The Border War college football rivalry is officially back on.
Missouri and Kansas announced Saturday that their gridiron series will continue in 2025 after a 14-year hiatus, with four dates now agreed upon.
The Tigers are primed to host the archrival Jayhawks in September 2025 and 2031 at Faurot Field, while Missouri is set to travel to Lawrence for games against Kansas in September 2026 and 2032.
“I’m excited for our fans to have the chance to be part of this historical rivalry again,” Missouri first-year head coach Eliah Drinkwitz said in a statement Saturday afternoon. “I know there has been some time off, but I’m positive the energy and excitement will be there right away for everybody.”
Kansas head coach Les Miles concurred with Drinkwitz in a statement of his own.
“This is a tremendous opportunity to reignite one of college football’s oldest rivalries,” said Miles, who took over at Kansas in 2018. “Anytime you bring two football teams on the field with that history, I think it will excite our student-athletes and fans, and will certainly be a great battle on the field.”
Missouri athletic director Jim Sterk wrote in an email to donors April 9 that the four-game series was being finalized.
Now the rivalry, dormant for nearly a decade, is very much alive again.
“We are very excited about renewing this historic rivalry that our fans are so passionate about,” Sterk said. “College football is better with rivalries like this, and our fans deserve to have it return. We’re pleased to make this happen, and we look forward to restoring this important tradition at Mizzou.”
The idea of resuming the football series gained momentum last year.
The Kansas offense runs a play during a Border War game in 2008.
The schools officially announced a six-game men’s basketball series last October that is scheduled to start this coming December at the Sprint Center in Kansas City.
Two games in the six-year annual hoops series will be at the Sprint Center, with the other being the final contest agreed to as of now in 2025. A pair of games at Mizzou Arena and Lawrence’s Allen Fieldhouse, respectively, are scheduled from 2021-24.
Missouri and Kansas haven’t faced off in football or men’s basketball in an official capacity since the Tigers departed the Big 12 Conference for the Southeastern Conference in 2012.
The Jayhawks defeated the Tigers in a men’s basketball preseason exhibition in 2017 in Kansas City.
The most recent gridiron showdown between the schools was Nov. 26, 2011 — a 24-10 Missouri victory.
The football teams met for 91 straight seasons from 1919 to 2011, as the 1918 flu pandemic canceled the game that year. Missouri and Kansas played on the gridiron every year from 1891 to 1917 as well.
Missouri says it leads the all-time football series 57-54-9, while Kansas acknowledges that Missouri leads, but only 56-55-9. At the root of the disagreement is the 1960 game that Kansas won on the field but later had to forfeit.
Missouri previously had its schedule completely filled for 2025, with the Tigers having nonconference home games announced against North Dakota and Massachusetts. One of those will likely have to change to make way for the Jayhawks. Missouri’s future schedules are full through 2026.
Missouri is scheduled to face former Big 12 foes such as Kansas State and Colorado over the next decade.
The Tigers are also slated to face Illinois eight times between 2026-35.
Perhaps the most notable football meeting between Missouri and Kansas was dubbed “Armageddon at Arrowhead” in 2007, when the Tigers defeated the Jayhawks in Kansas City with both teams ranked in the top three in the country.
“While I haven’t been part of Mizzou/KU,” Drinkwitz said, “I have been involved in some pretty intense rivalries and I do believe that is a big part of what makes college football so special to people.”
COLUMBIA DAILY TRIBUNE
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