end of the border war?

Today could be the last Missouri-Kansas football game for quite some time.  It is the second most played rivalry in college football (I believe Minnesota-Wisconsin have played one more time), for my money it is best, and it doesn't need to end.  Regardless of what anyone may think about Mizzou leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, and I have mixed feelings so I understand the anti-Mizzou arguments, it makes no sense to stop playing the game.

The schools need one another. Kansas fans can claim that K-State or someone else will become their biggest rival, but their reaction to Mizzou leaving the Big 12 helps prove that that isn't true.  As a Mizzou fan, I don't care about anyone in the SEC (beyond my lovely wife's alma matter, but I don't see that developing into much outside of the Bigelow household).  Our fanbase needs something to collectively dislike.  I even want the teams to continue to play basketball once a year, which certainly isn't going to help my team's win-loss record in the long run, but some things are more important than avoiding a team to schedule another likely win.

Beyond keeping the rivalry alive, both programs would be helped by continuing the game.  Who else is either school going to schedule, a D-II patsy in a game that won't generate much money for anyone other than Fort Hays State or whoever fills the hole in the schedule?  It isn't as though either team has a 100,000 seat stadium that is filled ever Saturday afternoon no matter the opponent.  Continuing to play the game is better for both teams' bottom lines and in program development.  It gives both schools, neither of which are football powerhouses, something to look forward to.  If KU wins today (they better not), it will be the best thing that has happened to their team all year.  Throughout the history of the series, this game is an outlier compared to how the teams play the rest of the year.  Overall the series is very close.

And the argument that leaving the conference dooms the rivalry is ridiculous.  A lot of schools play interconference rivalry games every year.  Today alone there is Florida-FSU, South Carolina-Clemson, and Georgia-Georgia Tech.  It isn't uncommon.  That is one thing if the game needs to be put on hold for a year to work out scheduling difficulties, but it needs to resume.

I'm certainly biased, but it would be pretty pathetic if one side were to back out of the Border War.