It appears that Missouri and Kansas will soon reignite their historic rivalry on the gridiron according to Missouri A.D. Jim Sterk. In a recent email sent out to Missouri TSF donors, Sterk proclaimed that a four-game football series is “being contracted as of this writing.”
Last fall, Mizzou announced a six-year agreement to play longtime rival Kansas in men’s basketball starting with the 2020-2021 season and now it appears imminent that the football rivalry (which Missouri leads 57-54-9) will resume for the first time since 2011.
Since the final game of the rivalry (A 24-10 Missouri victory at Arrowhead stadium), Mizzou has gone 58-44 over eight seasons while Kansas is an astonishing 16-80 during that span. Whether or not future games will take place in Kansas City remains to be seen but it’s not out of the question that the renewing of the rivalry could follow the basketball model of two games in KC while the other two being on campus.
The Missouri/Kansas football rivalry began in 1891, a 22-10 Kansas win in Kansas City and the two schools played a total of 119 games thereafter until Missouri’s move to the SEC in 2012. The NCAA officially recognizes the University of Missouri as the birthplace of homecoming and the 1911 football game between Missouri and Kansas as “the world’s first homecoming.”
There has been no official comment from the University of Kansas on this matter as of this writing.
Let ’em Play!