Colin McMaster
WRIT
Proffesor Leake
27 February 2012
KU v. MU: The Border War and the Ending of an Era
Kids in the state of Kansas are taught from a young age a few things. One of those things being, nothing good ever comes from Missouri. This is especially true when one is talking about the University of Missouri, and the person talking is a University of Kansas fan. The Kansas and Missouri basketball rivalry has been going on for 105 years, but actually sense the civil war in all honesty. It is the oldest rivalry in sports west of the Mississippi with The University of Kansas leading the series 172-95. However, now in the midst of massive conference realignment all around the country, the Missouri tigers have decided to tuck tail and leave the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference (SEC). They are not alone, and this conference realignment has become one of the biggest topics in all of college sports. The different sides behind the ending of the border war can be seen through the stories movement through the “press Sphere”.
David Ubben, a writer for ESPN.com, published an article first in November and then republished close to the same article again February 21st about the breaking up of the Big 12 Conference. His background in covering the Big 12 and other big named programs helped him in analyzing the situation as well as it seems to have helped him land some key quotes from athletic directors and coaches. Ubben begins by explaining that Texas Christian University and West Virginia are the first teams to join the Big 12 sense it was conceived; and at the same time the Big 12 has lost four teams: Nebraska, Colorado, Texas A&M, and Missouri the most recent. He uncovers this information, in the sense of Joseph Harris, by explaining the significance behind each of these teams leaving.
Ubben expands upon the different circumstances of Texas A&M and Missouri leaving by almost comparing them to their “replacements” West Virginia and TCU. He does this by talking about their football schedules and success. For instance, “TCU won't make winning 11 games an annual occurrence in the Big 12, but would Texas A&M have done much better with a similar schedule?” (Ubben) Here he is trying to show that TCU’s unprecedented success in the Mountain West conference will not be exactly the same in the big 12, but they will be more likely to succeed than A&M has been. Ubben expands the reach of this article by not only including Big 12 factors but also including statements such as, “the Big 12's most frustrating question -- why can't Texas A&M be a national power? -- is the SEC's problem now.”(Ubben) This was most likely included to in a way, reach out to readers from different conferences and get them to start asking tougher questions as to why these teams are joining their league.
Next we have an article published at sportsillustrated.com by Seth Davis right on the heels of Missouri’s defeat of the Jayhawks 74-71 in their first regular season basketball match up. Davis begins off the back talking about Mizzou’s decision to leave the Big 12 and the commentary of the announcers at the game. After sharing that Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas both want to, and expect KU and MU to continue playing out of conference Davis exclaims. “I'm not so sure I share Bilas' optimism. Nor do I share Vitale's hope. I'm not just okay with seeing this rivalry come to an end. I actually want it to.” (Davis) He goes on explain his own position and countering the announcers by saying, “Why am I being such a killjoy? Because as much as I love a great rivalry, I loathe conference expansion even more.” (Davis) Here Davis makes his point that there is a bigger picture behind Missouri leaving, and that is the Big 12 was seriously injured by losing four relatively strong schools to other conferences and it takes more than a I’m sorry for everything to become okay again.
Davis brings into play different sources such as Missouri and Kansas’s athletic directors, KU’s coach Bill Self, and fans from the Kansas side to explain what is and will happen to the rivalry. The hard conclusion of his article is that for now, it’s dead. However, “Auburn and Alabama quit playing each other in football back in 1907. It only took 41 years... -- for those teams to agree to play each other again. I doubt it will take four decades for Kansas and Missouri... but I also doubt it will happen anytime soon. Nor should it” (Davis).
In “The Quad” a New York Times sports blog author Christoph Fuhrmans writes that, “I, for one, will miss the hate.”(Fuhrmans) Fuhrmans is abundantly playing to the side of Kansas. It couldn’t have been more obvious except he slipped in that he was a graduate of the University of Kansas in 1996. His take on the story is one of history that builds every time the teams meet. He writes one day before the final regular season playing of the Border War, “If Saturday’s game is the last time the two schools play each other, it will be a fitting tribute to the end of one of the best rivalries in all of college sports”(Fuhrmans). He is trying to appeal to the emotional side of the fans who do not want to see the ending of an era. Besides that he brings in the opinions of Seth Davis who was just talk about and an interview with Kansas Coach Bill Self with STLtoday.com.
Now looking at the “PHOG Blog”, an all things KU athletics blog site we see the author named Mark talk deeply and emotionally about the Kansas-Missouri falling out. He takes about a paragraph and a half to talk about how many basketball commentators and writers have been talking about how KU and mizzou should continue their rivalry games even though mizzou is leaving. He then takes almost the reminder of the post to very carefully say, “There is an old story about a man who had two sons. One joined the SEC. The other became vice-president of the United States. Neither was ever heard from again.” (Mark) In his not so humble opinion Missouri has slapped the Big 12 in the face, and for what reason other than to join a conference where they don’t belong.
The “PHOG Blog” is an extremely bias source, but is also particularly accurate when it comes to things KU related. Mark uses a good about of countering to bring his points to the surface along with straight arguing for the other side. He brings up the points that it’s a very animosity driven rivalry, and that this year alone more attention has been paid to the games because of mizzou leaving the Big 12. However he brings up that:
‘They see two tremendous basketball games and a fight for a conference championship in the final year the two programs are in the same conference and, apparently, believe that this is the norm. It’s not. The norm is KU fighting for a conference championship against some team not named Mizzou: e.g., Texas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Iowa St.’ (Mark).
This is a very good use of countering to show the true colors of how the Big 12 is supposed to work. However in the end after the animosity the author does come to terms with what many people are thinking and see that if Missouri, somehow, keeps fielding competitive teams he can see the angst in letting the rivalry die.
All in all it is sad to see something I have grown up watching and learning to hate leave. It seems as if the particular circumstances have made it even worse with Missouri being the fourth team to leave the Big 12 in a year. The death of debatably the best rivalry in college sports is overwhelmingly due to the new trend of conference realignment which directly translates into money. I know at least the author of the “PHOG Blog” would agree with me when I say that money and the idea of supper conferences needs to be taken out of collegiate sports.
Works Cited
Mark. "Phog Blog." Web log post. Phog Blog. 26 Feb. 2012. Web. 26 Feb. 2012.
Davis, Seth. "Kansas Right in Refusal to Schedule Missouri after This Season, More."Kansas-Missouri Demonstrates Pitfalls of Conference Realignment. 6 Feb. 2012. Web. 20 Feb. 2012.
FUHRMANS, CHRISTOPH FUHRMANS. "Hating You Was Easy, Losing You Is Hard."The Quad. New York Times, 24 Feb. 2012. Web. Feb. 2012.
Ubben, David. "New Big 12 Will Miss Rivalries, Not Results." Espn. 21 Feb. 2012. Web. Feb. 2012.
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