Will KU Jayhawks & Mizzou Tigers extend their men’s hoops series? Time will tell
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kansas and Missouri athletic departments must decide on extending series
- KU coach Bill Self cites scheduling, NIL and tournament priorities in choice
- Series balance favors Missouri 3-0; upcoming neutral games and fan energy matter
Athletic department officials from the universities of Kansas and Missouri will need to decide before long whether they wish to extend the current six-game, six-year renewal of the Border War men’s basketball series.
That’s because just two games remain heading into Sunday’s noon nonconference contest at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
“You know what? I don’t know,” KU coach Bill Self said Friday when asked if he’d like to continue the series. “Do I like the game? Yes. But I also like going to the Players Era tournament (in Las Vegas) and getting money for the guys’ NIL. I also like those types of things, too.
“I think everything is changed on how you approach scheduling, so we’ll approach it in a way that’s best for us moving forward. My administration will have more to say on that than I actually will, but it’s a good game and one we look forward to.
“And, you know, they kicked our (butt) last year. So certainly I haven’t forgotten that, nor have our guys, because they were certainly better than us last year in that game.”
Down 3-0 in this six-game set of games, Mizzou defeated KU 76-67 on Dec. 8, 2024 at Mizzou Arena in Columbia. That followed three Jayhawks victories: 102-65 on Dec. 11, 2021 at Allen Fieldhouse; 95-67 on Dec. 10, 2022 at Mizzou Arena; and 73-64 on Dec. 9, 2023 at Allen.
“I don’t have a problem with it,” Self said of the series concluding with two games at a neutral site. “We put the series off a year during COVID. We were supposed to start in Kansas City and end in Kansas City. So we moved the Kansas City game to basically this year and then next year is Kansas City, because it’s home, home, home, home, neutral, neutral, all created by COVID.”
Self said he enjoys coaching in rivalry games.
“Well, there was a rivalry with me with Missouri before I got here, because I coached at Illinois,” he said. “So I understand it and I understand that the energy between the fan bases, which maybe at times spreads to animosity or anger or whatever it would be. I think it’s good for the game to play against your rivals, so we’ll look forward to it.
“This would always be one of the most looked-forward-to games on our schedule every year and certainly that hasn’t changed at all.”
Self said he’s already addressed the KU-MU rivalry with his team.
“I did tell our players this,” he noted, “that the attention that this one game will get will be more than the attention that Notre Dame, UConn, Duke and Tennessee got combined.”
This story was originally published December 5, 2025 at 2:10 PM with the headline "Will KU Jayhawks & Mizzou Tigers extend their men’s hoops series? Time will tell."
