ARLINGTON, Texas — The University of Missouri Tigers were in the 88th Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic and took over Arlington, Texas.
Around 11,000 Mizzou fans participated in the Missouri Alumni Association tailgate held at Globe Life Field, right across the street from AT&T Stadium.
"It's great that all the Mizzou fans made the journey to be here to cheer on our Tigers against Ohio State and just the passion and the love that we have for our Tigers," Derrick Hardy said.
Fans enjoyed the views, food and drinks and saw Marching Mizzou, the Golden Girls and more perform.
"I will say when I was in college, our football team wasn't the best," Hardy said. "But now having our great football team with Eli Drinkwitz and the great recruiting that he's done, it's been great to see the momentum that we've had this season and be able to cheer them on through all the winter we have and hopefully pull out a win today as well."
Buckeye fans also made the trip down to Arlington, including a family divided.
Brad Acord graduated from Ohio State in 2017 and Kathleen Acord from Mizzou in 2019. Both came with their family to the game.
"Mizzou has always been the underdog and I've always rooted for the underdog and I think the underdog is going to pull through today," Kathleen said.
Brad said his sister called him on the verge of tears and said they had to come to this game.
"I did not expect them to ever play Ohio State," Kathleen said. "I was born and raised a Buckeye so when I went to Mizzou it was a big change for our family."
The game kicked off at 7 p.m. at AT&T Stadium.
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