Out of the Pouch

By: Dan Stroud

Posted: 12/3/07

This column was supposed to be a smart piece about putting together a winning athletic program and watching the money roll in.

It was going to be about the untold amounts of scholarship money that were about to be collected by the Tiger Scholarship Fund in lieu of an opportunity to watch the Missouri Tigers square off in the BCS Championship game.

There was going to be another explanation of why this school's administration seems intent to back the fastest pony, a successful athletics program, as the push to raise UMKC's enrollment continues.

But something happened along the way that forever altered the words that would be read from this page. The top-ranked Missouri Tigers lost to the (and the next word was hard to be reminded about all evening) favored and ninth ranked Oklahoma Sooners.

There are few people or teams that come to mind and stir hatred, loathing and disdain in equal parts. The New York Yankees, the Oakland Raiders, maybe even the New England Patriots of late would be candidates.

At the hour of this writing, the University of Oklahoma (OU) and its head football coach Bob Stoops top that list. Call it poor sportsmanship, sour grapes or whatever you like, that's how bad this loss stings.

There are Missouri Tiger football fans across the state, even across the country who have stood by this program their entire lives having never witnessed the pinnacle this one football game represented.

Never mind the fact that OU was the better team, that the Tigers had their chances to take control of the game and time and again came up short. The good guys lost and the bad guys, those jerks just south of the Show Me State, won.

What is it about teams from Oklahoma any way? How many times have the Oral Roberts University (ORU) Golden Eagles, who hail from Tulsa, stood in the way of UMKC and basketball success?

Again, we don't need to mention that ORU has likely built stronger athletic teams over the years. It shouldn't matter that they have usually recruited better and until recently seemed to hire the better coaches.

No, it's much easier to just hate on the Sooners and the Golden Eagles.

Maybe that was Missouri head football coach Gary Pinkel's attitude as he addressed his team after they were threshed 38-17, dashing any national title hopes. Could be UMKC head basketball coaches Matt Brown and Candace White-Whitaker are already gearing up for two more Summit League defeats each against ORU.

Then again, UMKC Chancellor Guy Bailey and Athletics Director Tim Hall will probably come to their senses soon and drop UMKC down to Division III status, solving all of the university's academic and probably even most of the school's economic woes in the move.

But don't bet the farm on it; any of it.

dstroud@unews.com