A lopsided rivalry between the old Big 12 foes was back, and there could have been significant College Football Playoff ramifications by the time they began. Since then, the reality has shined in this Tigers-Sooners meeting. Let’s not pretend otherwise.

Mizzou arrives unranked in the AP top 25 and is barely clinging to the College Football Playoff rankings (No. 24) with two blowout losses under its belt and a big question mark hanging over its quarterback situation.

Starter Brady Cook was ruled out by the team and backup Drew Pyne was uncompetitive when called up to the league. There apparently isn’t a good third option at the moment; if it was, we would know by now. Can Mizzou compete, let alone win, without Cook? So far, the answer has been a convincing no.

Oklahoma, unranked and with four losses, can’t sneer. This is a worse season than Mizzou, with fewer excuses. The Sooners can’t blame an injured starting quarterback for their stalled offense. They have inverted starters at that position. Jackson Arnold and Michael Hawkins Jr. struggled to get things going. Against Southeastern Conference defenses, the Sooners are averaging 13.6 points per game, the lowest in the SEC. OU’s defense is decent, but no defense is good enough to support an offense as lackluster as Oklahoma’s.

Let’s be real, friends. Saturday night could be ugly. Maybe the team that finds a way to score on defense or on special teams will end up winning. Playoff implications? There are no legitimate ones. But this game still means a lot. Because of the past. Because of the future.

Most Mizzou fans and followers remember the painful pecking order of the Tigers’ previous league all too well. Texas and Oklahoma were the darlings of the Big 12, and everyone else was supposed to feel lucky to share a seat at their table.

Mizzou has wisely sought a brighter, more equitable future in the SEC. Texas and Oklahoma making the same move years later was just further confirmation that the Tigers made the right choice long before it was popular. Beating Oklahoma in the SEC, however, would be proof that the previous conference’s pecking order doesn’t necessarily have to transfer. These are not Bob Stoops’ Sooners. Not Lincoln Riley’s either. Brent Venables revealed himself to be vulnerable.

Saturday has a heavier weight than a single match. This is your opportunity to make a statement – ​​or have one made against you. Mizzou winning says new conference, new era to this series. Oklahoma’s win shows that this all sounds pretty familiar, as do the Sooners’ eight wins in their last 10 tries against Mizzou in a series that is tilted heavily (24-67 with five ties) in OU’s favor. Getting blown out at Texas A&M and Alabama wouldn’t sting like Mizzou losing to that damaged Oklahoma team at home.

There’s another reason why this one moves an important needle. You only have to see Mizzou’s coaching staff take to social media to celebrate its recruiting department at full capacity for the game to understand why. The Tigers and Sooners now sharing the SEC have only increased the pressure on what has become one of the most cutthroat recruiting battles in sports. This has been going on for years, but rarely has it been this competitive and this intense.

Luther Burden, like Jeremy Maclin, committed to Oklahoma before staying with his home state’s Tigers.

The Sooners got Ronnie Perkins. So does Cayden Green, although he’s now a Tiger via the transfer portal. Williams Nwaneri left OU fans questioning his commitment to Mizzou before signing on the dotted scholarship line as a Tiger. Some of the next players to be chosen between the two teams will be watching Saturday from the recruiting section at Memorial Stadium.

I don’t expect either coach to fully inform their respective players of the long history between these two brands. But if one or the other hasn’t tried to explain very clearly why this game matters a little more than most, mistakes have been made.

Mizzou’s season prospects look shaky with Cook hampered. Oklahoma is looking for some sort of glimmer of hope, and this might be the best one left.

The winner of this game will take home their most sensational victory of the year so far, and perhaps the most rewarding for recruiting purposes.

It’s big, although it should have been bigger.(tncms-asset)e61a1cb2-9d10-11ef-ba05-4f5eb46eb2f0(3)(/tncms-asset)(tncms-asset)bc5170f0-9af0-11ef-a27b-2faae130cbe5(4)(/tncms-asset)