Mizzou basketball to play Kansas basketball for real next year

Mizzou basketball announced its rivalry with Kansas is renewed as the Tigers will take on the Jayhawks in a real game next season. Mizzou and Kansas agreed on a six-year deal starting in 2020.

I guess you can say Bill stopped being Selfish. Mizzou basketball and Kansas are set to play each other again.

Let’s rephrase that: The Border War is back!

The Tigers announced Monday that the two schools agreed to renew their rivalry starting next year in Kansas City that will last at least the next six years. Mizzou and Kansas will play at the Sprint Center on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020. Lawrence and Columbia will swap the next four years before the two teams play again at the Sprint Center in 2025.

Kansas will host in 2021 and 2023 and Missouri will host in 2022 and 2024.

Mizzou basketball and Kansas played a scrimmage for a charity event in 2017. Other than that, the two teams haven’t played since Mizzou left the Big 12 after the 2012 season wrapped up.

Coach Cuonzo Martin said two years ago he was looking forward to playing the Jayhawks in regular-season basketball games. On Monday, Martin said it was a tremendous opportunity for both schools to bring back one of the best rivalries in college basketball.

Will that mean the two schools will renew the series in other sports? Missouri Director of Athletics Jim Sterk hopes so.

"“Hopefully, this renewal on the hardwood will lead to more opportunities (to play Kansas) down the road in other sports, too,” he added. “Rivalries make college sports great, and there is no question that when Missouri and Kansas face off in any sport, it’s important to a lot of people.”"

That’s right, Missouri wants to see Kansas on the football field.

The charity basketball game played in 2017 raised more than $2 million for hurricane relief. That game also was played at the Sprint Center.

It’s been known that Mizzou wanted to continue the rivalry even when the Tigers bolted for the SEC seven years ago. But Kansas did not feel it was necessary to keep the rivalry going.

Self even said after the exhibition game two years ago that KU people weren’t “initially” happy the two teams played at all, even in a fake game. In an ESPN article from 2017, Self said he wasn’t going to do “what’s best for Missouri.”

"“I’m not going to say never,” Self said. “But I don’t think there’s been any change in our position as far as the university goes. I’m the spokesman, I guess, on this, but trust me, I’m not the only one that feels that way. There was a very large contingent of KU people who weren’t happy that we were doing this initially — until they realized it was a good cause.”"

But apparently, after that game, Self realized how important the game was to fans on both sides. He said Monday that he could not be more excited to start the series up again.

So now, the game will be real. Starting in 2020.

But hey, maybe we won’t even have to wait that long. There’s always that chance the two teams could play in March, right?