Missouri football has occupied a strange place in the SEC for a while now. The Tigers aren’t usually the first program people mention when they’re listing conference contenders, but ignoring Mizzou has become a pretty good way to look foolish by November.
Eli Drinkwitz’s program has won 29 games over the last three seasons, beaten Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl, won another bowl against Iowa and turned Faurot Field into one of the harder places in the conference to visit. Now the Tigers are 2-0 to begin 2026, and Friday night’s 38-21 win at Kansas was about as satisfying a way to get there as a Missouri fan could ask for. Mizzou went into Lawrence for the first time since 2005, fell behind early and then took control of the Border War.
The season gets considerably harder from here. Florida, Texas A&M, Texas and Oklahoma are all coming to Columbia, while the road schedule includes Mississippi State, Arkansas and other SEC tests. Missouri also has one of the country’s best running backs in Ahmad Hardy, a new quarterback in Austin Simmons, and a renovated stadium celebrating its 100th anniversary.
Need the streaming help more than the football talk? Jump to how to watch Missouri football with a VPN for help with blackouts, geo-restrictions and location-based streaming issues.
Mizzou Just Walked Into Lawrence and Won the Border War
There’s no reason to bury this farther down the page. Missouri beating Kansas matters. The Tigers and Jayhawks spent more than a decade without playing one another after Missouri left the Big 12 for the SEC. The rivalry finally returned in 2025, when Mizzou won 42-31 in Columbia. This year Missouri had to make the trip west, playing in Lawrence for the first time in more than two decades.
Kansas jumped ahead, but Missouri didn’t panic. Austin Simmons threw for 292 yards and three touchdowns, while the Tigers leaned heavily on the running game as the night progressed. Missouri eventually ran the ball on 15 consecutive offensive snaps in the fourth quarter before Simmons connected with Brett Norfleet on fourth down for the touchdown that effectively finished the game. The 38-21 victory gave Missouri five consecutive wins over Kansas and six wins in the last seven meetings.
For a program now playing an SEC schedule, beating Kansas doesn’t determine whether Missouri can compete for anything nationally. That’s almost beside the point. Rivalries don’t need playoff implications to matter, and the Border War has more than enough history to survive conference realignment. Starting 2-0 is nice. Starting 2-0 after winning in Lawrence is considerably better.
Austin Simmons Has Made the Quarterback Situation Interesting Fast
Missouri entered 2026 with questions at quarterback after Beau Pribula’s departure, and the roster provided several possible answers. Matt Zollers had already gotten meaningful experience as a true freshman in 2025, including three starts, while Missouri added former Ole Miss quarterback Austin Simmons through the transfer portal. Simmons hasn’t needed long to make himself interesting.
The Kansas game was the first real road test, and throwing for 292 yards and three touchdowns in a rivalry game is a pretty convincing early statement. More importantly, he looked capable of giving Missouri something it desperately needs: balance. That’s because the quarterback isn’t the biggest star in this offense. The guy standing behind him might be.
Ahmad Hardy Is Worth Planning a Saturday Around
If you like watching running backs, Ahmad Hardy alone is a good reason to find Missouri on television. Hardy transferred to Mizzou from Louisiana-Monroe before the 2025 season after rushing for 1,351 yards as a freshman. Somehow, he got even better against SEC competition.
Hardy ran for a Missouri single-season record 1,649 yards and 16 touchdowns in 2025, averaging 6.4 yards per carry. He topped 100 yards seven times and produced a ridiculous 300-yard performance against Mississippi State. He finished second nationally in both total rushing yards and rushing yards per game and became a consensus All-American.
What I like most about Hardy isn’t simply the total yardage. He’s difficult to put on the ground. Missouri’s official bio, citing Pro Football Focus, credits him with 1,186 yards after contact last season and 97 forced missed tackles. That’s a running back an offense can build around.
It also gives Simmons some breathing room. Missouri shouldn’t need its quarterback to throw 45 times every Saturday if Hardy is forcing defenses to commit extra bodies to stopping the run. In an era when so much college football discussion revolves around quarterbacks and receivers, Mizzou having a legitimate star at running back makes the Tigers a little different.
The Offense Isn’t Just Hardy
Loading the box against Missouri creates another problem: somebody still has to cover the receivers.
The 2026 roster has been reshaped, but there’s a useful mixture of returning talent and transfers. Donovan Olugbode and DaMarion Fowlkes are young receivers Missouri can continue developing, while the Tigers added experienced options such as Cayden Lee from Ole Miss and Caleb Goodie Sr. after stops at Colorado State and Cincinnati.
That gives the offense different ways to attack a defense rather than simply handing Hardy the football until somebody stops him. If Simmons continues to play the way he did against Kansas, opposing coordinators are going to have to decide how aggressively they want to sell out against the run.
That’s when Missouri becomes dangerous. Hardy doesn’t need 30 carries every week if the threat of giving him 30 carries is enough to change how a defense lines up.
Eli Drinkwitz Has Quietly Raised the Standard
There was a point when making a bowl and causing trouble for one of the SEC’s bigger programs would have felt like a pretty successful Missouri season. That standard has moved. The Tigers have gone 29-10 over the previous three seasons, which Missouri identifies as the second-best three-year stretch in program history. They’ve also gone 19-3 at Faurot Field during that span and won 11 of 15 one-score games.
The biggest breakthrough came in 2023. Missouri finished 11-2 and capped the season by beating Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. The Tigers followed that with another 10-win season in 2024, including a Music City Bowl victory over Iowa.
That’s what Drinkwitz has changed. Missouri isn’t simply hoping to become bowl eligible anymore. The conversation now is about whether the Tigers can remain in the SEC race long enough to matter nationally. There’s a big difference between those two expectations.
Faurot Field Turns 100 This Year
Of all the schools we’ve covered, Missouri might have one of the best built-in storylines for its 2026 home schedule. Memorial Stadium opened in 1926. That makes this its 100th season.
Missouri is commemorating the centennial throughout the year, and the September 19 game against Troy has specifically been designated the Memorial Stadium 100th Anniversary Game. The season also marks the opening of a major $250 million north end zone expansion and renovation.
The timing couldn’t be much better. Missouri enters the season riding a program-record home sellout streak that began in 2023, and some of the biggest games on the 2026 schedule are coming to Columbia. Florida visits October 3. Texas A&M arrives October 10. Texas comes November 7. Oklahoma closes the home schedule on November 28. If you’re going to celebrate 100 years of a stadium, that’s a pretty good collection of visitors.
And Yes, the Rock M Is Still There
You can’t really separate Faurot Field from the giant white Rock M behind the north end zone.
The freshman class constructed it in 1927 using leftover stone from the stadium project. The landmark is roughly 90 feet wide and 95 feet tall and has survived nearly a century of football, stadium renovations and the occasional rival prank.
One of my favorite stories happened in 1957, when pranksters rearranged the stones to turn Missouri’s “M” into an “N” before a game against Nebraska. The groundskeeper recruited some young helpers and managed to restore it before kickoff.
The Rock M also returned as a seating area for 2026 after being reconfigured during the stadium renovation. Because the new version has reduced capacity, access to The Hill now requires a ticket, with much of the space reserved for Missouri students.
That’s a nice way to renovate a stadium without sanding away the thing that made it recognizable in the first place.
Where Can You Watch Missouri Football in 2026?
Missouri is an SEC team, which means the Tigers can move between several broadcast windows depending on the matchup.
The season opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff aired nationally on SEC Network. SEC-controlled games throughout the season can appear across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, SEC Network and SEC Network+, with many exact network assignments determined closer to game day. Missouri’s official schedule specifically directs viewers to the SEC on ABC/ESPN and SEC Network/SECN+ broadcast options.
That makes checking the schedule each week important. A game being on SEC Network one Saturday doesn’t mean the next one will be there, particularly once Missouri starts playing higher-profile conference opponents.
The Tigers also provide radio options through their affiliate network, Varsity App, SiriusXM and other official audio platforms.
Can You Stream Mizzou Football Without Cable?
Yes. You don’t need traditional cable as long as your streaming setup carries the network broadcasting that week’s Missouri game.
For most Mizzou fans, access to the ESPN family of networks and SEC Network will cover a significant portion of the schedule. Games assigned to ABC can also be available through streaming packages carrying the local ABC affiliate.
SEC Network+ deserves the same distinction we’ve made on the other SEC pages: SEC Network and SEC Network+ are not the same channel. SEC Network is a traditional television network, while SEC Network+ is a digital stream available to eligible subscribers through ESPN’s platforms.
Before signing up for anything solely to watch Missouri, look several games ahead. The Tigers’ television assignment can change from week to week.
Missouri Has Plenty to Watch Between Saturdays Too
The live game belongs to whichever network holds the broadcast rights, but Missouri’s official athletics platforms are useful throughout the rest of the week.
Mizzou provides press conferences, highlights, interviews, schedules and other team content, along with official audio options and the Inside Mizzou podcast. The program also maintains a dedicated football media hub with game notes, statistics, recaps and other information for each matchup.
That doesn’t replace ESPN or SEC Network when they’re carrying the live game, but it’s useful if you’re the type of fan who follows the Tigers from Monday’s press conference through Saturday’s kickoff.
Mizzou Has a Pretty Good Claim to Homecoming
Here’s one of the more interesting Missouri traditions because it extends well beyond Missouri. Mizzou claims to be the birthplace of Homecoming. There is some historical debate—Illinois held a similar event in 1910—but Missouri traces its Homecoming tradition to the 1911 Missouri-Kansas game. Athletic director and football coach Chester Brewer wanted alumni to return to Columbia for the rivalry and encouraged former students and players to “come home.” Around 9,000 people packed Rollins Field for the game.
The game itself ended 3-3. Not exactly the cinematic ending you might expect for the origin story of one of America’s biggest college traditions. But the idea stuck. Pep rallies, a parade, a bonfire and the football game were all part of Missouri’s early celebration, and versions of those traditions eventually became standard at schools across the country.
In 2026, Florida visits Missouri on October 3 for Homecoming.
That’s one Saturday I’d circle even if I didn’t care about the SEC standings.
Before the SEC, Missouri Had Some Great Big 12 Teams
Modern fans naturally think of Missouri as an SEC program now, but some of the Tigers’ best recent football happened before the move.
The 2007 Missouri team went 12-2 under Gary Pinkel, won the Big 12 North and finished the season by beating Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl. That team featured Chase Daniel, Jeremy Maclin and a Mizzou offense that could score with just about anybody.
At one point, Missouri even reached No. 1 in the national rankings after beating Kansas in one of the biggest Border War games ever played. The Tigers returned to the Big 12 Championship Game in 2008 before eventually leaving the conference for the SEC after the 2011 season. And plenty of people wondered how that move would work out.
Missouri Didn’t Need Long to Prove It Belonged in the SEC
Missouri’s first SEC season in 2012 was rough. The Tigers went 5-7 and missed a bowl. Then Gary Pinkel’s team did something almost nobody outside Columbia expected. Missouri went 12-2 in 2013 and won the SEC East. Then it won the division again in 2014. Back-to-back SEC Championship Game appearances within three years of joining the league remain one of the most impressive stretches in Missouri’s modern history.
That’s why I push back a little when Mizzou gets treated like some permanent SEC outsider. Missouri has already shown that when the program is right, it can contend in this conference. Drinkwitz is trying to build the next version of that.
The 2026 Schedule Is Built Around Columbia
One thing I really like about Missouri’s schedule this season is how many important games happen at home. After the September 26 SEC opener at Mississippi State, Missouri returns to Columbia for Florida on October 3 and Texas A&M on October 10. The Florida game doubles as Homecoming, while Texas A&M gives the Tigers another major conference test one week later. Then comes perhaps the most interesting home game of the year. Texas visits Faurot Field on November 7.
Missouri is planning a stadium Stripe Out for the game, and if both teams remain relevant in the SEC race, that could become one of the biggest Saturdays Columbia has hosted in years. Kentucky follows on November 21 before Oklahoma comes to Missouri on November 28 for Senior Day. That Oklahoma game has some old Big 12 flavor to it, too. Conference realignment has changed the labels, but longtime Mizzou fans don’t need an introduction to the Sooners. The schedule is difficult. It’s also filled with exactly the type of home games Missouri has spent the last few seasons earning.
How to Watch Missouri Football With a VPN
Being away from Missouri on game day shouldn’t automatically mean losing access to the streaming setup you normally use at home. Streaming services can use your IP address and other location information to determine which broadcasts are available in your region. When you’re traveling, that can occasionally result in a blackout, geo-restriction or another location-based streaming issue affecting a Missouri game.
A VPN routes your internet connection through a server in another location and changes the IP address visible to websites and streaming services. If your physical location is specifically what’s preventing your normal Mizzou stream from loading, a VPN can help.
How to Unblock a Missouri Football Stream
- Choose a VPN.
- Connect to an appropriate VPN server location.
- Check which network is broadcasting the Missouri game.
- Open the streaming service you normally use for that network and sign in.
- Reload the stream and watch Mizzou.
Affiliate Disclosure: VPNForSports may earn a commission if you purchase through links on this page, at no additional cost to you.
Always check Step 3 before assuming your location is the problem. A VPN won’t turn an SEC Network+ game into an SEC Network broadcast, and it doesn’t provide a television or streaming subscription.
Where it becomes useful is when geography is actually what’s getting in the way.
A VPN can also encrypt your internet connection, providing additional privacy if you’re watching Missouri over hotel, airport or other public Wi-Fi while traveling.
When Would a Missouri Fan Actually Need a VPN?
Travel is the clearest example. Maybe you’re overseas when Texas comes to Columbia. Maybe work takes you outside your normal viewing region during the Oklahoma game. Or maybe you open a streaming service you’ve already paid for and discover that its available content has changed because you’re somewhere different.
Those are the situations where a Missouri football VPN makes sense. It isn’t something you need to turn on simply because Mizzou is playing.
Check the game’s broadcaster first, make sure you have appropriate access and then troubleshoot location if that’s actually what’s preventing the stream from working.
Missouri Football Streaming & VPN FAQ
Missouri games can appear across ABC, ESPN networks, SEC Network and SEC Network+. Exact television assignments depend on the matchup and can be announced closer to game day, so check Mizzou’s schedule before kickoff.
Yes. A live-TV streaming service carrying the network assigned to the game can provide access without a traditional cable subscription. The channels you’ll need can change throughout the season.
Check the network first. If you’re using the correct broadcaster and have appropriate access, the stream could be affected by a blackout, geo-restriction or another location-based limitation.
A VPN can help when your IP location is specifically responsible for a Missouri stream being unavailable. You’ll still need appropriate access to the network or streaming service broadcasting the game.
At Some Point, Missouri Stops Being a Surprise
Maybe that’s the part of modern Mizzou football I find most interesting. Missouri has spent years being treated like the SEC team everyone remembers only after it starts winning. The Tigers did it under Gary Pinkel when they joined the conference and immediately won consecutive SEC East championships. Drinkwitz has started pushing the program in that direction again.
Now Mizzou has a consensus All-American running back, a quarterback who just threw three touchdowns in Lawrence, a home stadium celebrating its 100th anniversary and some enormous SEC games coming to Columbia.
None of that guarantees anything. Texas A&M won’t care about the sellout streak. Texas won’t care that Faurot Field is turning 100. Oklahoma certainly isn’t going to show up for Senior Day interested in helping Missouri celebrate.
That’s why this season should be fun. The Tigers have already taken care of the Border War. Now Hardy, Simmons and the rest of this team get to find out how far they can push things once the SEC schedule arrives. If Missouri is still hanging around the conference race when Texas comes to Columbia in November, maybe we’ll finally stop calling it a surprise.
