There’s nothing quite like a good rivalry kerfuffle to get college sports fans going. Missouri fans got a taste of one last week when a report from Brett McMurphy of the Action Network stated that the Tigers had said they wouldn’t play Kansas in a bowl game and thus were destined for the Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa, FL.
While it made for a good story, Mizzou Director of Athletics Desiree Reed-Francois says it didn’t happen.
“We did not refuse the Liberty Bowl,” Reed-Francois told PowerMizzou.com in a phone interview from Las Vegas on Tuesday afternoon. “We did not refuse to play Kansas.”
In fact, Reed-Francois said, that’s not even possible with the bowl structure in the Southeastern Conference.
“The SEC exclusively selects which teams go to which bowl games. We don’t do that,” she said. “They look at everything from your order of finish, have you played in that bowl previously, they have a myriad of factors that they look at.”
Each school does submit a list to the conference of the bowls it would like to play in and the order they’d prefer to play in them. Missouri did that. Reed-Francois did not share that list with us, but she did give some insight into how Missouri formed the list.
“Eli and the team’s preference is critically important,” she said. “It was very important for Eli if we’re not gonna play in a New Year’s Six game he wanted to be able to have the young men go home for Christmas. That’s always important for him and for all coaches. That played into it. The location is always going to be more important, but most importantly the date.”
The Gasparilla Bowl is played on December 23rd. The Liberty Bowl is on December 28th. The only other SEC-affiliated bowl game played before Christmas is the Las Vegas Bowl, which PowerMizzou.com has previously reported was very high on Mizzou’s wish list.
So while some may view that list as dodging a potential matchup with Kansas, Missouri officials view it is putting their own priorities at the forefront when selecting the game in which they wanted to play. But a little spice never hurt any rivalry and this one even had the benefit of some good timing. The Jayhawks’ basketball team will visit Mizzou on Saturday, playing in Columbia for the first time in more than a decade.
"I love the passion. I love the hatred,” Reed-Francois said. “It’s in my blood now, too, and it’s a great part of what we do. Frankly I am looking forward to Saturday and seeing that full passion on display on Saturday. I know it’s going to be an incredible atmosphere.”
Meanwhile, the football matchup will have to wait.
“We’ll figure that out when the game is scheduled at Faurot Field, I believe that’s September 6, 2025,” Eli Drinkwitz said on Monday. “Until then, I can keep getting all the Twitter hate people from Kansas want to put on me. Doesn’t faze me. We’ll see y’all on Faurot Field. Buy your tickets early.”
