AMES, IA--As Jaron Baston jogged off the field at Jack Trice Stadium, he shouted, “Kansas City, here we come!”

The Tigers knew they were going to Kansas City anyway, for their November 29th regular season finale against Kansas. Now, they know they'll get to go back the weekend after that. Mizzou wrapped up a spot in the Big 12 Championship game with a 52-20 win over Iowa State on Saturday. Coupled with Kansas' 35-7 loss to Texas earlier in the day, Nebraska is the only team that can draw even with the Tigers in the division standings, and Missouri would win that tiebreaker based on their 52-17 win in Lincoln earlier this year.

“Back to back Big 12 North championships, another chance to go to the Big 12 Championship, that's something to be proud of,” Jeremy Maclin said. “Everybody's holding their head up right now.”

But still, this title wasn't followed by quite as boisterous a celebration as last year's. The Tigers did not wrap up the North last season until closing out the Jayhawks 36-28 in the season's final game.

“Last year, I kind of forgot we won the Big 12 North,” Gary Pinkel said. “It was more that we beat KU, our big rival, in that atmosphere, the rankings, everything that went along with it.”

Missouri saluted its fans and sung the alma mater, as they do at each road game. There were a few shouts of “Big 12 North champs” to be heard. But that was it, at least on the field.

“We celebrated in the locker room,” Pinkel said. “They went crazy in the locker room.”

But there was a slight air of expectation about winning the division this time around.

““We've been here before,” William Moore said. “Everybody's got the attitude like we want much more than the North. We've got some great teams in the South, not to focus on them yet, focus on Kansas. But the goal's still out there.”

Moore chipped in to the victory with his first interception of the season, which he returned for a 17-yard touchdown and a 21-0 lead in the second quarter. By halftime, the Tigers led 31-7 and they cruised to a 52-20 win. But the result of this singular game was secondary to the Tigers wrapping up the division title.

“Never take it for granted,” Pinkel said. “You've got to enjoy it because it's hard to do. Very hard to do.”

And, yes, the division is wrapped up. But don't dare tell the Tigers the Kansas game doesn't mean anything.

“It feels good,” Maclin said. “But we're still hungry for that KU game. That's our big rival game, so we're not going to take them lightly.”

After the game, Missouri released information for fans interested in buying tickets to the December 6th championship game in Kansas City. The school will have an allocation of about 8,500 tickets, but those are reserved only for Tiger Scholarship Fund donors at the Champion's Level or above. Fans and alumni who did not receive an option to purchase tickets from the Mizzou Ticket Office are instructed to go to www.ticketmaster.com and enter "Arrowhead Stadium" in the search box. Students are encouraged to visit MUTigers.com beginning at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, November 18th.

Gabe DeArmond is the publisher of PowerMizzou.com.  You can read more of his coverage of the Tigers online at http://missouri.rivals.com.