Pride not a good reason to end rivalry

Last week I watched a handful of high school seniors ended their careers with losses in district basketball games. For the most part, they were playing their last game as competitive basketball players. I remember thinking to myself that the finality of this moment would not sink in for these players for some time, possibly not even until next season when they watch a game from the bleachers. The “last time” for something good is not something which can ever be savored enough, making it almost impossible to imagine for many, and preferably avoidable for most.

So it was odd the following day to watch what was labeled as the last Missouri/Kansas men’s basketball game. Pending a Big 12 Championship Game match-up, which is no guarantee, the classic overtime game played at Allen Fieldhouse last Saturday was the last guaranteed regularly scheduled game between the two schools, a game which has been played 267 times over the past 105 years. This is a result of Missouri’s decision to move to the Southeastern Conference (SEC) next year.

 

Even in the first match-up in Columbia, with just over two minutes to play, I remember telling myself this was already one of the best games I’ve seen in my life. That was with my Tigers down seven points, before even coming back to win in the final moments. Last Saturday topped it, despite the outcome, for me. It had everything a great game could have and at this point, I can only predict it will be viewed as not only the ‘final’ game, but one of the best in the series. In the end, though, it still brings me back to the finality of it all and how it will be missed. I’m only in my third decade of life, so I can’t even imagine what the rivalry has meant to those who’ve been around long before me. Should it end?

As a Mizzou alum and fan, I can be a realist in a certain sense and understand the reasoning for Kansas not wanting, or seeing the need, to play Missouri moving forward. There won’t be any conference implications in the games and no big pay days for the athletic department they wouldn’t get otherwise. Why exchange an easy non-conference football or basketball win for a highly emotional potential lose to a long-time rival?

One analogy Kansas compares the situation to is that Missouri divorced Kansas with their breakup with the Big 12 Conference. The fact that the two could ever be married really gives a bad name to marriage. First, you have to like each other to start with. Second, you have to agree on something occasionally. Neither has happened for going on 150 years, which is what gives the rivalry its passion and energy. Third, the two states still share the same border and co-existing populations, so they might as well be able to get together a couple times year and see a positive side to it. At least for the kids’ sake, right?

Although there is a lack of comparisons available for this exact situation, there are more plenty of instances where sports rivalries exist with only bragging rights on the line.

Let’s apply some local comparisons. The St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals don’t play in the same league or division, yet every summer they play a home and home series against each other for state bragging rights. The fans love it and it helps promote team and regional pride for each city. The same goes for Park Hill and Park Hill South who used to play in the same conference and district, creating some pretty intense and pivotal match-ups between the two over the years. The past couple years they have been in separate conferences and districts, but same as always, the two battled it out on the gridiron and court to packed stadiums and gyms with just as much passion as ever. The football game, which Park Hill South won for only the second time this year, meant nothing to their playoff hopes, but try telling that to the several hundred kids who stormed the field after their victory.

Let’s be honest, both athletic departments are geniuses when it comes to generating revenue and profits for their programs. It’s part of the reason we are where we are at this point, but I find it hard to believe there can’t be a solution developed to make this match-up profitable if that’s the only thing preventing its continuation.

 

In the end, the whole situation is kind of odd. Both schools are public universities funded by taxpayer dollars and donations. Both schools are charged with giving today’s youth the tools and knowledge it needs to solve tomorrow’s problems, to see solutions where there may seem to be none, and hopefully positively contribute to society in some form or another.

Yet, they (well, mostly Kansas) can’t find a way for a rivalry which has been part of the local culture and public good for more than a century to continue to do so despite… a change in conference affiliation? It’d be a head scratcher for St. Louis and Kansas City baseball fans if it were to happen. There’d be plenty of opinions voiced if Park Hill and Park Hill South didn’t get their claim to bragging rights.

Kansas got caught up in the mixed bag of emotions that came with Missouri’s move to the SEC. They hastily staked out a hard claim to backtrack on by saying they’d never play Missouri again, as if to play the ultimate check-mate. Like many of our politicians, that’s the position they’re going to stick with despite any evidence to the contrary. There are some things no amount of money or pride, one way or the other, should be able to compensate or change. But I guess pride is what built this rivalry over the last century, and its on course to be what brings it down as well.