With the landscape of college athletics shifting by the day, Mizzou is setting themselves up for the future as best they can.

The episode was launched on YouTube, I encourage everyone to watch. In it, Laird Veatch (our newly extended Athletics Director) talks to John Anderson while construction of the North Endzone continues behind them, a metaphor of sorts:

Mizzou’s revenue sports, Football and Men’s Basketball, have both been highly competitive in pursuit of… well being competitive. Neither has truly flashed at the level needed to compete for a National Championship, but they’re more in the conversation on a consistent level.

It’s hard not to notice some slippage in some of the other notable non-revenue sports, however. Minus gymnastics, which seems to be hitting its stride, Volleyball, Softball, and Wrestling were all previously heralded programs which have seen different levels of slippage. Baseball is pretty much in the pits as well.

I think most of the general fanbase of alums will say they only care about the two main sports. If you look at our traffic rates, that’s probably true. I do think that’s a little short sighted.

The trick of the new era is to find a way to be competitive in as many avenues as possible. You want football to compete at the highest level and that takes a massive investment, which for a school like Mizzou might subtract from non-revenue sports. And the competitive balance in basketball is only escalating.

Veatch will ultimately be judged on the success of his ability to fundraise and keep Football and Basketball competitive. But there are plenty of people here, in the comments and the writers room, which would like to make sure the other sports aren’t left behind.

Yesterday at Rock M and Rock M+

Nothing to see here… move along.

I’m kidding, mostly.

• We had a Commute post on the ending of the Mizzou Softball season, and subsequent comments:

Within minutes, Auburn had erased a 2-0 deficit, and created a 4-2 lead over MU with time running out. The gap turned to four runs in what turned into a total collapse by the Tigers and they couldn’t find any runs to get back in it.