No Mizzou football…no SEC championship game, no bowl game…so who will you cheer for? If you’re looking for a team, I was thinking local kids and looked at the rosters of teams playing in the SEC, Big Ten, Pac 12 and ACC championship games. Looks like there are only seven players from Missouri that are on those teams.
The biggest name is Wentzville’s Montee Ball from Wisconsin who set the NCAA record with 79 touchdowns. Nebraska has three players from the Show Me State including defensive tackle Chase Rome from Columbia and Will Compton, a starting linebacker from Bonne Terre. Each of them will see significant playing time this Saturday against the Badgers. The University of Wisconsin put together a great tribute video to Ball, covering his four years with the Badgers.
UCLA has Lee Ward from Chesterfield and Nate Lohn from the Kansas City area and the only other Missouri kid on one of those rosters eligible for a BCS game is freshman Will Smith from St. Louis, who plays on Georgia Tech.
If you’re looking for a Missouri college to pull for, how about Missouri Western, in the third round of the Division II playoffs? They are up at Minnesota State-Mankato on Saturday. Plus, today is the final day of voting for Division II football’s version of the Heisman. It’s called the Harlon Hill Trophy. Missouri Western running back Michael Hill is one of eight finalists for the award. He was 2,118 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns.