Kansas vs. Missouri. I have loved this rivalry and tonight's game promises to be a good one, with #8 Kansas visiting #4 Missouri. I was born and raised in a family of Jayhawks, so I will be rooting for Kansas. Sadly, this will be the last time the two teams play in Columbia, with Missouri jumping to the Southeastern Conference. To put it mildly, conference realignment sucks. The past few months have seen a lot of big names jump conferences, with Pitt and Syracuse going to the ACC, Texas A&M and Missouri going to the SEC, and West Virginia and TCU going to the Big 12.
The conference realignment has also seen the destruction of three historic rivalries: Texas-Texas A&M, Kansas-Missouri, Pitt-West Virginia. My question is this: how does that make college athletics better? It doesn't. It will make college athletics worse. Much worse, I'm afraid. One of the great things about college athletics are the long rivalries, with all the fan hostility, the pranks, one-upmanship of it all. Within college athletics, almost all the great rivalries fall within the confines of conference match ups. Michigan-Ohio State, Auburn-Alabama, Duke-North Carolina are among the biggest, but many rivalries are more regional or local in nature. It could be Arizona-Arizona State, Mississippi-Mississippi State, or Kansas-Kansas State. Each of these rivalries are extra special because of the added meaning of a conference game. While I do appreciate Missouri's desire to continue playing Kansas, I believe Kansas did the right thing in saying no. This kind of a rivalry game belongs within the confines of a conference match up. A non-conference basketball game in December would never carry the same significance as tonight's game. And that will be missed.
Ten years from now, Kansas and Missouri will be tuned out from each other. So will Texas-Texas A&M. This is so sad. There will be no rivalry, the students will have no appreciation for what once was. Kansas will still have K-State, Texas will still have Oklahoma. Texas A&M does have a long history with Arkansas, and some history with LSU. But that's what will replace its rivalry with Texas? Not even close. And what about Missouri? There is nothing in the SEC that will even remotely begin to replace their rivalry with Kansas. It will be as if a piece of each school's heart has been cut out. No one wins in this scenario.
So I will savor tonight's game. Next year college athletics will feel much emptier without the big rivalry games. Conference realignment sucks, and it will not make college sports better. College athletics will have lost a bit of its soul, and lost a bit of what truly makes it special and so fun to watch. A few more moves like this and college sports will have all the uniqueness of a Pacers-Nuggets game (or was that Suns vs. Bobcats?).
P.S. Rock Chalk Jayhawk, KU!
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