Braggin' Rights history time! Other than the very first statistic, I am only going to count the matchups in St. Louis for these stats.
Overall Series: ILL 33-19
St. Louis Series: ILL 26-14
Series When Both Ranked: ILL 6-3
Series When Illinois is Ranked: ILL 13-7
Series When Missouri is Ranked: ILL 10-6
Series When Neither Ranked: ILL 9-4
- This will be the 41st Braggin' Rights game, but it will actually be the 40th game
in St. Louis, thanks to the COVID interruption. So, a special get together!
- Even after a big dip in recent years, the all-time average attendance for games in St. Louis is 19,254. That is ridiculously impressive since the first half of the series took place in an arena that held 18,000!
- In the first 32 matchups (through 2013-14),
at least one team was ranked in 79% of those games! Wow, lol. Both teams were ranked in 9 of those games, including two 3-year streaks from 2001-02 to 2003-04 and then again from 2010-11 to 2012-13.
- It's really amazing just how good Mizzou has actually been over the years with VERY little to show for it. While they have literally never been to a Final Four and have not won a regular season conference title since 1994 (Illinois has won 6.5 in that timeframe
), they have come into this game ranked higher than Illinois 12 times over the years and a couple more times only one or two spots behind us. Even during our "glory years" of the early 2000s, we would often come in at #9 or #11 or something only for Mizzou to be at #8 or #10, respectively.
- One more random thought about TV ... I am starting to think that the expanded number of bowls and/or ESPN's obsession with showing them all has impacted the TV assignment for this game WAY more than any lowering of its status. JMO...
Anyway, I am hoping there are enough local fans planning to go and/or fans heading down early that weather does not affect attendance too much! This is my second year, and I would love to see a full arena! (I know it's sold out, but who knows how many fans can't get into town with the weather?)
I-L-L!