There is no question that Missouri’s athletic profile is on the rise nationally. Missouri has been in national sporting news a lot lately, whether it be for the Tiger’s move to the SEC, their basketball teams success this season or Dorial Green-Beckham’s recent decision, choosing Missouri for his football services.

However, as many Missouri fans may know, their success on and off the playing field have not come without devastating defeats.

In recent years, the Missouri’s football and basketball teams have lost several games immediately after big wins. First, there was the 2007 football team. On Nov. 24 of that year, the Tigers defeated the Kansas Jayhawks 36-18 in one of the biggest victories in program history. The next week, the Tigers, who were ranked No. 1 and were one win away from the National Championship Game, lost to the Oklahoma Sooners in the Big 12 Championship Game 38-17.

Then, in 2010, the football team once again had a program-defining win, beating No. 1 Oklahoma 36-27 at home in front of a national audience as part of “College Gameday”. The Tiger’s were undefeated (7-0) and primed to go to their first BCS Bowl game. However, the Tigers lost their next two games at Nebraska and Texas Tech and ended up settling with an Insight Bowl loss to Iowa, finishing the year 10-3.

Up to tonight, this year’s Missouri basketball team has followed a similar pattern. Undefeated going into Big 12 play, the Tigers stomped Oklahoma by 38 points 87-49 to start off the Big 12 season. However, the very next game, the Tiger’s went to Kansas State and lost their first game of the season to the Wildcats, 75-59.

Even more devastating, Missouri lost to Oklahoma State on Jan. 25, 79-72 just days after defeating then No. 3 Baylor and moving to No. 2 in the national rankings.

However, if tonight’s win against Oklahoma is any indicator, the Tiger’s may have reversed their recent trend of losing a game after a big win.

The Tiger’s squeaked by Oklahoma 71-68, in which the Sooners missed a three to tie the game as time expired. It wasn’t pretty, but the Tigers temporarily reversed their recent trend by winning the next game after Saturday night’s come from behind victory against Kansas, 74-71.

Bill Self said that he was impressed by the “classy” atmosphere at Mizzou Arena on Saturday, and that he could see Missouri and Kansas playing again years down the road — just not anytime soon.

“They chose to be somewhere else, and that’s fine,” Self said. “But when you choose to be somewhere else, you leave a situation behind that’s not the same as when you were in it. Right now it’s not gonna happen.”

He also said that he doesn’t feel bad for fans on either side that the 104-year old rivalry won’t continue past this season.

“I don’t feel bad,” Self said. “Missouri wanted this, so why should I feel bad? If anybody should feel bad for anybody it’s the players who won’t get a chance to play in it. Not the fans.”

Even though he is new to the rivalry, Missouri coach Frank Haith doesn’t feel the same way.

“It’d be a shame,” Haith said. “Not just for our fans, but for everybody. It’s a great game to have us play. Hopefully we can work something out.”

During ESPN “College Gameday” on Saturday morning at Mizzou Arena, the analysts of the show posed the question of who Missouri’s rival will be in the SEC. They couldn’t come up with a good answer, but the estimated 5,000 Missouri fans in attendance seemed to feel unanimously that their new rival should be Arkansas. Fans screamed “Arkansas!” when the question was asked, and seconds later a chant of “Are-Kansas” started up.

The fact that Arkansas can’t be spelled without “kansas” isn’t the only reason that fans think the Razorbacks would make a good rival. Arkansas coach Mike Anderson bolted from Missouri last season after five years in Columbia, leaving many fans feeling pessimistic about the future of Missouri basketball and bitterness towards Arkansas.

The two schools also clashed this past month in the recruitment of top-rated football player Dorial Green-Beckham. DGB was thought to be headed to Arkansas until Missouri seemingly won him over during a visit the weekend before signing day.

Because they are in different divisions in football, Arkansas and Missouri will only meet on the football field about once every six years. But they’ll play at least once every year in basketball, which could give way to a new version of the Border War.

Following Missouri’s 74-71 victory over Kansas, Missouri men’s basketball head coach Frank Haith said his team would be staying in a hotel tonight in preparation for its game at Oklahoma on Monday.

“The guys didn’t like it, but they’re in a hotel tonight,” Haith said. “We told them after the game. We didn’t let them know before the game. We saw some guys look at us cross-eyed at the end. I can imagine what Columbia’s going to be like tonight, so we’re in a hotel.”

The Tigers will leave Columbia on Sunday afternoon and spend time preparing for Monday’s game against the Sooners.

“We’ve got to be smart in how we get ourselves ready,” Haith said.

When ESPNs College Gameday came to Missouri last year for the MU vs. then-ranked No. 1 Oklahoma football game, Kim English showed up to Francis Quad with a request.

The senior guard on the Missouri men’s basketball team held up a sign asking GameDay to come back for a basketball game.

Photo courtesy of Molly Moore.

The show featured a segment in which English discusses a speech impediment he had growing up. He reads a passage from the Rudyard Kipling poem “If”:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too.

On Friday morning, Missouri men’s basketball coach Frank Haith visited the students camped outside Mizzou Arena and brought them coffee and donuts. The @MizzouHoops twitter posted pictures on Friday morning.

The first group of students to pitch a tent outside Mizzou Arena arrived around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, about 70 hours before tipoff between No. 4 Missouri and No. 8 Kansas. The group of juniors say they have camped out for every Missouri-Kansas basketball since they have been at MU. This year is a bonus because the will also get to be up close for ESPN College GameDay on Saturday morning.

“Its gonna be a great day on Saturday,” Haith said. “I’m excited about our fans being a part of GameDay. I haven’t been a part of one myself, so I’m excited about that.”

It’s now less than 12 hours until National Signing Day kicks off with DGB’s announcement at 9 a.m. on ESPNU, and you know social media will be exploding tomorrow. Here are some of the players we’ll have our eyes on. Feel free to follow them too, and follow @CoMoSports and our website for up-to-the-minute signing day info.

• Evan Boehm — @BIGboehmTHEORY
• Torey Boozer — @Give_em_he11
• Harold Brantley — @haroldBharold
• Levi Copelin — @Levi_Copelin
• Chaston Cuffee — @c_cuffee2
• Sean Culkin — @culkin22
• John Gibson — @thatgibsonkid
• Simon Goines — @goines_simon
• Russell Hansbrough — @imthatnike
• Maty Mauk — @kentonqb7
• Donavin Newsom — @bashbro_40
• Michael Scherer — @Mike_scherer38
• Ka’Ra Stewart — @KcDaGod
• Evan Winston — @Winston_55
• Dorial Green-Beckham — @DorialGB5

ESPN College GameDay is free to the public, and MU students who arrive with a ticket to Saturday night’s game will receive wristbands for priority entry for the game.

This FAQ on MUTigers.com explains parking, line-up and seating arrangements for Saturday morning. Fans are being encouraged to wear gold and bring posters to GameDay.

If you don’t have a ticket right now for Missouri’s game against Kansas on Saturday, you aren’t going to get one without emptying your pockets. As of Tuesday afternoon, the cheapest tickets on stubhub.com are available for $220. The cheapest lower level ticket is going for $295, and the most expensive tickets are going for $2,000.

Missouri (No. 4) and Kansas (No. 8 ) are both ranked in the top 10 in this week’s polls. The last time that the Tigers and Jayhawks met when both were ranked in the top 10 was 1990, when Missouri won both games:

Jan. 20: No. 4 Missouri beat No. 1 Kansas 95-87 in Columbia.

Feb. 13: No. 2 Missouri beat No. 1 Kansas 77-71 in Lawrence.

After Michael Dixon’s last-minute layup pushed the Missouri Tigers past the Texas Longhorns in tonight’s 67-66 road victory, the Tigers will look to repeat history with a win over Kansas on February 4.

In 2009, the Tigers beat Texas on the road 69-65 after Zaire Taylor converted a three-point play and Demarre Carroll hit a free throw all within the last 6 seconds of the game.

Five days later, the Tigers returned home to play Kansas. Zaire Taylor was the hero again when he hit a jump-shot with 1.2 seconds left to knock off the Jayhawks 62-60.

This year, the Tigers also play the Jayhawks five days after a last-minute road win against Texas.

Missouri has only beaten Texas and Jayhawks in the same year twice prior to 2009. In 1975, Missouri beat Texas 64-60 and Kansas 87-72, and in 1998 the Tigers beat the Longhorns 91-69 and the Jayhawks 74-73.

Missouri tips off against Kansas on Saturday night at 8 p.m. at Mizzou Arena.