The celebration of Missouri's move to the Southeastern Conference was still in high gear when athletic director Mike Alden acknowledged what until then had largely been unspoken. Hanging with college sports' big dogs might earn the Tigers some extra cash, but it also likely will require the departing Big 12 member -- and its boosters -- to spend significantly more money to compete with Florida, LSU and other SEC heavyweights. "We're known as the Show-Me State," he said at a Nov. 6 pep rally where the conference move was announced. "It's time for us to step up and show other people who we are. "This is our opportunity to do that, to step up, to support our program and our institution unlike any time we've ever been able to do so in the history of Tiger athletics," Alden added in an appeal he hoped would resonate with deep-pocket donors and blue-collar ticket holders as well as campus leaders. Whether it's the eight SEC football stadiums that seat more than 80,000 (including two with 100,000-plus capacities) or the outdoor tennis arenas at Florida and Tennessee, the monetary bar is now considerably higher for Mizzou. U.S. Department of Education financial reports show 10 other schools in what will eventually be a 14-team SEC, after the addition of Missouri and Texas A&M, spend more on intercollegiate athletics than Missouri does. Florida tops the list, spending nearly $113 million in the most recent academic year. That's nearly double Missouri's $58.9 million athletics' budget. Read more: http://espn.go.com/college-sports/s...ouri-tigers-move-sec-more-money-more-expenses
