Portal season is officially over for Missouri, with the team completing its roster on Monday by officially introducing South Carolina transfer big man Josh Gray.
We’ve spent basically the entire offseason discussing the recruiting aspects of the program, and for good reason. Knowing who’s on the team plays an important part in figuring out what the range of outcomes are going to be for next year. But another important part of the equation is figuring out who the Tigers are going up against, especially in non-conference play.
Assistant coach Ryan Sharbaugh told me back in September that head coach Dennis Gates views scheduling almost as important as recruiting.
“It’s how you get everything started,” Sharbaugh said. “Both are that valuable. And those sit, you know, No. 1A and 1B in (Gates’) philosophy on program building … Coach Gates just needs a lot of credit, I think, for putting the investment into it.”
Looking at the games that are already booked for the black and gold for 2024-25, I have a hunch this is a year that Gates probably decided soon after he was hired to push some chips toward the middle of the table. Because a lot of the games seem lined up for Mizzou.
CBS’ Jon Rothstein reported last week that the team will tip the season off at Memphis on Nov. 4. Missouri had a bit of a missed opportunity hosting Memphis last year — head coach Penny Hardaway was suspended for the game, Memphis had a team loaded with newcomers who hadn’t had the chance to mesh yet and the black and gold got off to a 14-point lead in the first half before going ice-cold from the field and losing, 70-55. Hardaway isn’t facing a suspension at the moment and brought in a top-10 transfer class as ranked by EvanMiya.com. Facing Memphis on the road this year will definitely be a tough challenge.
The good news for Mizzou, however, is there’s a real chance that’ll be its only true road game before SEC play. Minnesota will make a return trip to Columbia, Mo., this season to complete its home-and-home series with the Tigers. The Golden Gophers bring back veteran center Dawson Garcia, but lost three of its top five scorers from last season. Mizzou will square up with Kansas again, which should be considered one of the top teams in the country again with senior forward Hunter Dickinson returning and a top-flight transfer class joining him. But the Tigers will at least get the Jayhawks at home this year in part four of the renewed Border War series. The Braggin’ Rights game against Illinois will also continue at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis — Terrance Shannon Jr. and Coleman Hawkins are gone but I still expect the Fighting Illini to be a tough out for as long as Brad Underwood remains head coach.
MU will be at home for this year’s ACC/SEC Challenge after beating Pittsburgh on the road last season. The team’s opponent hasn’t been named yet but I’d anticipate the announcement to come withing the next month or so (last year’s game was announced on June 28). Missouri is also slated to take part in a pair of games in the Hall of Fame Classic at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo. Sharbaugh told me the staff wanted to make it a priority to in KC every year, just like they do in St. Louis, which was a reason they scheduled Seton Hall for a neutral site game there last season. The Hall of Fame Classic field hasn’t been announced yet, either, but just to give you an idea of the Tigers might see, last year’s field featured Boston College, Colorado State, Creighton and Loyola Chicago — all four teams finished in the top 100 of KenPom’s ratings. Regardless of who else is involved, I’d still expect Mizzou to be the main draw of the event.
In total, that’s four home games, three in-state neutral games and one road game. I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if the rest of the non-conference scheduled is filled with “guarantee” games (contests in which the black and gold will pay opponents to face them at home) against Quad 4 schools. It’s already been reported that Lindenwood will be one of them, making the trip to Mizzou Arena on Nov. 27. At most, I could see the Tigers adding a home-and-home series with a mid-major program, like they did with Wichita State, to possibly ensure itself another home game for the 2025-26 season. But the team doesn’t necessarily need to take on an opponent more difficult than that given who they’re already set to go up against.
Missouri’s got several quality teams on the books with all but one of its games set to take place in favorable venues. That’s about as good as it gets for a high major. So, in addition to what Gates was able to accomplish on the recruiting trail, I think he deserves credit for that as well.
Almost none of it matters without results. But on paper, I think he's positioned himself pretty well for this upcoming season.
In a rare instance, I found myself agreeing with Jay Bilas this week.
There are a bajillion hangups with the settlement that the NCAA and its members agreed to last month, in which the schools would shell out billions of dollars to former and current college athletes over a period of 10 years. The article that Bilas linked to raised a number of good questions about the settlement that U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken will be tasked with sorting through: What happens if a large number of players choose to opt out of the settlement, instead wanting to move forward with litigation? How are Title IX, immigration and other laws involved? What happens after the end of the 10-year settlement period?
But in my opinion, the biggest obstacle to come is this: “(Wilken) could further wonder whether attorneys negotiating what is tantamount to a CBA on behalf of college athletes is problematic from a labor law perspective. Those athletes can’t currently negotiate a CBA since unions negotiate CBAs. Unions are composed of employees, and save for Dartmouth college men’s basketball players, college athletes have not (yet) been recognized as employees. But with several legal efforts afoot for college athletes to gain employment recognition, Wilken might query if a settlement expected to last a decade is too lengthy and too encompassing.”
If the settlement took effect, schools giving money directly to athletes would be capped at about $22 million. That’s not an unfamiliar practice in sports leagues — the NFL, NBA and NHL all have salary caps. The difference is that the players of those leagues are considered employees and have unions that collectively bargain where the cap is set based on the amount of revenue the leagues bring in. College athletes don’t. And so, without recognizing athletes as employees, I don’t see how a cap can be set without dragging the NCAA into hot water with antitrust laws. As Bilas points out, how can you put a cap on how much athletes earn when there’s no such cap for anyone else in college sports?
The article noted that Wilken has the ability to reject the settlement proposal. There’s precedent for that happening, too, with a judge previously blocking a settlement between Google and authors and publishers over a book copyright case. The judge stated that the settlement “would simply go too far.” I won’t be shocked if Wilken decides this settlement does the same.
We’ve spent basically the entire offseason discussing the recruiting aspects of the program, and for good reason. Knowing who’s on the team plays an important part in figuring out what the range of outcomes are going to be for next year. But another important part of the equation is figuring out who the Tigers are going up against, especially in non-conference play.
Assistant coach Ryan Sharbaugh told me back in September that head coach Dennis Gates views scheduling almost as important as recruiting.
“It’s how you get everything started,” Sharbaugh said. “Both are that valuable. And those sit, you know, No. 1A and 1B in (Gates’) philosophy on program building … Coach Gates just needs a lot of credit, I think, for putting the investment into it.”
Looking at the games that are already booked for the black and gold for 2024-25, I have a hunch this is a year that Gates probably decided soon after he was hired to push some chips toward the middle of the table. Because a lot of the games seem lined up for Mizzou.
CBS’ Jon Rothstein reported last week that the team will tip the season off at Memphis on Nov. 4. Missouri had a bit of a missed opportunity hosting Memphis last year — head coach Penny Hardaway was suspended for the game, Memphis had a team loaded with newcomers who hadn’t had the chance to mesh yet and the black and gold got off to a 14-point lead in the first half before going ice-cold from the field and losing, 70-55. Hardaway isn’t facing a suspension at the moment and brought in a top-10 transfer class as ranked by EvanMiya.com. Facing Memphis on the road this year will definitely be a tough challenge.
The good news for Mizzou, however, is there’s a real chance that’ll be its only true road game before SEC play. Minnesota will make a return trip to Columbia, Mo., this season to complete its home-and-home series with the Tigers. The Golden Gophers bring back veteran center Dawson Garcia, but lost three of its top five scorers from last season. Mizzou will square up with Kansas again, which should be considered one of the top teams in the country again with senior forward Hunter Dickinson returning and a top-flight transfer class joining him. But the Tigers will at least get the Jayhawks at home this year in part four of the renewed Border War series. The Braggin’ Rights game against Illinois will also continue at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis — Terrance Shannon Jr. and Coleman Hawkins are gone but I still expect the Fighting Illini to be a tough out for as long as Brad Underwood remains head coach.
MU will be at home for this year’s ACC/SEC Challenge after beating Pittsburgh on the road last season. The team’s opponent hasn’t been named yet but I’d anticipate the announcement to come withing the next month or so (last year’s game was announced on June 28). Missouri is also slated to take part in a pair of games in the Hall of Fame Classic at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo. Sharbaugh told me the staff wanted to make it a priority to in KC every year, just like they do in St. Louis, which was a reason they scheduled Seton Hall for a neutral site game there last season. The Hall of Fame Classic field hasn’t been announced yet, either, but just to give you an idea of the Tigers might see, last year’s field featured Boston College, Colorado State, Creighton and Loyola Chicago — all four teams finished in the top 100 of KenPom’s ratings. Regardless of who else is involved, I’d still expect Mizzou to be the main draw of the event.
In total, that’s four home games, three in-state neutral games and one road game. I wouldn’t be terribly shocked if the rest of the non-conference scheduled is filled with “guarantee” games (contests in which the black and gold will pay opponents to face them at home) against Quad 4 schools. It’s already been reported that Lindenwood will be one of them, making the trip to Mizzou Arena on Nov. 27. At most, I could see the Tigers adding a home-and-home series with a mid-major program, like they did with Wichita State, to possibly ensure itself another home game for the 2025-26 season. But the team doesn’t necessarily need to take on an opponent more difficult than that given who they’re already set to go up against.
Missouri’s got several quality teams on the books with all but one of its games set to take place in favorable venues. That’s about as good as it gets for a high major. So, in addition to what Gates was able to accomplish on the recruiting trail, I think he deserves credit for that as well.
Almost none of it matters without results. But on paper, I think he's positioned himself pretty well for this upcoming season.
In a rare instance, I found myself agreeing with Jay Bilas this week.
There are a bajillion hangups with the settlement that the NCAA and its members agreed to last month, in which the schools would shell out billions of dollars to former and current college athletes over a period of 10 years. The article that Bilas linked to raised a number of good questions about the settlement that U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken will be tasked with sorting through: What happens if a large number of players choose to opt out of the settlement, instead wanting to move forward with litigation? How are Title IX, immigration and other laws involved? What happens after the end of the 10-year settlement period?
But in my opinion, the biggest obstacle to come is this: “(Wilken) could further wonder whether attorneys negotiating what is tantamount to a CBA on behalf of college athletes is problematic from a labor law perspective. Those athletes can’t currently negotiate a CBA since unions negotiate CBAs. Unions are composed of employees, and save for Dartmouth college men’s basketball players, college athletes have not (yet) been recognized as employees. But with several legal efforts afoot for college athletes to gain employment recognition, Wilken might query if a settlement expected to last a decade is too lengthy and too encompassing.”
If the settlement took effect, schools giving money directly to athletes would be capped at about $22 million. That’s not an unfamiliar practice in sports leagues — the NFL, NBA and NHL all have salary caps. The difference is that the players of those leagues are considered employees and have unions that collectively bargain where the cap is set based on the amount of revenue the leagues bring in. College athletes don’t. And so, without recognizing athletes as employees, I don’t see how a cap can be set without dragging the NCAA into hot water with antitrust laws. As Bilas points out, how can you put a cap on how much athletes earn when there’s no such cap for anyone else in college sports?
The article noted that Wilken has the ability to reject the settlement proposal. There’s precedent for that happening, too, with a judge previously blocking a settlement between Google and authors and publishers over a book copyright case. The judge stated that the settlement “would simply go too far.” I won’t be shocked if Wilken decides this settlement does the same.
