here's mine. both their football and basketball programs are competitive but not great. their olympic sports as well - wrestling is very good, baseball okay at times, wbb struggling. i'd liken tiger football to last year's georgia and basketball to alabama or vandy.
being a border state, they've always struggled with identity, not knowing if they were yankee or dixie, and in fact split about 50/50, even though their mascot 'the tigers' is as yankee as it gets. see below.
"The truth is the Missouri Tigers are named in honor of a Missouri Union militia unit that guarded the area of Columbia, Missouri (MU’s hometown) as well as the university itself during the American Civil War. The true “Missouri Tigers” were a Union “Home Guard” militia unit made up of local men from the area around Columbia. Their duties were to protect the University of Missouri and the area from approaching Confederate forces, pro-Confederate guerillas, desperadoes and others that may have threatened the area."
Link: tiger source
being a border state, they've always struggled with identity, not knowing if they were yankee or dixie, and in fact split about 50/50, even though their mascot 'the tigers' is as yankee as it gets. see below.
"The truth is the Missouri Tigers are named in honor of a Missouri Union militia unit that guarded the area of Columbia, Missouri (MU’s hometown) as well as the university itself during the American Civil War. The true “Missouri Tigers” were a Union “Home Guard” militia unit made up of local men from the area around Columbia. Their duties were to protect the University of Missouri and the area from approaching Confederate forces, pro-Confederate guerillas, desperadoes and others that may have threatened the area."
Link: tiger source