COLUMBIA, Mo. – With the start of spring football practice a little over a month away, Head Coach Eli Drinkwitz’s Mizzou Tigers can also begin to look ahead to their 2021 schedule, which will feature five teams that earned 2020 bowl bids, as announced today by the Southeastern Conference. The addition of four 2021 SEC home games will give Tiger fans seven games at Memorial Stadium this fall, coupled with five challenging road games.
The Tigers will kick off their 131st football season and 10th as an SEC member on Sept. 4 when they host Mid-American Conference entrant Central Michigan for the first time ever on Faurot Field, followed a week later by their Sept. 11 SEC opener at TaxSlayer Gator Bowl champion Kentucky. Mizzou then returns home to host Southeast Missouri State for Family Weekend Sept. 18, followed by a Sept. 25 trip to New England and another first-time match-up against Boston College.
October opens with three straight home games for Mizzou, as it hosts Tennessee (Oct. 2), Myrtle Beach Bowl entrant North Texas for the school’s 110th Homecoming on Oct. 9 and Capital One Orange Bowl champ Texas A&M on Oct. 16 before an open date Oct. 23. The Tigers then close the month with an Oct. 30 trip to Vanderbilt.
Mizzou begins the penultimate month of the calendar with a Nov. 6 date at Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl champ Georgia, followed by home games against South Carolina (Nov. 13) and Goodyear Cotton Bowl participant Florida on Nov. 20, before closing the season against Arkansas Nov. 27 in Little Rock in the annual Shelter Insurance Battle Line Rivalry.
The Tigers, who finished 5-5 against their 2020 all-SEC slate, received a bid to the TransPerfect Music City Bowl, however, COVID-19 issues within the program forced the Tigers to cancel the game. Drinkwitz joined Warren Powers (1978) as the only head coaches in Mizzou history to lead the Tigers’ to a bowl game in their first season patrolling the sidelines in Columbia, while he joined Powers, Frank Broyles and Dan Devine as the only first-year Mizzou head coaches to reach five victories in year one of their Tiger tenure. Mizzou’s five SEC wins were its second-most ever behind its 7-1 mark that it posted en route to winning back-to-back SEC East crowns in 2013 and 2014, as the Tigers won five of their last eight after an 0-2 start.
Mizzou is slated to begin spring practice February 28 and conclude March 26.
Commit to the #NewZou, season tickets and renewals for the 2021 Mizzou Football season are now on sale. For more information, visit MUTigers.com/NewZouTix or call 1-800-CAT-PAWS. For all the latest on Mizzou Football, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on Twitter (@MizzouFootball) and like the team on Facebook and Instagram.
2021 MIZZOU FOOTBALL SCHEDULE
| DATE | OPPONENT & 2020 RECORD | SITE | SERIES |
| Sept. 4 | Central Michigan | Columbia, Mo. | First Meeting |
| Sept. 11 | at Kentucky (5-6) | Lexington, Ky. | UK leads, 7-4-0 |
| Sept. 18 | Southeast Missouri State^ (0-0) | Columbia, Mo. | Mizzou leads, 4-0-0 |
| Sept. 25 | at Boston College (6-5) | Chestnut Hill, Mass. | First Meeting |
| Oct. 2 | Tennessee (3-7) | Columbia, Mo. | Mizzou leads, 5-4-0 |
| Oct. 9 | North Texas^^ (4-6) | Columbia, Mo. | Mizzou leads, 1-0-0 |
| Oct. 16 | Texas A&M (9-1) | Columbia, Mo. | Texas A&M leads, 8-7-0 |
| Oct. 30 | at Vanderbilt (0-9) | Nashville, Tenn. | Mizzou leads, 8-4-1 |
| Nov. 6 | at Georgia (9-2) | Athens, Ga. | Georgia leads, 9-1-0 |
| Nov. 13 | South Carolina (2-8) | Columbia, Mo. | Mizzou leads, 6-5-0 |
| Nov. 20 | Florida (8-2) | Columbia, Mo. | Tied, 5-5-0 |
| Nov. 26/27 | at Arkansas (3-7) | Little Rock, Ark. | Mizzou leads, 9-3-0 |
^Family Weekend; ^^Homecoming; All dates subject to change.
