginia doesn't belong in the Big East and the folks out in Boise State have been looking for a home.  What better to go with cowboys and farmers than miners.  I say forget the religious colleges (BYU and TCU) and stick to our landgrant roots.  West Virginia brings the biggest fan base of the colleges available and Boise State isn't far after which at the end of the day is television screens for the Big 12. So we can keep our culture and mitigate the damage to the purse as well.  Forget Houston, Cincinatti and Louisville (do colleges named for the large cities really fit the big 12??? Plus they have considerably smaller fan bases than either WV or BSU).

A conference should not take expansion lightly and must be more than about money, otherwise we fall into the same trap that doomed the Big East . The Big 12 has had our regional existance watered down recently but I do think Chuck Neinas had it right when he said conference are more than about regions they were built around commerce the big 10 was industry, the big 12 was agriculture, we shouldn't forget that.and if the big 12 is going to be a conference that generates pride and loyalty it needs to be about more than just a collection of schools that were best we could get.