I have heard SEC commissioners for 30 years talk about adjacent states and a geographical footprint. The SEC is old south confederate states, Missouri & Kentucky were old border states between the confederate states & union states. The states had each seceded within their state legislatures beginning with South Carolina until the confederacy was 11 states strong. The state legislatures in both Missouri & Kentucky heavily favored secession and Lincoln knew war was approaching and therefore feared an ever increasing number of states to fight. Lincoln felt Missouri & Kentucky might tip the scale against his union army ever winning that looming war. So Lincoln sent federal troops into the state capitols of both Missouri & Kentucky arresting the southern sympathizing legislators & replacing them with union loyalist legislators. That is all that kept Missouri & Kentucky from being confederate. Oklahoma was just Indian Territory but those Indians had a grudge against those Union Blue Uniforms. So those Indian Tribes came into Arkansas & southern Missouri to fight in numerous civil war battles alongside confederate soldiers. Maryland was a border state too and Virginia was the heart of the confederacy. Pac schools don't relate to any such history or culture.