Mizzou Tigers Know Who They Will Play in First Season Of Big 12 Minus Two

Just five weeks into the 2010 season, the Mizzou Tiger football schedule is already set for next season.

After starting the 2011 season with three non-conference games, the Tigers will dive right into Big 12 play, starting with a road contest in Norman against the Oklahoma Sooners.

Many Tiger fans may be wondering, why so soon with the new schedule? Well, the credit for that goes to the two schools that will be leaving the conference at the end of this year, Nebraska and Colorado.

With all of the news this summer about who is staying and who is going, the Big 12 conference knew that if two teams did leave, that would mean an end to a conference football championship game. The NCAA requires that a conference have at least 12 teams in order to hold a title game.

With all of this said, the Mizzou Tigers' schedule for next season, at least in terms of BCS schools, will be the toughest they have been a part of since 2007.

After starting the season at Memorial Stadium against Miami of Ohio, the Tigers will hit the West Coast for a game at Arizona State. They will be taking on the Sun Devils, who are always a contender in the race for the Pac-10 title.

The Tigers will then have a bye week and then will be back at home for a tilt with Western Illinois. That will be all in terms of non-conference games, as the nine-game Big 12 conference schedule will get under way the following week.

Mizzou is scheduled to play its first Big 12 game against Oklahoma either at the end of September or at the beginning of October. However, unlike the rest of the schedule, the date is not known at this time.

That is because the Sooners have a conflict with a non-conference opponent that was already on their schedule for next season.

After Oklahoma, the Tigers will then be at Kansas State before coming back for games at Memorial Stadium against Iowa State and then Oklahoma State.

The Tigers will end the month of October with a road trip, this time to College Station to take on the Aggies of Texas A&M.

November starts with Mizzou still in the state of Texas, as they will take on the Baylor Bears. This will be followed by two more games back in Columbia. Up first will be a game against the Texas Longhorns, followed by a visit from the Texas Tech Red Raiders.

The only part of the schedule that somewhat resembles this season is how next season will end. The Tigers will once again play their last game of the regular season in Kansas City at Arrowhead against the Kansas Jayhawks.

So what does the new Big 12 football schedule mean for Mizzou? It means a nine-game conference schedule, but maybe more importantly, at least for 2011 and 2012, the Tigers will play 10 games against schools in the BCS.

While the Big 12 conference will lose the football championship game, most Tiger fans will remember what transpired just three years ago.

If No. 1-ranked Mizzou did not play in the Big 12 title game in 2007 in San Antonio against Oklahoma, they would have played in the BCS title game.

Back to this season. The Tigers are off this Saturday and will start Big 12 play on Saturday, October 9th at Memorial Stadium. Their opponent, for the last time as a member of the conference, is the Colorado Buffaloes.

Kickoff is set for 6:00.