Under construction

Marc Weiszer picked up on an interesting tidbit.

On-going construction of the University of Missouri’s new south end zone complex at Memorial Stadium has forced the Tigers to switch sidelines for their 2018 home football games, school officials announced today. For the first time since the 2000 season, Mizzou will work from the West sideline while its opponents will occupy the East sideline.

… In order to implement this plan for the 2018 season, Mizzou asked for and received a waiver from the SEC’s Commissioner’s Regulations, which do not permit the visiting team bench to be directly in front of the student section. The waiver was granted based upon the unique circumstances associated with the on-going construction, the natural buffer that exists between the visiting team bench and student sections at Memorial Stadium, the lack of alternate routes available to prevent the teams from crossing paths when entering/exiting the field and Mizzou’s commitment to secure the visiting team bench area.

“We are grateful for the assistance we received from Commissioner Sankey and his staff, and believe that we have an effective plan in place to provide a safe and secure bench area for visiting teams at Memorial Stadium this season,” Sterk said.

So, when Georgia travels to Columbia this fall, the team bench will be directly in front of the student section.  (Evidently there is some sort of a “natural buffer” between the two.)  Nobody I know who’s traveled to Mizzou has been less than complimentary about the fans there, so this should be cool.

Still, it probably wouldn’t hurt to keep those helmets close by, boys.