I guarantee one of the top five sports stories for 2016 is going to be whether we refer to them as the St. Louis or Los Angeles Rams.  A vote is coming from NFL owners in January.  That story did not make our top five, but we have a good list, according to our Missourinet staff, contributors and data from Missourinet.com.

Read our list.  What did we leave out?  Anything else stick out to you?  Comment below and Happy New Year.

5:  Mike Alden resigns as A.D. as Mizzou.

Mike Alden, who had been the Director of Athletics at Missouri since 1998 abruptly stepped down. A staff meeting was held at the University on January 29.  On the 30th, Alden held a press conference at the Reynolds Alumni Center in an emotional farewell speech.  His final day on the job was August 31st.

4:  Mizzou football players threaten to boycott the BYU game.

This grabbed national headlines.  Eventually, the team went back to practice and then played the game in Kansas City.  At first it appeared the players were boycotting until president Tim Wolfe was fired or resigned, but the message changed that they players were not participating until hunger striker Jonathan Butler ate again.

Going along with that story was the news that Gary Pinkel would resign after the season due to health reasons.  Word had leaked the day before that BYU game and Pinkel had to drop that bomb on his players just days after the protests.

3:  Northwest Missouri State football won their fifth Division-II national title.

The Bearcats were making their ninth title game appearance and they capped off their perfect 15-0 season after beating Shepard University, West Virginia, 34-7 in Kansas City, KS.  The first year the championship game was being played away from Florence, AL.

2:  Columbia College’s Bob Burchard honored by having the basketball court named after him.

This just happened this week. Bob Burchard, gets the Columbia College basketball court named in his honor. He just won his 703rd game with the Cougars on Wednesday to make him second in the state in total victories.  Columbia has averaged more than 25 victories a season under his guidance and has appeared at the NAIA National Championships 19 times.

When a coach wins 700+ games, it’s a big story.

1:  Kansas City Royals-World Series Champions

We were hoping for another I-70 Series, but that ended when the Cardinals got bumped by Chicago.  It looked like the Royals were done for in Game 4 of the ALDS in Houston.  Down 2-1 in the series and 6-2 in the eighth inning, the Royals scored five runs in the top half of the inning.  They won the game, won that series and then proceeded to handle Toronto and New York with relative ease.

According to our website stats, the following stories received the most amount of web hits for one single story.

Jefferson City native Justin Smith retires from the NFL

Fulton boys’ basketball coach dies

Mizzou wrestling loses out on national title 

Friday night fiasco.  A high school football cheap shot and how MSHSAA stays prepared

Finally, this is perhaps my favorite story of the year!

Mizzou and Missouri State softball get into an email spat over sunflower seeds