The Border War between the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri is considered by many to be one of the biggest rivalries in not only collegiate sports, but the sporting world in general.
This rivalry builds off of Civil War history back in the middle of the 19th century with William Quantrill leading raids on the city of Lawrence and John Brown retaliating on Missourians who supported slavery.
Saturday’s overtime thriller in Allen Fieldhouse marked one of the most memorable men’s college basketball games in the rivalry’s history, but unfortunately, it was the last scheduled game between the two teams unless they play each other in the Big 12 Tournament or the NCAA Tournament.
With Missouri departing the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference next year, the 105-year old rivalry will come to an end.
It is understandable for MU to make the move to the SEC because it is by far the strongest conference in the NCAA for football and the Tigers will benefit from it monetarily regardless of their success. Considering Auburn, Alabama, Florida and Louisiana State have been the only schools to have won BCS National Championships in the past six years, it is hard to expect the Tigers to win a national title in football in the near future, despite playing in the weaker SEC West.
While I can see Missouri establishing a big rivalry with some SEC schools, MU will have nothing close to a rival like KU in any sport.
Kansas and the rest of the Big 12 understandably feel betrayed by Missouri’s departure. Unfortunately, Kansas basketball coach Bill Self is refusing to play Missouri in non-conference play. The nation will be deprived of ever seeing ruckus atmospheres like Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse when KU fought back from a 19-point deficit to beat MU in overtime, or when the Tigers came from eight points down in the final three minutes to beat the Jayhawks Feb. 4 in Mizzou Arena.
There is no reason why the schools can’t use Arrowhead Stadium and the Sprint Center to play an annual non-conference game for football and basketball or even switch off every year for which team hosts a game. But even with a non-conference game, there still won’t be the same sense of a rivalry.
The two schools need to realize that a main component of why the rivalry has been so intense is the fans. There aren’t many other situations in sports where a venue will get up to 127.3 decibels like at Allen Fieldhouse Saturday, and the fans are the reason why.
It is not only unfair to the fans but to the players, past and present, from both schools, and people who have been prideful of Kansas and Missouri like Brown and Quantrill.
The Border War is at a standstill. Eventually both sides need to do an about face and play each other.