Mizzou football has climbed high enough that the Border War ought to feel a lot safer than it does.
That’s the uneasy part heading into Friday’s game in Lawrence. The Tigers are the better program now, or at least the one with the bigger ambitions and the stronger case for thinking big. Yet this matchup still comes with enough doubt that “Mizzou should win, but it wouldn’t be crazy if it didn’t” has become the working line around it.
And that’s the question hanging over the rivalry: why is this still close?
The answer is not hard to find in the history. Mizzou leads the all-time football series 58-54-9, which is the first clue that this is a real rivalry and not just a convenient label. Nathan Hurst made that point in his weekly column, noting that kansas even misstates the record despite what he called “clear, undeniable proof that Mizzou was the undefeated national champions in 1960.”
The football version of this matchup has never tilted nearly as hard as the basketball side. On the hardwood, kansas has long carried the weight of a blue blood.
In football, though, the series has stayed stubbornly competitive over more than a century. Since the turn of the century, Mizzou holds an 8-5 edge.
The Tigers have won the last four, including last year’s game in Columbia, though that one was not exactly stress-free. That first quarter still lingers.
That’s why Friday feels like more than just another game. It’s an early test of where this version of Mizzou football really stands. If Eli Drinkwitz and the Tigers are headed where they say they want to go, then kansas should be the kind of opponent that gets treated like a formality.
That expectation is a little unfair to the Tigers’ football history, and the piece acknowledges that. kansas basketball is a blue blood. Mizzou football is not yet in that neighborhood. The program has only been aiming that high for the past seven or eight years, even if the current standard under Drinkwitz is much loftier than it used to be.
Drinkwitz has changed the way the program carries itself. He has built buy-in with board members and boosters, and Mizzou football has become more of a brand since he arrived in 2019.
The success on the field has helped, but the bigger shift is in the scale of the goals. The Tigers are no longer thinking in the old terms of simply being respectable in the SEC or sneaking into the Top 25.
The bar has moved to College Football Playoff bids, CFP wins, All-American recognition, conference titles and title-game appearances.
If that’s the level Mizzou wants to live at, then the Border War has to start looking different.
The comparison to basketball is useful because it shows what that kind of expectation sounds like. For years, kansas fans carried themselves as if the result was already decided before tipoff.
Mizzou was supposed to lose. When it didn’t, those were the exceptions.
That kind of certainty is what a top program looks like.
Mizzou, by contrast, still approaches this football rivalry with a little too much uncertainty. That should change.
The Tigers have the advantage in investment, talent, support and stadium. In every measurable way that matters in college football, they are positioned better than kansas.
So the rivalry should stop feeling like a coin flip.
Maybe that sounds like bulletin board material. Maybe it overstates where Mizzou is right now.
But the larger point is hard to miss: the Tigers have grown too much over the past decade to keep treating this matchup like anything less than one they ought to control. Leaving kansas behind year after year would be the clearest sign yet that Mizzou’s rise is real.
In Other News...
Kansas Leans Into Border War Tension With Provocative Missouri Message
With No. 23 Missouri headed into a rivalry matchup with Kansas, the old Border War is once again carrying the kind of edge that goes well beyond the standings. The game traces back to 1891, and the surrounding history still gives the meeting a sharper tone than most nonconference dates, with the two states' Civil War-era tensions lingering over a rivalry that has never really needed much extra fuel.
Kansas tried to add some with a Civil War-themed hype video narrated by former player Gilbert Brown, leaning directly into the conflict that has long shadowed this series. The matchup has always been tied to the bitter history between Missouri and Kansas, including the Lawrence Massacre and William Quantrill, so the Jayhawks' message was hardly subtle. For Missouri, it is the kind of promotional jab that can make the lead-up feel just as charged as the game itself. [Read more 🡒]
Kansas Faces One Big Border War Test Against Missouri
Kansas and Missouri are about to meet again in football for the second time in two years, and the setup carries the sort of edge that still makes the Border War feel bigger than a normal nonconference game. Missouri goes in as a touchdown favorite, with the game set for Kansas Memorial Stadium and plenty of attention on how each side matches up, from key player availability to the areas where one team might have the upper hand.
For Missouri, the interest goes beyond the line on the board. Rivalry games tend to come down to execution and composure, and this one has the added twist of familiar opponents, fresh analysis and a chance to make a statement on the road. The predictions point to a close, meaningful test, but the real intrigue is whether Missouri can handle the setting and the pressure of a game that still matters a great deal on both sides of the border. [Read more 🡒]
Missouris Border War Plan Just Changed In A Big Way
Missouris prep for the Border War took a sharp turn this week, with the Tigers set to take on Kansas on Sept. 11 without two running backs who were part of the game plan. Ahmad Hardy remains out while he continues recovering from a gunshot wound and still has not met the practice requirements to return, and Malae Fonoti is done for the season after suffering an ACL tear. For a game with as much history and emotion attached to it as Missouri-Kansas, the depth chart is already looking different than it did when the matchup was first circled.
There is at least one encouraging development on the offensive line, though. Left tackle Cayden Green is expected back in the starting lineup after missing the season opener because of injury, which should help stabilize the front as Missouri adjusts to the absence in the backfield. Even so, the Tigers now have to sort out how they want to attack a Kansas defense with a thinner rotation behind the line of scrimmage than they had hoped for. [Read more 🡒]