Border War Update: New Mizzou AD Wants Kansas Series Renewed

Missouri's soon-to-be athletic director Mack Rhoades is already winning over traditionalists. He's not only taken a solid stance on a tough issue at Mizzou, but he's breathed life into the stagnant subject that is the Missouri-Kansas Border War rivalry.

Appearing on The Paul Finebaum Show, Tod Palmer of the Kansas City Star finally got the ball rolling on this—in my opinion—better than anyone else has in the 1,255 days since the last game between the two schools on November 26, 2011.

"I think there were some people at KU that felt misled or lied to," Palmer told Finebaum.

Lied to? That's pretty harsh. But is there any validity to that? Obviously Missouri left the Big 12 Conference at a time that was already very uncertain, with the losses of both Nebraska and Colorado. Missouri fans have often been confused about why Kansas simply won't play.

Although I don't claim to know the ultimate and defining criteria like Sheahon Zenger is my best friend, given the idea that KU felt "misled or lied to," let's examine the timeline of events and see if we can't figure out why the Jayhawks may feel this way.

The Big Ten, a conference Missouri had once flirted with joining in the early '90s, was once again looking to expand. After adding Penn State as its 11th team in 1990, there was a strong feeling it would round up to a nice, even 12.

"Who has an 11-team conference," former Missouri curator Woody Cozad thought of the situation at the time. "Everybody just anticipated they'd get to 12 pretty quickly," he said.

But that 11-team structure rumbled its way down the tracks for years before commissioner Jim Delany issued a statement in late 2009 that would rattle the college football world.

Most of the statement is inconsequential to the fact that the word "expansion" is in the second paragraph. Indeed, there would be a war of potential suitors, and other conferences would beef up their image in an effort to entice teams to stay.

It was a typical Wednesday in June, but the Midwest—as well as the rest of the country—was about to be caught off guard. At the time, David Moulton of the Naples Daily News said this day and its events were like the Archduke Ferdinand getting shot and starting World War I.

Given the time to see events unfold after the fact, he was right.

According to the Denver Post's John Henderson, ESPN.com reported that the Pac-10 had extended an invitation to Colorado. But everyone still had to hear the big news come from the school itself before they even believed it. Nebraska, much to the dismay of the Big 12 and even many of its own fans, was leaving the conference to join the Big Ten.

The day before this, June 8, 2010, KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little called Nebraska and Missouri to encourage both of them to stay in the Big 12. At this point, some sort of deal or pact of comradery may have been at least initiated between Mizzou and Kansas. All we can do is look at their actions and speculate on what might have been agreed upon.

Nebraska ended one of the oldest rivalries in America as it and Kansas had played every season since 1906. That streak finalized on November 13, 2010 when they played in Lincoln for the final time.

It was thought that Missouri might leave with Nebraska in this move. Did Kansas influence Missouri to stay in the 11th hour?

In 2011, Texas was on top of the world. Unfortunately, so was its ego. Many Texas fans to this day still flat-out deny that the Longhorn Network did anything wrong in upsetting the league.

But the displeasure that Nebraska and Colorado expressed over the financial structure of the conference was about to be felt by everyone else.

On the one hand, I can't blame the school for attempting to make a business decision. When ESPN says it has $300 million for your school and all you have to do is sell your soul to it for the next 20 years, it's hard to say no. So they said yes.

But on the other hand, this attempted business decision involves the sentiment of telling the rest of the Big 12 Conference it's just there to help Texas make money.

Nebraska pulled in $10 million the year before its exit was announced. The next season in the Big Ten, teams payed out $22 million. While the Big 12 has certainly upped its payout structure, the diabetes the league suffers from is the inability to have a Big 12 Network. After all, Texas' rights are sewn up until 2031.

September 5, 2011 was a Monday, two days after Missouri opened the football season against Miami of Ohio in Columbia. Little did anyone know at this point that it would be their final as a member of the Big 12.

But on this day, Lenn Robbins of the New York Post wrote an article that sheds a lot of light on what Mizzou and Kansas' business strategy may have been at this point.

Speculation was abound that despite not inviting Missouri along with Nebraska, the Tigers still might have an invite coming from the Big Ten. Missouri and Kansas were both interested in the move, but Kansas didn't want to make a move without Kansas State involved as well and rightfully so.

The Robbins article from the Post shows exactly these teams attempting to leave the conference together to join the Big East. What's more, this deal seemed nearly done according to the report.

It's possible that Missouri told Kansas that they would ultimately stick together if making a conference move. Such communication would either come from former Mizzou Chancellor Brady Deaton, or soon-to-be former Director of Athletics Mike Alden.

How and why did this massive migration to the Big East fall apart? Did someone say the wrong thing and ruin the move for everyone? Was the addition of Kansas State again too much for the new conference to consider? By all indications, Missouri was trying to stay with Kansas and keep them happy. But it just wasn't working.

Somewhere in between here and the official announcement on November 6, 2011 (or maybe it was the unofficial official accidental release on the SEC's website on October 27, dated October 22), this alliance with Kansas and possibly Kansas State fell apart. And it doesn't look like anyone said anything to KU about it.

It came as one of the strangest, uncertain but exciting announcements in the history of Missouri athletics. With many fans in Missouri still riding the excitement of a historic St. Louis Cardinals Word Series win, only days later the University of Missouri and SEC Commissioner Mike Slive had a joint press conference, announcing Missouri as the newest member of the SEC.

Words out of Kansas were quick. Everyone was making a statement, from then-football coach Turner Gill to men's basketball coach Bill Self to Chancellor Gray-Little. Self would go on to say things that were fueled by emotion.

"I’ll be honest, the majority of Kansas fans don’t give a flip about playing Missouri," Self said at the time.

And I'm not going to argue that. I'm sure KU athletics will somehow survive if they never play Missouri again. I don't think that's in question here.

Never the less, the rivalry essentially died. The final game was played on November 26, 2011 in Kansas City.

Brady Deaton, the man at the heart of the SEC move and ultimate decision making for Missouri, was stepping down. A hero to some, a villain to traditionalists and certainly not on anyone's Christmas list from the Big 12 Conference, Deaton had made big decisions that had a big and lasting impact.

Did Deaton ultimately promise KU something and then not keep his word? It's possible. But if Deaton was an obstacle in ever interacting with Missouri again, then a huge step was taken in possibly starting talks and having it lead to playing games with Kansas.

But, as was the case since Missouri left the league, Kansas remained silent and as if the move wasn't on their radar. It was unmoved at this changing of the guard.

During a Google Hangout (h/t Saturday Down South) session, Missouri head football coach Gary Pinkel made it clear that it was his desire to see the two school resume play again.

"We want to play Kansas again," said a very direct Pinkel, who didn't mix any words or feelings. "It was a great rivalry that we had all those years."

A possible feeling is that Kansas would like to wait until it's capable of winning this potential meeting, meaning it would like to at least hit 6-6 first. But record wouldn't matter at this point in simply reuniting two teams that haven't played in what seems like forever. It would sell out just fine.

Kansas is aware of Pinkel's invitation but preferred to not give a statement on it. Kansas again remained silent.

One of the longest tenured individuals within Mizzou athletics, Mike Alden was responsible for the hires of Quin Snyder and Gary Pinkel early on in his career. While Alden has gone on to receive a lot of praise for the Pinkel hire, he has fielded an equal amount of scrutiny with regard to the men's basketball coach position.

But it may just be Alden's time, who is a Columbia resident and would perhaps prefer to enjoy the community from a not-so-public position.

Regardless, this event was just as important to the possibility of Kansas and Mizzou talking again as when Deaton left. But would KU remain silent this time?

No. The very next day, Bill Self was vocal.

"To be real candid, it's not good. It hasn't been great," Self told Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star on not playing Missouri. "I think everybody likes waking up in the morning disliking somebody. And so from that standpoint, it probably hasn't been great."

Wow. Movement and feelings. In the world of sports-journalism and sifting among the rumors that aren't confirmed, trying to piece together what you think happened can be a challenge sometimes. But when KU is silent for over three years and then suddenly says that not playing Mizzou "hasn't been great" the day after its AD announces he's stepping down, there's a connection.

In the end, there's quite a bit to this whole deal, and getting it all out on the table in its full scope is the best way, I believe, to get it going again.

Based on the things we've looked at, let's examine some facts about the Missouri move to the SEC.

• Kansas may have been misled by either Brady Deaton or Mike Alden, more likely to be Alden given the reaction from Bill Self.
• Deaton and Alden are now both going to be gone, meaning any issues that KU administrators may have had with them either personally or professionally shouldn't affect the idea of Mizzou and Kansas getting talks started.
• Self admits that the move has begun to hurt Kansas.

It was an emotionally charged time when Missouri left the league. Self's reaction may have been no different from yours or mine if we were in his position. But one thing remains certain: The two teams need to play.

As an offer of good peace, I think that Mizzou should let Kansas choose where it wants to play the first game if it does decide to resume football. Naturally it would probably want to play a home game but even if it wanted to play in Spokane, Washington, just to prove some point, let it. Give Kansas a reason to want to play this game. I think it's the least Mizzou can do.

To Kansas, I say that we should not teach our children that the prevailing feeling from disagreement is a cold-natured hostility. We need to show a younger generation who are supposed to be strong men and women and leaders of strong communities that by forgiveness and open dialogue we can make things right.

We have a chance to keep traditions alive that are a part of who we are as people and sports fans of the Midwest. I ask that Sheahon Zenger and anyone else that has a voice of authority in Lawrence regarding Kansas playing Missouri to do something about it before our confused children have to do it and say, "Why didn't we do this sooner?"

Follow Dan Irwin on Twitter @irwinsports or on Facebook.