Missouri-Illinois: Illini Fans Give Tigers Extra Motivation for Season Opener

Can you feel it?  It's coming.  Saturday's coming.  Not Saturday but SATURDAY.  No, scratch that, drop the SATUR and add the GAME.  GAMEDAY'S COMIN'.

I don't know what to do with myself. I was excited about this season a week ago, but since I got back to Columbia, it's just gone to a whole other level that I can't even begin to describe.  I find myself driving the long way home from class just so I can pass by Faurot Field and daydream about what it will be like on Saturdays in late October in the heat of Big 12 play. 

As GAMEDAY rapidly approaches, I'm finding myself looking for different ways to get fired up, specifically for the Illini.  I know both schools are really hyping this Arch Rivalry thing, but let's be honest—most Mizzou fans could care less about Illinois.

As Big Head touched on in his Mizzou preview for Deadspin, it's a forced and somewhat made-up rivalry just because the two schools are in neighboring states.

However, I'll admit that after the whole BCS debacle, the rivalry has become quite a bit more legitimized, at least in my mind.  It would have been one thing if we had just gotten screwed by the BCS and then been vindicated when we won our bowl game and Illinois got crushed by USC in the Rose Bowl.

But those idiot Illini fans had to celebrate beating us in basketball (which is supposed to be their sport, even though our train wreck of a team ended up with a better record) by doing that idiotic "BCS! BCS!" chant.

That kind of act doesn't reflect well on the collective IQs of Illini Nation.  They willingly hand over a gold mine of bulletin board material to Gary Pinkel, who was in attendance (not to mention the number of Mizzou players that were there) in order to celebrate a victory in a sport that they ultimately ended up losing 19 games in.

Do you think Ron Zook was smiling when he heard that chant?  I picture him watching the game in his living room while lounging on his La-Z-Boy when he hears it, immediately choking on the hot chocolate that he had previously been enjoying, and then chucking the remote at his 54-inch plasma.  You really should have thought that one through, Illini fans.

So that moronic act has kind of made this thing personal.  Maybe that's what the Illinois fans were going for.  They're probably really desperate for an actual rivalry.

But I just have a feeling that decision's gonna come back to haunt them in the very near future.