Missouri to the SEC is all but offical. West Virginia is coming into the Big 12 now to replace them (upgrade!). Hopefully KU-MU do the right thing and do not schedule each other. Its over. Missouri is going one direction and Kansas is going in another. Time to break off this relationship and go find new partners. Sad to see the longest rivalry west of the Mississippi end, but it is better this way than trying to drag on a messy divorce.

 

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*shrug*

I didn't post about conference realignment because I knew you would have such a myopic view of the topic. There is no actual reason for the border war to end.

If anyone involved thinks the football border war was important to the two schools because of anything related to the conference, they are blatantly fooling themselves. There were 2 times in the 119 year history where that game had any relevance to the conference championship or national relevance. In 2007 the winner of the game still did not win the conference, and 1960 is still being disputed. The other 117 years the two teams played in relative obscurity (as opposed to Michigan/Ohio State, OU/Nebraska, USC/UCLA, Aub/Ala, etc).

If, after the emotions subside, ku still decides that they do not wish to play MU as an OOC game, I am sure we can find someone like Nebraska to fill the void and still rake in the money from Arrowhead. Frankly, the game is played in Kansas City because both schools needed the money, and I don't see how that is really changing. It makes financial sense to continue the game. It's not like MU or ku will ever be a powerhouse; the game will always be competitive.

In basketball, there is also no logical reason to stop playing each other - especially for ku. MU is like a decently respected basketball team and most years, an easy win for ku. Why not get a victory over a 'rival' to boost your resume for March? Both teams will continue to fill their OOC schedules with someone so not playing ku is not hurting us. There are plenty of power teams we can play that want a quality win each year!

Once the emotional trauma has subsided, I truly hope that ku changes its illogical and emotional stance about these games. Frankly, this is not a marriage (or any other analogy) its a multi-million dollar business and it makes financial sense for both teams. Many other teams have a rival they play OOC every year (Fla/FlSt, Ga/GT, Ia/IaSt, etc).

Can you (Amendial) come up with any actual reason why these games should not be played that are not based on the emotional responses or bruised egos? I doubt you can.

Frankly, imo if ku had anywhere to go, they too would be leaving the Big 12. The old Big 8 is basically dead. NU gone, CU gone, OU/OSU tried to leave, MU gone. I wish it weren't so, but it is. I will be sad to see the Border war end if it does, but I highly doubt even you can blame MU for leaving when the opportunity arose.

 

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Honestly I still like the Big 12. The SEC would be the last place I would want to go. KU football struggles enough in the Big 12, I hate to even imagine what life in the SEC would be like for our football program, and there is no basketball school inside the SEC who I would get annually excited about playing. The ACC would be my choice destination, but that is never going to happen. Big 10 would be second, which could potentially happen someday maybe but I am not holding my breath. Out of the conferences that are remaining, I actually like the Big 12 the most. So Missouri going to the SEC doesn't bother me all that much. It honestly just doesn't make all that much sense to me. Why does Missouri want out of the Big 12 so badly? I think the Big 12 is looking pretty good. So we lost a few schools, but the replacement schools for them are not cupcakes. In fact TCU for TAM is an upgrade as far as football is concerned. Your right about there not being a logical reason to quit the border war game, but how much logic has really gone into anything related to conference realignment? Not a whole lot. As far as the money from playing in Arrowhead goes, we can find another school (K-state) to play in Arrowhead and get the same payday we get now. So that makes no difference to me. We will see how this plays out, this move doesn't seem as bad now as it did a few weeks ago when the Big 12 was still on life support.

 

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That makes sense to me because of the difference in our ages actually. I am a child of the Big 8 while you never knew that era. I have little to no attachment to the Texas schools at all. I was sad to see NU and CU go, while not really all that bothered by TAM leaving. I was disappointed in OU/OSU and their flirtations but expected it from Texas.

As for the SEC, its a solid conference and while difficult for football, it should be easier for basketball. On that note, I would think that you would want to play Kenutcky each year. While you might think that TCU is an upgrade over A&M you are only considering football. TCU is a tiny school with A&M is consistently in the top 10 for all sports (Capital One Cup?), while their academics were near the top of the Big 12. There is no way TCU can make up for the entirety of what A&M brought. Also while if we stayed I would probably say the same thing, I know that WV/TCU do not make equivalent for NU/CU/TAM/MU no matter how you spin it.

Nobody pushed harder to save the Big 12 this year than Mizzou. Up until 2 months ago when I think that Boren pushed Deaton over the edge. Our leaders wanted to stay but knew that the SEC wanted us in unofficial discussions. When it looked like the Big 12 was being saved, out of nowhere OU started all the 'we are not going to be wallflowers' talk. Through that, it became clear that the conference was only going to live as long as Texas and OU wanted it to. We wanted assurances that no one was leaving, but Texas would not agree to anything longer than 6 years (with declining buyouts btw). I think we were just tired of going through this conference shuffle and the SEC provided a nice safe home and wanted us. Plus, more money is nice too.

Logic does not have much to do with the move until you factor in that there were two choices for MU. I can't really think of a drawback to going to the SEC that is not emotional (missing out on playing ku). More money, more prestige, revenue sharing, soon to be TV network, stability. But even then, MU did not want to move until it was basically shoved in their faces that OU/Texas just did not care about anyone but themselves. You said it yourself that just a few weeks ago the Big 12 seemed to be on life support. Why wouldn't MU want to grab onto a passing lifeguard who actually wanted them to hop onto their boat.

 

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I was just thinking about that point on the orginal Big 8 a little bit ago. My dad was real upset with Nebraska and Colorado leaving, but I was not that upset at all. I basically started following college sports after the Big 12 was formed. So I do not have that old Big 8 attachment. That being said though, there are as many Big 8 teams now (before Mizzou leaves) as there were to start the season, so nothing has changed in that regard. As far as an annual game with Kentucky goes, that would be nice in the SEC, but there are no other good games to look forward to in that conference. The Big 12 we get an annual game against Texas (or two), games against K-State, Baylor, and now West Va. While none of those hold the prestige that Kentucky holds, they are all more solid than we would find outside of Kentucky in the SEC. Top to bottom the Big 12 might just be the best basketball conference in the nation. If the Big 12 expands again and adds Louisville, we just become that much better in basketball.


I can agree with your point about getting away from Texas and OU, but dont fool yourself into thinking that Alabama/Florida/LSU are saints. My thing with Missouri leaving is I would think they would want to stay in the big 12 for a couple years until the Big East implodes and Notre Dame is forced to join a conference and the Big 10 expands again. We all know the Big 10 is where Missouri wants to be, and this pretty much closes the door on that, unless Mizzou is planning to dump the SEC in a few years. We will see how this works out for Missouri. In one way they can take the next step forward in becoming an annual power house in football, but at the same time they run the risk of becoming another Vandy or Ole Miss.


Honestly I do not care either way if we continue to play Mizzou or not in football, but one thing I do care about is not playing an annual basketball game with them in KC. It has to be in Columbia one year and Lawrence the next. It is unacceptable to stop playing Mizzou in Allen Field House. If you stop doing that you may as well just stop playing them all together. That is the biggest thing that we lose with Mizzou switching conferences. That two basketball games a year with each team hosting once. Around here we could careless about where the football game is played; it's all about the basketball game, and I doubt they are going to schedule each other twice in non conference play. Which is why I believe we should just let the whole thing die. Maybe I am just being old school and after a few years of playing one game a year against Mizzou in KC we will learn to appriciate the rivalry even more, but it doesn't feel like it would be the same in Sprint Center as it would be in Allen Field House or in Columbia.


As a side note: Does Texas A&M get a Big 12 victory or an SEC victory after they beat Mizzou today?

 

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Mizzou had a choice to make... Not win any championships in the Big 12 or not win any championships in the SEC. Football might be tougher, but for basketball, we have to find a coach first before I make any claims that the SEC would be easier.

I would be more upset about leaving if I could actually believe that the Big 12 was going to survive. In the next few years, the BCS is going to get revamped, maybe super conferences come about sometime, and if they do, I just don't see teams leaving the SEC/Big10/ACC/Pac12. If the longhorn network takes off (I am not sure that it will) then Texas will go independent. The landscape is changing in college sports and while I hope the Big 12 would survive, there are too many other possible outcomes that all end with the demise of the Big 12.

If MU had gotten into the Big 10 last year, that would have been best, but I only say that from an academic and ability to win championships perspective. Overall the SEC is stronger athletically. Frankly, after all the crap that went down last year, I don't think MU leaders want to go to the Big 10 any longer. Well, to clarify, they might *want* to, but are not about to deal with Delany again.

also..

When they did the recap on ESPN about our game today, they said that Mizzou got back to 4-4 overall, 2-3 in the Big 12, and 1-0 in the SEC. Was quite funny actually.

 

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Yeah I heard that and LOLed. You think the offical announcement is coming on Monday?

 

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Not relevant enough to consider this a serious rivalry.

 

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I dunno when it will be. Hopefully last Monday! But today would make it a really good weekend for Missouri. World Series champs, Mizzou over ATM, SEC!





You are misinformed if you made that statement in any form of seriousness. It is far and away a much more intense and hated rivalry than any other in college sports. Its roots are in the civil war when Missouri burned Lawrence to the ground after Kansas raiders burned much of western MO. Both schools mascots are named after civil war armed forces units - the Tigers who defended Columbia and those terrorist red leggers who shamelessly attacked and killed helpless women and children! These two schools play a real rivalry, not one born out of competitiveness or good sportsmanship! This rivalry is hatred personified.

 

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