Get Over It
As we celebrate March Madness, can’t we move beyond bitterness to restore arguably the greatest rivalry in collegiate sports?
Divorce is almost never easy. And some of the people who get hurt the worst are friends who themselves feel estranged by the separation and don’t want to face a choice of which partner retains “custody” of the friendship.
That’s sort of where Kansas Citians and most MU and KU fans find themselves in the run-up to the 2012 NCAA Basketball Tournament. Administrators in Columbia filed the paperwork to enter the Southeastern Conference last year, and their counterparts in Lawrence will cash a one-time alimony check that buys Missouri’s way out of the Big XII.
As press time approaches for this edition of Ingram’s, it’s uncertain whether the two schools will meet again in the finals of the Big XII championship game at Sprint Center. Perhaps they were able to play their way into a rubber match to settle their regular-season split. But either way, when the dust settles after this year’s dance, it’s time they resolved their differences—for the sake of the players and fans and out of respect for long-standing tradition.
KC-area fans, alumni and fans of both schools, and people who run businesses have benefited from the rivalry in many ways since the first competition between the schools in 1891. That, folks, was just 26 years after the end of the Civil War, and there were lots of people still around to channel those hostilities into intercollegiate competition.
That’s what makes this one different: It’s not only grounded in history, it’s grounded in bloodshed. I can’t think of another rivalry in college sports that can trace its roots to such powerful influences.
MU’s departure to the SEC, starting this fall, has prompted folks at KU to say the rivalry is, essentially, dead. Oh, there would be a tiny chance these schools could face off in the NCAA Tournament, but if it happens, it will be by happenstance of bracketing. KU has no interest in rewarding what it considers bad behavior by continuing the series.
To which I say: Let’s get over this, shall we? Right up front, I’ll tell you: MU’s decision was, in my opinion, inappropriate, and certainly not one endorsed by a majority of Tiger fans in this region. And while I have considerable respect for KU as an institution—and certainly for Coach Bill Self and his coaching acumen—I feel that the reaction in Lawrence was just as inappropriate.
That official position is, in effect, taking dollars out of the KU athletics program’s own pocket. No possible non-conference opponent in either football or basketball could produce the kinds of ticket sales and ancillary revenue KU could realize by playing MU in either sport. It would be good for KU, good for MU, good for the fans and good for the region for the schools to continue this rivalry.
And the fear that a non-conference loss to MU would carry too much risk doesn’t hold water: A non-con victory over an MU team playing like this year’s Tigers would likely enhance KU’s NCAA Tournament seeding, just as the conference win in late February did. Football may be another matter, with the smaller window for bowl eligibility, but that’s a concern that should take a back seat to most fans’ interests, which are clearly aligned with keeping the rivalry intact.
Perhaps most frustrating is that KU’s position has largely been framed out by a basketball coach who has been here less than a decade, a chancellor who has been here for three years, and an athletic director who has been on the job a little more than one year.
Many of us, on the other hand, have had an emotional stake in the outcomes every year for decades. Who can forget match-ups over the years like Darnell Valentine going head-to-head with Larry Drew? Or the first Border War showdown at Arrowhead Stadium in 2007, with two teams fighting for a No. 1 national ranking in football? And who among us won’t be talking about February 2012, and the most competitive two regular-season conference games between these schools in years?
This isn’t just a historical rivalry, it’s a geographic one—these two states and these two programs are never going to be completely separated. Given that, I fervently hope that these institutions can figure out a way to restore what the fans in this region deserve, and to transcend the lingering bitterness of the conference re-alignment.
If the Border War comes to an end, it falls on the hands of a very small minority of short-term, perhaps short-sighted administrators at KU whose collective ages aren’t much older than the duration of this rivalry itself. I personally believe it’s inappropriate and absolutely irresponsible for administrators who enjoy salaries paid by the citizens and fans to end a long-standing tradition, which is as big and certainly as important as any other rivalry in the nation, and one rooted so deeply in the history of both states.
It’s time to get over it. 
Joe Sweeney
Editor-In-Chief & Publisher
JSweeney@IngramsOnLine.com