COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Southeastern Conference has designated its television selections for the first few weeks of the 2016 football season, and the first two home games of the Barry Odom era will be played under the lights at Faurot Field/Memorial Stadium.

The league office unveiled today its TV designations, and both of Mizzou’s first two home contests will kick at 6:30 p.m.  The home opener is set for Sept. 10th against Eastern Michigan, with SEC Eastern Division rival Georgia coming to Columbia on Sept. 17th.  The Eastern Michigan contest will be televised on the SEC Network Alternate channel, while the Georgia game will air on the SEC Network.

Previously, two other games had kickoff and television plans designated, including the 2016 season opener at West Virginia on Sept. 3rd (11 a.m. central time) which will air on FOX Sports 1, while the Nov. 25th regular-season finale in Columbia against SEC Western Division rival Arkansas will kick at 1:30 p.m. and air on CBS.

All remaining games in 2016 will have kickoff and television designations determined on a 12-day advance notice, with a potential for some 6-day advance selections made by the league office in conjunction with its television partners.

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OTTAWA, Canada – Mizzou senior swimmer Mack Darragh (Ontario, Canada) punched his ticket to the 2016 Rio Olympics, as announced on June 6 by Federation International De Natation (FINA) on Monday. Darragh qualifies as part of the 4x100m medley relay team for the Olympic Games based off of the fastest times in the world from the qualifying period of March 1, 2015 to May 31, 2016. Darragh won his event at the Canadian Olympic & Para-Swimming Trials in April, but missed the individual qualifying standards. The medley relay qualification was his final opportunity to earn an Olympic berth.

Darragh, 22, won the 100m butterfly at Trials. He also took the 200m butterfly and earned a bronze medal in the 200m IM. This is the second senior national team for Darragh, who competed at the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships in Gold Coast, Australia. He was also a bronze medalist at the 2011 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in the 200-m butterfly. At the 2015 NCAA Division I Championships, he established Mizzou records in the 200-yard butterfly and 200-yard IM.

This will be the first Olympic Games for Darragh.

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COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Football’s season-opening game at West Virginia on Sept. 3 will air on Fox Sports 1 at 11 a.m. (CT), as announced Wednesday as part of the Big 12 Conference’s television package. It will be Mizzou’s first morning kick for a road game since 2014 at Toledo and Mizzou’s seventh morning road kick since joining the SEC. Mizzou is 5-1 in the previous six games. The contest at West Virginia will be the first game for first-year Mizzou head coach Barry Odom.

The season opener will mark the sixth all-time meeting between Mizzou and West Virginia, with Mizzou holding a 3-2 edge in the previous five games. The last meeting was in 1998 as Mizzou defeated West Virginia, 34-31, in the Insight.com Bowl. Before that, West Virginia swept a home-and-home set in 1993 and 1994. The two teams also met in the 1920s with Mizzou claiming both meetings as part of a home-and-home in 1926 and 1927.

Fans looking to purchase season tickets for the 2016 Mizzou Football season can fill out the season ticket request list at MUTigers.com or call the Mizzou ticket office at 1-800-CAT-PAWS (884-PAWS in Mid-Missouri). Single-game SEC tickets will go on sale for Tiger Scholarship Fund (TSF) donors beginning the week of August 1. TSF members will receive an email showing when their donor level will open up for sales. Donate Now to become a TSF Member and gain access to this early sale. Single-game SEC tickets will go on sale online for the general public (based on availability) beginning Thursday, August 11 at 6 p.m. CT.

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COLUMBIA, Mo. – The annual Battle Line Rivalry presented by Shelter Insurance® between Mizzou Football and Arkansas has been set for Friday, Nov. 25, with a 1:30 p.m. CT kickoff on CBS, as announced Wednesday. The 2016 season will mark the third consecutive year that CBS has broadcast the game on the Friday following Thanksgiving. The game was originally scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 26, before being picked up by CBS.

This year will mark the third installment of the annual rivalry between the border foes. Mizzou won the initial meeting in the rivalry in 2014, clinching a second consecutive SEC East Division title with a 21-14 win. Arkansas won last year’s meeting in Fayetteville, 28-3.

Mizzou and Arkansas have met seven times over the years and twice since Mizzou joined the SEC in 2012. Mizzou owns a 4-3 advantage over the Razorbacks in history. Two of the seven games in the series have come in bowl games – Mizzou lost the 2003 Independence Bowl, 27-14, while Mizzou defeated Arkansas in the 2008 Cotton Bowl, 38-7, thanks to a Cotton Bowl-record 281 rushing yards and four TDs by RB Tony Temple.

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. – No. 15 Mizzou Softball’s (42-16) 2016 campaign concluded on Sunday afternoon, as it dropped a heartbreaking 5-4 game against No. 2 Michigan. The Wolverines tallied four runs in the seventh inning to erase a late three-run Tigers advantage.

The Wolverines struck first for the second consecutive day, as they tallied a second inning solo home run. Mizzou put together its best scoring opportunity in the early going with a rally in the fourth inning.

Redshirt senior Sami Fagan (Dunnellon, Fla.) roped a single to right field, marking her team-leading 23rd multi-hit game of the year. Two batters later, junior Chloe Rathburn (Mission Viejo, Calif.) laced a single to left to give the Tigers two runners on base. The Tigers then roped a hard hit ball down the third base line, but the Wolverines defense answered with yet another nice play to end the inning.

Mizzou continued to pound away on Michigan’s hurler and finally broke through in the fifth inning. Freshman Kolby Romaine (Chino Hills, Calif.) kicked off the rally with a two-out single. The hit marked Romaine’s third multi-hit effort of the season. Up next, redshirt senior Taylor Gadbois (Maryville, Mo.) moved away from her usual slap technique and rifled a game-tying RBI double to left-center.

The Tigers gained their first lead of the Super Regionals following a clutch two-out three-run home run to centerfield by freshman Rylee Pierce (Visalia, Calif.). Mizzou pushed across all four of its runs in the fifth and sixth inning and were three outs away from forcing a decisive Super Regionals game three.

Michigan led off its final at bat in the seventh inning with a sunshine-aided single off a Tigers’ defender. Following a fly out to right field, the Wolverines began their improbable comeback. A sacrifice fly made it a two-run ballgame with two outs. Michigan kept its feet on the peddle with consecutive run-producing hits.

A wild pitch by the Tigers allowed the fourth and final run of the inning to come across, as Michigan suddenly claimed a one-run lead. Mizzou threatened to even the score at five apiece in the bottom half of the seventh, but couldn’t bring home a runner from third with one out.

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HOOVER, Ala. – Mizzou Baseball’s season came to an end with a 7-0 loss to sixth-seeded Vanderbilt in the opening round of the SEC Tournament on Tuesday morning (May 24) at Hoover Met Stadium. Mizzou sophomore righty Tanner Houck (Collinsville, Ill.) was tremendous through 6.0 innings of work, but took the loss after allowing a pair of earned runs (four total) with six strikeouts and just one walk while scattering just five hits. In two starts against Vanderbilt this year, Houck has gone 15.0 innings and allowed just two earned runs and three walks with 20 strikeouts. He took the loss as he closes the year 5-6 with a 2.99 ERA and 106 strikeouts in 105.1 innings pitched. He did that while making his second consecutive start on just four day’s rest.

Vanderbilt’s Patrick Raby earned the win, improving to 7-1 on the year, after tossing 6.0 shutout innings, allowing just two Mizzou hits with four strikeouts and two walks. Mizzou closes the year 26-30 while Vanderbilt improves to 42-15 and will play No. 3 seed Texas A&M in the second round tomorrow.

Raby made easy work of the Tigers in the first inning, using just 13 pitches to retire the side. Houck looked up to the task early as well, retiring Vanderbilt on nine pitches in the first, picking up a strikeout of Vanderbilt CF Bryan Reynolds to end the frame.

After striking out the side in the third on some filthy stuff, Houck surrendered a leadoff double to Reynolds in the fourth. But he picked up a pair of strikeouts and a pop out to escape the jam as Houck struck out six through four innings of work.

Mizzou didn’t threaten against Raby until the top of the sixth inning as a walk by Kirby McGuire (Round Rock, Texas) and a two-out single by Ryan Howard (St. Charles, Mo.) put two men on for Zach Lavy (Auxvasse, Mo.), but he popped up to strand a pair.

After Mizzou stranded a pair in the sixth, Vanderbilt opened its half of the sixth with a leadoff walk by 1B Ethan Paul and then executed a hit-and-run perfectly after a hit from Jeren Kendall to put runners on the corners with no outs. Kendall then stole second and Reynolds hit his second double of the day to give Vanderbilt a 2-0 lead. Vandy then scored two more runs on a pair of errors to extend the lead to 4-0 after six innings of action.

Senior LHP Austin Tribby (Springfield, Mo.) relieved Houck and tossed an easy 1-2-3 inning in the seventh. Pinch hitter Julian Infante then hit a two-run homer off of Tribby in the eighth to extend the lead to 6-0. Vandy tacked on another on a two-out RBI single by Kyle Smith to take a 7-0 lead. Howard tallied his second hit of the day to lead off the ninth, but Mizzou went quietly after that.

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COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Women’s Basketball guard Carrie Shephard (Steele, Mo.) has opted to transfer from the program, head coach Robin Pingeton announced Tuesday. Shephard played in 28 games over the past two seasons, scoring 26 points and dishing out 18 assists. She shot 46 percent (11-for-24) from the field during her Mizzou career.

“I have nothing but the utmost respect for Carrie,” Pingeton said. “Over the last two years, she has had a very positive impact on our team and will always be considered part of our family. She is an incredible young lady, a talented basketball player and a hard-working and successful student. We wish her nothing but the best and thank her for her contributions to the Mizzou Women’s Basketball program.”

“I want to say thank you to Coach Pingeton for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the Mizzou family and to experience things I never thought I would experience,” Shephard said. “I also want to thank the whole staff and team for welcoming me in with open arms and making my time there a time I will always remember. Thank you to the fans and people who played a role in my time at Mizzou, especially the academic staff with the Total Person Program. They always put me in position to succeed. It was a great two years and I’m thankful for all of it.”

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HOOVER, Ala. – Mizzou Baseball has earned its third berth to the SEC Tournament in four years after earning the No. 11 seed at the annual week-long event in Hoover, Ala. This is the first time that Mizzou has made back-to-back appearances in the tournament.

Mizzou will open SEC Tournament action on Tuesday morning at 9:30 a.m. (CT) against sixth-seeded Vanderbilt. In all, Mizzou is 26-26 in conference tournament action, dating back to 1997 when Mizzou was in the Big 12 Conference. Mizzou’s last conference tournament championship came in 2012 when Mizzou went 4-0 in the Big 12 Tournament, defeating Texas, Texas A&M, Kansas and Oklahoma to claim the championship and qualify for the NCAA Tucson Regional.

Mizzou first qualified for the SEC Tournament in its first season in the league in 2013, losing a marathon 17-inning game with eventual College World Series participant Mississippi State in the opening round. Mizzou then missed the tournament in 2014 before earning the No. 7 seed a year ago. Mizzou went 1-2 last year, winning the opener over South Carolina, 5-1, before dropping the next two games to Vanderbilt and Alabama. In all, Mizzou is 1-3 all-time in the SEC Tournament.

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LEXINGTON, Ky. – Mizzou Baseball dropped its regular season finale at Kentucky, 7-2, on Saturday afternoon at Cliff Hagan Stadium. The loss drops Mizzou to 26-29 on the year and 9-21 in SEC play and Mizzou will be the No. 11 seed in the SEC Tournament, which begins Tuesday for Mizzou at 9:30 a.m. (CT) against an opponent to be determined.

UK starter Kyle Cody earned the win, improving to 6-2 on the season, after going 9.0 innings and scattering just eight hits while allowing two runs (one earned) with a walk and seven strikeouts. Mizzou freshman LHP Michael Plassmeyer (St. Louis, Mo.) took the loss, falling to 4-7 on the year. He went 3.0 innings, scattering six hits (four infield hits) with three runs (two earned). Plassmeyer struck out two and walked none. Mizzou got eight hits on Saturday with seven different players tallying a hit.

The third inning was eventful with each team capitalizing on shaky defense from the opposition. First, Mizzou’s Jake Ring (Ingleside, Ill.) launched a two-out pitch to the track in center field and UK CF Tristan Pompey dropped the ball for an error and Ring found himself on second base. Ryan Howard (St. Charles, Mo.) hit a grounder to short which was misplayed, allowing Ring to score from second to give Mizzou a 1-0 lead.

UK then used three consecutive bunts, two for hits and the last for a sacrifice to move the runners up, to put runners on second and third. Two more infield hits and a rocket into right led to three runs as UK also capitalized on an error in that span to take a 3-1 lead after three.

After Mizzou was retired in the top of the fourth inning, RHP Cole Bartlett (Williamsburg, Ind.) relieved Plassmeyer in the bottom of the fourth. He allowed a double and a walk to leadoff the frame and that led to a sacrifice fly as UK took a 4-1 lead after four innings.

UK added a pair of runs in the sixth inning on an RBI double by Connor Heady and an RBI groundout by Evan White as UK took a 6-1 lead after six. Mizzou got an RBI groundout from Howard in the seventh inning to cut the lead to 6-2.

Senior LHP Austin Tribby (Springfield, Mo.) was outstanding, striking out three of four batters to keep Mizzou in the game moving to the top of the eighth inning. But Mizzou went quietly in the eighth inning and Kentucky added an insurance run in the bottom of the inning. Mizzou then got a two-out single from Ring in the ninth, but that was it for Mizzou.

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LEXINGTON, Ky. – Mizzou Baseball dropped game two of its series at Kentucky, 2-1, on Friday afternoon at Cliff Hagan Field. The Tigers lost despite a masterful start from senior RHP Reggie McClain (Duluth, Ga.) who went 8.0 innings and scattered just six hits with eight strikeouts and no walks in a loss. Two infield hits came around to score in the bottom of the sixth inning and that backed UK starter Dustin Beggs, who went 8.0 innings shutout innings, scattering just six hits with two walks and six strikeouts in his ninth win of the year.

The loss means Mizzou will need to do scoreboard watching on Friday as it looks to secure a spot in next week’s SEC Tournament. Mizzou can still clinch a berth to the tournament on Friday with losses by both Tennessee and Georgia.

McClain and Beggs matched each other inning for inning as each pitcher kept throwing up zeroes quickly and efficiently. Mizzou threatened in multiple innings to begin the game but had two runners picked of and hit into a 6-4-3 double play as the Tigers stranded four runners through six.

After retiring nine in a row with two down in the sixth, McClain surrendered two straight infield hits. SS Riley Mahan then roped a 1-2 pitch past Ian Nelson (Lake St. Louis, Mo.) at second to plate a run and put runners on the corners with two down. UK then pulled off the double steal to plate another run to extend the lead to 2-0 after six.

Mizzou’s offense was quiet in the seventh and eighth innings as Beggs held the Tigers at bay. UK brought in closer Sean Hjelle for the top of the ninth inning. SS Ryan Howard (St. Charles, Mo.) led off the frame with a double and scored on a Trey Harris (Powder Springs, Ga.) groundout. But pinch runner Johnny Balsamo (Kansas City, Mo.) was picked off to end the game.

The rubber game of the series is slated for a 12 p.m. (CT) start Saturday.

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