I focus most of my sports blogging on my beloved Georgia Bulldogs my undergraduate alma mater. However, an academic like myself usually has more than one school under his belt and the University of Missouri granted me a Ph.D. a few years back. For various reasons, the Mizzou sports teams never really got my allegiance the way that the Bulldogs did. But the Tigers football team are ranked in the Top 5 and are a dark horse to play for a National Championship. They’re playing their final game of the regular season in one of the most unlikely Top 5 matchups in college football history – the No. 4 Missouri Tigers vs. the No. 2 Kansas Jayhawks. My friend and fellow Mizzou alum Nathan requested that I spew some venom in the Jayhawks direction, and I am more than happy to oblige.
I was a transplant in the Midwest, so I’ve never really been able to sink my teeth into this particular rivalry. I can certainly attest to the ferocity of the animosity between Kansans and Missourians. It goes back to the mid-nineteenth century to the border war between pro-slavery Missouri “bushwhackers” and abolitionist “jayhawkers” from Iowa and Kansas. Seems that conflict has never fully been resolved as “Border War” is the phrase 
used to describe the Missouri-Kansas football rivalry. Typically it has very little impact outside of these two states, but this year the whole country is watching.
If you are a college football fan in general, you should be cheering for Missouri. If Kansas manages a win they are one step closer to being one of the most overrated teams to ever play in a National Championship game. I mean, seriously, Hawaii is undefeated but nobody is talking about them for the National Championship. Hawaii’s schedule may actually be tougher than the Jayhawks. But if you need more convincing, here are several more reasons to root for the Tigers on Saturday.
- Kansas has played exactly one ranked team this year and they (Kansas State) are no longer ranked. The combined record of their opponents is 42 – 69. It’s not the Jayhawks fault that they don’t have any strong Big 12 teams this year. It is their fault, however, that their non-conference schedule includes Florida International and Southeast Louisiana.
- I’m more of a Missouri basketball fan and every year I was at school in Columbia the Jayhawks would come to town and spank Missouri. That stupid “Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk” cheer is one of the most annoying chants in college sports. The only thing worse, in fact, may be Tennessee playing “Rocky Top” every time they score.
- Two words – Kirk Hinrich.
- Kansas sports teams are named for a 19th century terrorist group.
- The Kansas Board of Education tried to ban the teaching of evolution in schools in 2005. This is still embarassing to an expatriated American scientist.
- Famous Kansans: Bob Dole, Sam Brownback, Jeff Probst, Gerald B. Winrod and Dennis Rader. Famous Missourians: Harry Truman, Mark Twain, Walter Cronkite, T.S. Eliot and Wilco.
- Kansas (and ultimately this may be their demise) sold out their home field advantage and took the money to play at a neutral site this weekend. I think that Kansas City, MISSOURI crowd may lean slightly toward the Tigers. I bet the KU officials responsible for this decision are going to kick themselves as they watch their national championship chances get left behind on the turf at Arrowhead.
The Border War kicks off in Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City at 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturday (that’s 1 a.m. Greenwich, ouch). ABC has the TV coverage in the States and on the net worldwide. You’ve got to pay for Missouri’s live coverage, I don’t know about Kansas. I know I’m not objective, but I’ve been fairly good at making predictions this season. This one should be a high scoring affair, but Missouri has just got more talent on both sides of the ball – Missouri 45, Kansas 35.
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by Casey Dillman
21 Nov 2007 at 17:45
here, here.
by Nichole
21 Nov 2007 at 18:53
I very rarely get excited about football games. Strike that. I never get excited about football games. Unless they’re Dillon Panthers games. Which are fictional and, thus, don’t really count. I’m sort of looking forward to watching this one, though. Go Mizzou!
by Matthew
21 Nov 2007 at 18:53
As long as Mizzou’s defense holds it’s ground job (e.g. the Nebraska game), Mizzou should dominate!
by Sinead
21 Nov 2007 at 19:11
all i remember about the missouri-kansas rivalry from my time in columbia is that we were able to sell our basketball tickets to the “big game” for the same price as a season ticket and go shopping in the ozarks with the profits…oh and watch them lose the game in a bar when we took a break from shopping.
by CDV
21 Nov 2007 at 19:58
By the way, I hate that every sporting event has to be sponsored by someone. The logo at the top of this post originally included an ad for a major car company that I Photoshopped out because I didn’t feel like giving them free advertising. Oops, falling off my soapbox…
by Nathan Brewer
21 Nov 2007 at 20:31
I’m guessing that I’m like most Mizzou fans and waiting for the bottom to fall out of this season. A loss Sat. would be especially painful…that being said, Jeremy Maclin has 100 yds receiving and 100 yds in returns, fueling a ‘low-scoring’ 34-24 MU win.
And Chris, you are dead-on about the Kirk Hinrich thing. He looks like the kid from the Mazda ‘Zoom Zoom’ commercials.
by CDV
21 Nov 2007 at 22:46
Even though I’m a Mizzou alum, I’ve got to appreciate the humor here:
http://hawkdigest.squarespace.com/journal/2007/11/21/mizzou-smack-shot-3.html
by Jason
21 Nov 2007 at 22:54
The KU athletic department would disagree with you that the fans will be slightly more in Missouri’s favor. KU has said something like they expect it to be a 70/30 split in Kansas’ favor. Although you should definitely take that with a grain of salt. Can you really trust the math skills of a state that doesn’t believe in evolution?
I have heard though that Kansas City tends to be more KU fans than MU. If that means anything for the percentages at the game, it might be slightly in KU’s favor.
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by » Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate chrisdellavedova.com: Ravings of an American expatriate in Oxford
23 Nov 2007 at 11:49
[...] Texas A & M, Virginia vs. Virginia Tech, Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State, Florida vs Florida State, Missouri vs. Kansas, Auburn vs Alabama, Clemson vs. South Carolina and Georgia vs. Georgia [...]
by DJ-Hawkdigest
23 Nov 2007 at 23:08
Had a few days off for the Holiday. I’ll try to keep this civil as I need a little bit of an escape from the war zone here in Kansas City.
I think my reply would be to name Dwight Eisenhower and Brian Fantana, Channel 4 News (http://www.flickr.com/photos/15068962@N00/515137950/) to the famous Kansans list. I think all Missourians would be proud to put Kit Bond on their list as well (http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=172#s=172&f=2485&t=1479613).
As far as the Rock Chalk chant goes, Missouri fans hear it only twice a game. At the beginning and at the end when we win. Now … Boomer Sooner on the other hand is played 900 times a game.
Evolution. Now that’s a tough one. If only the bushwacker dirtbags of the 1850’s could have articulated their true fear — conservative Christians if not kept in check, will stop at nothing. Sure, today it’s a simple “civil rights” issue, but in 150 years they’ll be using their power to censor basic scientific findings. Of course, over the long haul, logic usually prevails here in Kansas. Thanks for the concern and we’ll get those folks straightened out — they mean well.
by kujh20001
24 Nov 2007 at 20:29
Kansas beat two rank teams: Kansas State and Colorado.
Missouri lost to Oklahoma who lost to Colorado. Past performance does not always predict the future.
KU has suprised alot of Kansas fans.
Mangino was the offensive coordinator for Oklahoma when they won their last National Championship so the edge for coaching goes to Kansas.
by kujh20001
24 Nov 2007 at 20:32
One more thing, the game was moved to Arrowhead last January as a two game agreement between the two schools. It was NOT moved because of the high rankings of the two teams.
by Jason
24 Nov 2007 at 23:28
Wow, what a circuitous way to make an argument. Seems like a certain jayhawk has some insecurities. Big deal that Mizzou lost to Oklahoma, who lost to Colorado. If you paid attention, Mizzou also beat the piss out of Colorado. By a larger margin than Kansas did. Oh yeah, and Mizzou beat Texas Tech, who beat Oklahoma. Did KU beat Texas Tech? That’s right, Texas Tech is ANOTHER team that Kansas didn’t have to play.
by CDV
25 Nov 2007 at 00:37
Jason, I think we know that KU doesn’t provide their students with the best education, so I think we should cut the Jayhawk a little slack on his reasoning skills.
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by » Georgia 31, Georgia Tech 17 chrisdellavedova.com: Ravings of an American expatriate in Oxford
25 Nov 2007 at 01:17
[...] and all I need to make rivalry weekend even better is a big Mizzou win. I just found out that my pre-game post was linked to in a Wall Street Journal article! Cool, maybe Rupert Murdoch reads my [...]
by kujh20001
25 Nov 2007 at 01:21
Jason, since you are a devoted tigger fan there is no need to try to explain to you that past performance is not always a predictor of future performance. At least Missouri can’t water down the field which has been rumored for years to give an advantage to Missouri. Maybe Norm can run into the stands and choke a Kansas fan so it would make you feel better.
CDV, don’t need any slack, just been a Jayhawk fan for 40 years and for KU to make it this far is simply awsome.
by CDV
25 Nov 2007 at 01:30
I’m pretty stoked – just realized that I got linked to from a Wall Street Journal article! First mainstream press acknowledgement.
by Jason
25 Nov 2007 at 07:07
Congrats on the WSJ link! That’s pretty cool, but I must admit that its not QUITE as cool as Todd Reesing eating some Arrowhead turf!