When Missouri and Texas A&M bolted the Big 12 Conference for the SEC, both schools left behind their biggest rivals.
For Missouri, that was the Kansas Jayhawks. Missouri had taken the upper hand in the series after winning three in a row from 2009-11 and five of the last six.
The series, which is now dubbed the ‘Border Showdown,’ is nearly even. The two schools have met 120 times on the gridiron and the Tigers lead 57-54-9 (or 56-55-9).
But the two schools haven’t met since Mizzou joined the SEC in 2012 and they currently don’t have any future games scheduled.
Today during a Google Hangout, Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel was asked about the possibility of playing Kansas in light of the SEC’s new stipulation that each team play at least one non-conference game against a team from a power conference beginning in 2016.
“We want to play Kansas again. It was a great rivalry we had all those years,” Pinkel said. “It’s been an open invitation. There’s some pouting going on still.
“It’s unfortunate, but it will happen again someday. It will. It would be great for our fans. In every sport, it would be good. We’ll see what happens.”
Based on Pinkel’s comments today and previous comments from Mizzou athletics director Mike Alden, it seems that Kansas doesn’t want to talk about playing.
A similar scenario exists between Texas A&M and Texas. Last year, Texas athletics director DeLoss Dodds said “we get to decide when we play (Texas A&M) again.”
Then last month, new Texas A.D. Steve Patterson said that “…unless there really is a compelling business or branding reason, I see a hard time renewing that rivalry in football.”
Hopefully in the near future, all four of these schools will set aside their differences so college football fans can see the renewal of these heated rivalries.
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