There is no such thing as the Batlle Line Rivalry as presented by Shelter Insurance on the basketball side. The Mizzou-Arkansas rivalry in hoops is a little less non-existant than what occurs in football, but I think it still exists to some degress. Mizzou fans and Arkansas fans don’t seem to get along all that much.
But the two basketball teams have played 64 times, which is more than anyone else in the SEC except for Oklahoma, and 8th most of anyone all time for the Tigers. The other 7 in front
of Arkansas are… you guessed it… the teams of the Old Big 8. Iowa State (151), Kansas State (151), Kansas (149), Nebraska (147), Oklahoma (146), Colorado (143), and Oklahoma State (113).
In that group you’ll even notice a pattern of Oklahoma State being the least because they were in the MVC until 1958, and in 1957 the conference was known as the Big 7.
Obviously many of those games between the two schools go back a ways before the SEC, and the first game was in 1950 when Mizzou beat Arkansas in Columbia in 1950. They would play every year up until 1972, with the Tigers leading the series 14-8.
Then the series became dorman, with the two schools meeting only once in 1980 (a neutral site loss for Mizzou), before Norm Stewart and Nolan Richardson struck up a multi-year deal to play from 1988 to 1997. This time around the Hogs would flips things as Mizzou won ly three of the 10 contests, including the worst loss in program history to that point, a 52 point loss in early December of 1993, when Bud Walton Arena was opened.
There was another 4-game series from 2004 to 2007, Arkansas won that group 3-1 as well.
Since then it’s all been in league play, with just a single SEC Conference Tournament meet up. Totalling 27 games, and the series since is 17-10 in favor of Arkansas. So if you’re keeping track, the head to head total here is Mizzou is 28-36 overall against Arkansas, and 18 of those games were at Bud Walton Arena where the Tigers are 2-16.
The wins? 2014 with Jabari Brown and Earnest Ross combining for 48 points in a 75-71 win. And in 2021, when Jeremiah Tilmon controlled the paint, and held Arky to just 12-43 inside the arc en route to a 81-68 win.
Winning at Bud Walton isn’t an easy thing to do. Arkansas has played 276 conference games at BWA since it opened in 1993. They’ve lost 82 times, that’s a 70.2% win rate. Considering how up and down the program was for a lot of years post-Richardson, that’s still excellent. Since the league expanded that number has ticked up a bit to 71.5%. For comparison, Missouri’s home win percentage is 52.4%. Kentucky’s is 82.9%, Florida’s is 75.6%, Tennessee is 73.3%, Alabama is 71.7%. So the Hogs rank 5th in home win percentage.
It’s the crowd that makes a building intimidating, that and a really talented team. John Calipari was responsible for (nearly) all those Kentucky home wins. Last year was a good year to beat Arkansas at home, they lost 4 games at home as Cal struggled to figure out his rotation. But since Mizzou last visited the Razorbacks are 8-1 at home, with their only loss to Kentucky this year.
If you want a reason to be optimistic?
71.5% is basically seven out of 10. Arkansas is already one up on those books, so they’re due for a loss if you’re going on historical odds. They’re also a team with a short rotation, Cal has only been playing 7 guys over the last several games since Karter Knox has been out injured. That short rotation played a 2 Overtime game not he road on Wednesday. So maybe they’re tired?
I don’t know, they’re still favored by double digits. They still have Darius Acuff and Meleek Thomas. Beat them anyway.
Missouri-Arkansas Basketball: How to Watch, Game Info:
TIME: 3:00 p.m. CT
DATE: Saturday, February 21, 2026
LOCATION: Bud Walton Arena; Fayetteville, AR
TELEVISION: ESPN
STREAM: WatchESPN
FORUMS: Rockm.Plus/Forums
College Basketball Games to watch, February 21st, 2026
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