By Chris Marler
One of my favorite things of talking season for college football is diving into a few things that we, against all odds, aren’t talking enough about. Players, coaches, games, you name it. There are still a ton of things not getting enough attention this offseason as we barrel ahead towards the opening weekend of college football.
One of those things is the renewal of one of the most bitter rivalries in all of college sports – Missouri versus Kansas.
Think Midwest Egg Bowl because that’s almost exactly what it is. Unlike Mississippi State and Ole Miss, these two teams aren’t sharing a state. However, the hatred is almost as palpable and every bit as volatile.
There’s also way more history than most people might know. These two programs first met in 1891 in football but haven’t played each other since 2011 when Missouri left for the SEC. Their 1911 game is actually the first college football homecoming in the history of the sport. It’s also one of the most evenly played rivalries in college football with their 120 all-time meetings split 57-54-9 in favor of Missouri.
The 14 year lapse in the rivalry has done nothing to quell the hatred either school has for each other, and what makes this year even bigger is that both teams are actually good at football. This year’s meeting in the formerly annual “Border War” will be on September 6th in Columbia, Missouri. The week two game is in the midst of six straight games that Missouri will play at home to start the season.
The current betting line is Missouri -6.5 according to Action Network.
Betting line and bowl projections aside, in a time where college football seems to get further and further away from the things we as fans love and the traditions that make it break, the return of Missouri-Kansas is a gift for fans. More importantly, it’s a return to familiarity in a time marred with change and mass amounts of it.
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