KU hoops’ Bill Self wants to see Kansas-Missouri bowl game. What are the possibilities?
The Kansas football team finds itself bowl-eligible for the first time in 14 years. On Sunday, the 2022 Selection Sunday for college football teams, the Jayhawks will find out their bowl pairing.
There’s one team in particular KU basketball coach Bill Self would love to see the football team play: the Missouri Tigers.
“I know what I am hoping for: I don’t know about you, but I want to play Missouri,” Self said Tuesday on his Halk Talk radio show. “I am hoping we play Missouri in whatever bowl it is. I think our fans would roll out for that one, and I think theirs would too. I think that would be exciting.”
A hot topic of debate among KU fans – including some who would rather avoid a matchup with Missouri – the Jayhawks will face the Tigers in football starting in 2025. The programs are scheduled to meet four times in the next decade, with games in 2025 and 2031 in Columbia and 2026 and 2032 in Lawrence.
Recently, Missouri has had the upper hand in the Border War, with a three-game winning streak over Kansas. The last high-stakes game between the pair was in 2007, when the Tigers won 38-26 and prevented KU from making the Big 12 Championship. Missouri also defeated Kansas in 2009 to keep the Jayhawks from bowl eligibility.
While Kansas and Missouri would make for a high-profile and exciting bowl matchup, there’s no guarantee the schools will play each other.
The Big 12 has eight bowl games affiliated with the conference, with eight teams bowl-eligible this year. The Sugar Bowl will either consist of the Big 12 Champion or the highest-ranked Big 12 team (likely Kansas State) if TCU makes the College Football Playoff. In that likely scenario, K-State will face off against the top SEC team that didn’t qualify for the playoff.
The rest of the Big 12 bowl partners will have their pick in the following order (after the Sugar Bowl):
Valero Alamo Bowl
Cheez-It Bowl
TaxAct Texas Bowl
AutoZone Liberty Bowl
Guaranteed Rate Bowl
SERVPRO First Responder Bowl/Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl (flex pick)
Typically, the bowl partners pick teams based on record. The Jayhawks finished tied for seventh in the conference with Oklahoma (3-6 Big 12 record). West Virginia also tied for seventh but went 5-7 this season.
That makes the Liberty Bowl (fourth choice following the Sugar Bowl) the likely starting point for a Kansas landing spot, followed by the Guaranteed Rate Bowl and then the First Responder Bowl and Armed Forces Bowl. The Liberty Bowl also has an SEC tie-in, while the Guaranteed Rate Bowl has a Big Ten tie-in.
Let’s look at where national college football writers have the Jayhawks:
Brent McMurphy of Action Network: Liberty Bowl vs. Missouri
Scott Dochterman and Stewart Mandel of the Athletic: Liberty Bowl vs. Missouri
Jerry Palm of CBS: First Responder Bowl vs. Rice
Richard Johnson of Sports Illustrated: Liberty Bowl vs. Mississippi State
This story was originally published December 1, 2022 at 4:32 PM with the headline "KU hoops’ Bill Self wants to see Kansas-Missouri bowl game. What are the possibilities?."
