COLUMBIA, Mo. — They’ll open against the ’Dores, clash with the Tide before a bye and close it out with a holiday call to the Hogs.
Missouri football learned its entire 2024 football schedule with dates revealed Wednesday night for the Southeastern Conference portion of the calendar.
Mizzou will open its SEC slate against Vanderbilt for the second consecutive season, but next year, it’ll be Sept. 21 at home. MU has played the Commodores annually since joining the SEC and will continue its alternating home-and-away series.
The Tigers’ first bye week will come during Week 5.
From there, Missouri will hit the road Oct. 5 to play at Texas A&M. Facing the Aggies will resurrect another Big 12 series. Mizzou’s last trip to 102,000-capacity Kyle Field was a 34-27 win in 2014.
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Auburn will visit Memorial Stadium Oct. 19. Mizzou has only played Auburn twice in the regular season since joining the SEC. In 2022, MU lost on the road in grueling overtime fashion. In 2017, the only time the two sets of Tigers have played in Columbia, Auburn won 54-41.
2024 Mizzou football schedule
Date | Game |
---|---|
Aug. 31 | vs. MURRAY STATE |
Sept. 7 | vs. BUFFALO |
Sept. 14 | vs. BOSTON COLLEGE |
Sept. 21 | vs. VANDERBILT |
Sept. 28 | open date |
Oct. 5 | at Texas A&M |
Oct. 12 | at UMass |
Oct. 19 | vs. AUBURN |
Oct. 26 | at Alabama |
Nov. 2 | open date |
Nov. 9 | vs. OKLAHOMA |
Nov. 16 | at South Carolina |
Nov. 23 | at Mississippi State |
Nov. 30 | vs. ARKANSAS |
Then comes one of the season’s toughest tests: Oct. 26 at Alabama. The Tigers and Crimson Tide have played one time in Tuscaloosa, a 2018 win for Alabama. In four matchups since MU entered the SEC, it has never scored more than 19 points nor allowed fewer than 38 to the reigning conference champions. Playing at Bryant-Denny Stadium will likely draw the second of two six-figure crowds for road games.
The Tigers will get another bye during Week 10, then bring an old rival to town in the form of Oklahoma on Nov. 9. In a game that has gained some intensity over the recruitment of players such as top prospect and MU commit Williams Nwaneri, the Tigers and Sooners will rekindle a Big 12 affair with their first meeting since 2011. Missouri memorably beat a No. 1-ranked Oklahoma team for homecoming in 2010.
A trip to South Carolina will follow on Nov. 16. The Gamecocks have been a yearly opponent for the Tigers, with the programs from Columbia, Missouri, and Columbia, South Carolina, playing for the Mayor’s Cup. MU will head east with the trophy in tow for its only conference game played in the Eastern time zone.
Next up will be another road trip for Mizzou, which will pay a visit to Mississippi State on Nov. 23. Missouri and Mississippi State will play for just the fifth time in their history. The Tigers visited Starkville in 2020 but played in front of a pandemic-limited crowd of roughly 11,750.
As is the norm, Missouri will close out the regular season by hosting Arkansas during Thanksgiving weekend. The Battle Line Rivalry game is scheduled for Nov. 30 but could be flexed into a Thanksgiving or Black Friday time slot.
The SEC will no longer have its East and West divisions, starting with the 2024 season, which expands the conference to 16 teams via the arrival of Oklahoma and Texas. The top two teams in the conference standings will advance to its championship game.
Mizzou will no longer annually play former SEC East foes including Florida, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee.
The conference attempted to balance schedules by ranking all 16 teams based on their conference winning percentages since 2012, including the Big 12 records of Texas and Oklahoma. In 2024, each team will play four teams (two at home, two on the road) from the top eight winningest programs and four teams (two home, two away again) from the bottom eight. Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Louisiana State, Florida, Texas, Texas A&M and Auburn were all in the upper tier. The lower half was comprised of Mississippi State, Missouri, South Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas and Vanderbilt.
Mizzou will get a bit of a light schedule in terms of how its 2024 opponents fared in conference play this season. Alabama and Oklahoma are the only two teams the Tigers will face next year to put up winning records in conference play in 2023. Collectively, MU’s 2024 SEC slate went 27-38 in conference action this season.
The SEC has not settled on whether it will schedule eight or nine conference games each season going forward, with programs split over whether to approve an added matchup.
Missouri’s four nonconference games for 2024 were previously locked in. The Tigers are scheduled to open the season with three consecutive home games: against Murray State on Aug. 31, Buffalo on Sept. 7 and Boston College on Sept. 14. MU is scheduled to visit UMass, which plays in a 17,000-capacity stadium, on Oct. 12.
The SEC requires its teams to play a nonconference game against a fellow Power Five program at some point in the season, which the Tigers will fulfill by playing the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Boston College.