KU rebuffed Mizzou for 7 years. Why the timing became right for a Border War renewal
After Kansas Athletics previously chose to halt the rivalry with Missouri for seven years, many KU fans have asked a simple question following last month’s announcement of a new six-year series with the Tigers in men’s basketball: “Why now?”
KU athletic director Jeff Long addressed that question in a recent interview with The Star, saying many factors — and one sport in particular — made this the correct time to reopen talks.
“Looking into the future, particularly with football,” Long said. “The revenue-generation opportunity is the one that probably started me to focus more on starting the rivalry.”
Where a football series stands
To be clear: KU and Missouri are not scheduled to play each other in football — not yet at least. Long said that he and Missouri athletic director Jim Sterk were “talking about it. We’ve got to make sure it works for both schools again. Scheduling is harder ... they’re way out there (with future scheduling). One or both would have to move some things around to make it work.”
Still, the plan there is to get all the details worked out. Conservatively, Long hopes that can be by the mid-2020s or early 2030s. Missouri doesn’t have an open nonconference date until 2026.
If it happens, it potentially could be a financial boon for KU.
Long explains succinctly when talking about potential KU-Missouri football games: “They can sell out our stadiums.” Remember, before the KU-Kansas State contest two weeks ago, the Jayhawks hadn’t reached capacity at a home football game since 2009.
Even a cautious estimate from KU could have a future Missouri game netting $2 million. That sort of potential revenue is important, Long said, to help keep fund the football program (and other sports) at a level needed to compete with Big 12 peers.
“When you have to responsibility to generate the revenue to run these 18 sports, you’re looking for ways to increase that,” Long said. “And again, the first thought was about football and playing them in football, and then it evolved to basketball.”
Additional positives
There are other benefits of playing Missouri as well. Long says having those future men’s basketball games at Sprint Center “keeps our stronghold in Kansas City,” which has been an important recruiting area recently.
“It does raise our brand. I think it does expose us as a university even more,” Long said. “Some would argue, ‘Hey, you don’t need it,’ but truth is, we do. We all need it.
“Our campus is continuing to fight enrollment — increase enrollment, maintain enrollment — and branding of a football game with Missouri and a basketball series makes a lot of sense for the university as well.”
This process took awhile to come together.
Long joked that from the first congratulatory phone conversation he’d had with Sterk — he knew him before getting hired at KU in July 2018 — there was conversation of, ‘Oh, by the way, do you want to restart the series?’
“I said, ‘I’ve got to come to campus, be at campus,’” Long said. “’Kansas people are going to make that decision, not the new AD.’”
In September 2018, Long set up a coaches meeting to discuss how those stakeholders felt about Missouri. While most were upset that the school left the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference in 2012, Long sensed many still were intrigued by the possibility of playing a Power Five opponent in close proximity.
“I had generally shared in that head coaches meeting, ‘I’ve been in schools where they didn’t have a rival, and it’s hard to see those die,’” Long said. “And then particularly at this point in time in sports society, it’s harder than ever to get people to come to the games. It doesn’t matter what the sport is. But man, they’re going to come to the Missouri-KU game. They’re going to come to the Kansas-Kansas State game.”
KU men’s basketball coach Bill Self, meanwhile, needed more time to think about the possibility after stating publicly multiple times his preference to not play Mizzou. He told The Star last month that his stance had “probably been softened some” after KU and Missouri played in a 2017 exhibition game that raised more than $2 million for hurricane relief.
Long said it took about a full year before conversations officially began with Missouri; he started talking with Sterk about a renewal in August or September of 2019.
More announcements coming?
KU and Missouri scheduling games in Olympic sports also should come soon, with Long reporting the two sides were “working on those as we speak right now.”
“Think about those sports: When you have fans in the stands, the team plays better ... your home-field advantage, all those things,” Long said. “And it inspires them. It gets them excited about the competition.
“And you know what? To have Missouri 2 1/2 hours away and go into that and playing a game with real atmosphere and real pressure and all prepares them for their conference games and postseason play.”
For now, logistical issues are the main reason KU and Missouri haven’t announced a football series yet.
It remains a priority, though.
“I think both are hopeful to do it,” Long said, “now that we’ve kind of opened the door with basketball.”
