Missouri gets nod to enter the SEC in 2012

The University of Missouri will join the SEC effective July 1, with competition to begin in all sports for the 2012-13 academic year. The SEC presidents and chancellors have unanimously OK’d the move. The addition of Missouri will increase SEC membership to 14 institutions. The additions of Texas A&M, announced on Sept. 25, and Missouri, are the first expansions for the SEC since September 1991, when the University of South Carolina joined the league. The University of Arkansas joined the SEC in August 1991. With the addition of Arkansas and South Carolina, the SEC was the first conference to split into divisions and add a conference championship game in 1992. Missouri, located in Columbia, will also be the fourth institution in the SEC to hold membership in the Association of American Universities, joining University of Florida, Texas A&M University and Vanderbilt University. Missouri has an enrollment of 33,800 students, which will make it the fourth-largest institution in the SEC, with Florida, Georgia and Texas A&M each having a larger student body. Missouri sponsors 20 varsity sports. The Birmingham News has put together a report detailing everything an SEC fan could possibly want to know about the conference’s newest member. See it here.