June 9, 2014

CREVE COEUR, Mo. - While the Mizzou student-athletes might be relaxing and enjoying the upcoming summer months, groups like the Tiger Scholarship Fund (TSF), St. Louis Mizzou Tiger Club and the Mizzou Alumni Association have continued their aggressive promotion of Mizzou Athletics.

This past Sunday at DeSmet High School in Creve Coeur, Missouri, fans from across the St. Louis area were treated to a unique event in association with the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The SEC Summer Summit Picnic included a wide array of fun-filled family activities, food and beverages and an impressive lineup of guest speakers from the SEC and Mizzou Athletics.

Throughout the afternoon, hundreds of fans decked out in their Mizzou black and gold made their way through the sports complex at DeSmet High School. Photo opportunities with Truman the Tiger and the guest speakers' on-hand gave those in attendance a unique opportunity to interact with individuals responsible for Mizzou's success inside the SEC.

Highlighting the guest speakers Sunday afternoon was SEC commissioner, Mike Slive. Beginning with his first trip to the University of Missouri to help welcome the Tigers to their new athletics conference, Slive has been a frequent visitor to Mizzou Athletics events.

With only 120 miles separating St. Louis, Missouri from Columbia, Missouri, it is easy to see why the St. Louis market continues to be one of the top Mizzou Athletics fan bases in the country. Events like Sunday's SEC Summit are just one of many exciting opportunities each year that gives St. Louis Mizzou fans a chance to show their Tiger pride.

Consistent and strong outpouring of support from the St. Louis market has certainly gotten the attention from commissioner Slive and the rest of the SEC staff. The strong relationship between St. Louis, Mizzou and the SEC continues to grow day-by-day.

"We are delighted to have them (St. Louis) as a market," said Slive. "Last week at our spring meetings in Destin, Florida we announced that St. Louis will host the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament in 2018. We are very excited about that. I want to give a lot of credit to Frank Viverito (President of the St. Louis Sports Commission) and his staff as they persuaded our people that St. Louis is the place to come to. I am delighted for the city and being able to come back here."

Slive was also joined Sunday by University of Missouri chancellor R. Bowen Loftin, Mizzou men's basketball head coach Kim Anderson and SEC Network's Marcus Spears. Along with continuing to build the universities and conference's relationship with the St. Louis market, the group of guest speakers also made note of the exciting new SEC Network.

This upcoming SEC athletics calendar year, beginning with another exciting football season, Mizzou fans will have the opportunity to view more Tigers athletics events than ever before. The SEC Network, a multiplatform ESPN network devoted to the Southeastern Conference, will air 45 college football games in 2014, in addition to an array of daily studio shows providing in-depth commentary on all 14 SEC teams.

Along with exclusive broadcasts of SEC football games, the new SEC Network will be the home of 100 men's basketball games, 60 women's basketball games, 75 baseball games, and other events from across the SEC's 21 sports annually.

"The addition of Mizzou and Texas A&M provided our league with the opportunity to re-examine our television plans," said Slive. "That has helped lead to the creation of the SEC Network, and we are going to launch on August 14. This network will increase the exposure of all the programs at Mizzou, and all other sister institutions in the SEC. We will showcase the incredible abilities of our student-athletes in over 1,000 televised events."

Currently, Mizzou fans with either AT&T U-verse, DISH Network or Google Fiber are set to view the SEC Network beginning on August 14. For those fans without one of the above television providers, please visit www.GetSECNetwork.comand demand the SEC Network today.

For more information on Mizzou Athletics events taking place in the St. Louis area this summer and throughout the state of Missouri, visit MUTigers.com or follow the Tigers on Twitter @MUTigersDotCom.