The headline in today’s Lawrence Journal World that went missing in the Star: “Self: KU still won’t play MU”
“As long as the Big 12/SEC Challenge goes on in men’s basketball, Kansas will not be facing the Missouri Tigers,” the story begins. “KU coach Bill Self reiterated that point Tuesday during a Big 12 teleconference.”
Raising the question of if it’s time for KU to stop sulking.
“Yeah, I think maybe KU should punish Missouri this year and next year let them off the hook,” says sportaholic Craig Glazer. “Bill needs to consider the fans. I mean, we don’t have another sports rivalry that still matters. The Chiefs-Raiders is dead. The Royals and St. Louis still draws, but most of the fans that go to the game are Cardinals fans. It’s a three-day weekend for people to come to Kansas City from St. Louis and laugh at us, but it’s the only other rivalry we have.”
Self’s attitude is understandable but perplexing, Glazer says.
“I’m a little surprised because I think of Bill Self as a nice guy,” he says. “But he’s not being a nice guy right now, he’s being a tough guy.”
The flip side of that coin:
“KU is the No. 1 sports franchise in the Midwest, including the pro sports teams, and MU screwed the Big 12,” Glazer says. “And the school that almost got damaged the worst was Kansas, because nobody really wanted Kansas. KU and Self were almost a man and a team without a home.
“And he thought, ‘You jerks. You’re putting our future in jeopardy because of greed.’ And there almost wasn’t a Big 12. By hook and by crook the Big 12 was saved and Bill Self said, ‘You stabbed KU and the Kansas City metro area in the back, I’m not letting you off the hook. I’m not giving you this big game.’
“And given who KU and Bill Self are – a team that perennially wins the Big 12 and is almost always a contender for the national championship – given that point of view, they have enough on their plate. Why should they play Missouri and jeopardize their record by losing a game they don’t have to play? In other words, what’s in it for Kansas beating Missouri? Not much. And Missouri’s a potentially dangerous team.”
KU the #1 sports franchise in the midwest, including pro sports? Glazer is talking out of his ass as usual.
Yeah…off the top of my head thinking for 5 seconds, the Cardinals and Packers are both far bigger “Midwest” brands than KU.
Although perenially underachieving, the Chicago Cubs have a huge national following too, thanks to WGN.
I dunno, Kyle.
It’s not like you don’t have a point, but both of those teams have had plenty of downs to go with their ups and KU is (nearly) the most winning team in NCAA Division 1 basketball, just 10 wins behind Kentucky.
Making them practically a dynasty
KYLE WHAT ARE TALKING ABOUT, THOSE TEAMS ARE NOT KC AREA AND NOT INVOLVED WITH A RIVALRY WITH MU. WTF. Your comment makes no sense. Yes St. Louis Cards are a big deal and so is Green Bay, BUT NOT FOR KC. WTF.
CG,
You stated the entire midwest, pro teams included. The KC metro is NOT the entire midwest.
LET ME REPEAT SO YOU CAN HEAR…KU IS ALL WE HAVE SON, ALL WE HAVE. CHIEFS, ROYALS,MU, K-STATE ARE ALL NICE LITTLE TEAMS, ONCE IN A ALMOST NEVER COMPETE IN POST SEASON, WELL NOT THE CHIEFS OR ROYALS BUT MU AND K STATE, THEY ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO THE KU BASTKETBALL DYNASTY. KU IS ALL THIS AREA HAS IN THE WAY OF A BIG NAME BIG TIME CHAMP, ALL WE HAVE THERE IS NO ARGUMENT AND WHEN YOU KNOW AS MUCH AS I DO ABOUT GIVE ME A BUZZ SON…when was the last time any of those teams won any meaningful post season championship? Like decades ago, MU and K State never have, ever. NO national anything nothing zip, zero. We know how long Chiefs/Royals titles go back, 85 and 70, damn. Lifetime ago so let me restate; KU IS THE ONLY AREA FRANCHISE THAT MATTERS AROUND HERE. WAY IT GOES, THEY WON IT ALL JUST 5 YEARS AGO. END OF STORY.
–
Green Bay has had its moments (and still somewhat is) but KU basketball is historic.
Kentucky may have them by a handful of games overall but with names like Naismith, Phog, Wilt and now Self. I think Craig still may be right on this one.
And I really am not big on it, for the record.
I think basketball in this town is way overblown in terms of perceived importance. I try to ignore it.
hearne…why go to glaze on this story. How about maybe frank boal…jack hairy…
or someone in the sports biz?
glaze you blew this one….and hearne get pie in the face…
MU FANS COULD CARE LESS ABOUT KU NOW. good riddance. have fun
with your bball team while the university crumbles and the hot water doesn’t
come on.
KU is in a world of hurt right now…anything to bring in a buck….hustling tickets
on the side…selling your sports programming to a small cable system….
adding a football game and 5 bball games to tv package that no one really cares
about…tapped out of money with cut in funding….I mean ku is a dying
institution right now and it should be begging MU for any type of game
to bring some money in. Self should be calling haith on his cell phone begging
haith to bring his team into kc so ku can maybe have a payday and help
pay their last 2 coaches (football) contracts off.
And hearne..read my posts…which i’m getting tired of rewriting….
AND GLAZE…YOU’RE WRONG…MU COULD HAVE CARED LESS WHAT
KU SAID ABOUT THEM GOING TO THE SEC…the saw the money…the
branding…the potential….the huge influx of r and d money….the national
prominence….and I’msure if billy had the choicehe’d have gone to thebig
10 or secin a second.
Look what ku got…a bunch of 5,000 tv home markets scattered thourghout
a backward state that’s on its way to bankruptcy.
AGAIN…WEVE MOVED ON. HEARNE…TELL YOUR LAWRENCE NEIGHBORS
AND THE PEOPLE THATTIME FORGOT IN DOWNTOWN LAWRENCE
THAT ITS O V E R!!!!!
mu fans don’t care. Now move on to another exciting story please!!!!!!!!
You want me to dig up what’s left of Frank Boal and Jack Harry?
Seriously?
BTW, the MU fans I know care plenty. They’d like nothing more than to spank the you-know-what out of KU in football and have a shot at credibility by knocking off Self and the basketball Jayhawks.
They are however quite fortunate to have you as their spokeperson!
I was at a game last year…talked with many many people…in kc
there might be some interest in a ku football game….but
overall mu folks could care less.
talk with the people from mu from st. Louis and they could care less…
just another game…no big deal.
But for mu a arrowhead deal might not be such a good deal…with
a big game in Columbia the money might be better playing it in
Columbia especially an sec game which brings in big bucks.
Arrowhead may have once been a big money maker (for ku…of course
who care about ku football)….but for mu…its not the big money
maker it used to be and the local merchants in Columbia would be
pissed if they moved a game out of colmubia to kc because of the huge
revenue a home game brings.
and thanks for the compliments…many mu fans have written me
to thank me for presenting what no one in the media has said.
They appreciate analysis that is concise…accurate and fully explains
why the move for mu to the sec was a brilliant move on mu’s behalf.
again thanks for the compliment.
Hey, practically everything I’ve read or heard about renewing the KU-MU rivalry (aside from local sports media suck ups) has been out of the mouths of Tigers.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr….
you need to talk to people who know whats happening.
You ‘re in Lawrence…i’m sure there are plenty of
tiger fans who want to see a ku-mu game in kc.
But let me reiterate the real reason why there
probably won’t be a game. Maybe basketball …but
probably not football.
When you have sec teams bringin in 20-30 thousand
fans (they come to the stadiums and some don’t
even go in)….your city wants that revenue.
to move the game to kc is something that the
merchants/businesses in Lawrence and Columbia
hated…cost them money.
So now with an expanded sec schedule…they have
fewer openings for games and if you play the sec
you need serious serious game time to prepare for
those tough sec teams
could there be a ku-mu game? sure…phat Charlie
and zenger would love one. They need the cash
real bad. Theycan’t win a game but with tuitions
having to rise …..the school getting funding cuts…
hell…they’d do anything for a million bucks right
now. They’re dead and even self says the football
program better start pulling its weight or else.
So even if they say no on tv. …they know mu would
beat the heck out of them….but when you’re broke
like ku is you’ll do anything to make a dime.
a bball game…sure you can pack sprint…but lets
be honest…mu is past those small paydays….maybe
a bball game but football I can’t see it unless kc
bring some big big cash to the table for mu,,,heck
ku football program would play for bus fare to kc.
I go to bed at night in Lawrence, I’m not marooned here.
It’s 45 minutes to KC and I’m there at least five days a week and again, MU would love to play KU in basketball.
They have little to lose if they lose and a ton to win if they win. The opposite being true with KU.
As for football, that would only work as a home away game so Kansas could at least have a snowball’s chance of winning. The game should have never been moved to KC in the first place.
Playing in KC dialed out most of the students and turn it from a college football game into an all-about-the-almighty-buck game.
And hey, it’s not like MU has been cleaning up in the SEC. They made the break from the Big 12 but they haven’t made much of anything else yet in terms of performance.
KU has dodged WSU shockers during their recent basketball renaissance too. I wonder if it is a strategy designed to look more national. They figure if they are going to lose it might as well be to some high RPI ACC team.
KU pussyhawks are scared to pway wittle old Wichita State.
Let ’em pound sand for all I care until Self’s rug falls off.
MU is swimming in SEC cashola and could care less about the rivalry.
You mean “couldn’t” care less. Big difference.
220, 221. Whatever it takes.
Yeah, forgot the ‘n’t’.
I think you’ve got it. KU knows if they play MU or Wichita State those teams will be beyond up and winning gets them nothing but losing gives those teams serious bragging rights.
If the money is there, the game will be played. But KU has nothing to gain except dollars. Self is just channeling his Norm Stewart now.
You doubt that the money is there?
Oh the money is there alright, but there a ton of other money that’s there too without risking an unnecessary lost to a lower tier rival like MU.
My point exactly. If a large enough amount came into KU hands, the game is played. But money isn’t the only issue.
But how much is large enough for KU to put it on the line with nothing to really gain.
I see football long before roundball. That was the real rivalry. Basketball was just a carry over until the 80s when Big 8 basketball took off as the teams competed with the national powers regularly.
Did Craig just threaten to stop providing story quotes? He might be a fan, but he knows nothing more than someone you could have interviewed at your barbershop on this topic. How does he know Bill Self is a nice guy?
Glazer is right. His definition of “The Midwest” may differ with others but there is no question that KU is the most powerful brand with actual success in the KC Market.
As a matter of fact I have met Bill, seemed like a decent guy. No I don’t know him that well.
Hearne asks me about sports issues cause I try and keep up on them as much as anyone, and I have been pretty solid on predicting outcomes of both the NFL and NCAA football games for several years. I follow KU basketball cause they have earned my attention. That’s all. Nobody is right all the time, but my track record is pretty damn good.
My opinion is just that, my opinion.
So just to clarify, the “entire midwest” encompasses nothing more than the KC metro area?
In the Glazes head the only thing that matters is were he hangs his toupee…errrrr hat. So yes, only the KC metro
If MU wants to go to AFH as a non-con game in a few years, I’m sure KU will listen. I just don’t see interest in a football game, it would be hard to match the few good games at Arrowhead–but until both teams are on a more level playing field then I don’t think that will happen.
Besides, why does the media continue to bring this up? Both sides have said what they feel and are pretty definitive about it.
And Boal and Harry quotes? Please. Those two clowns should have been sent far far away years ago. What an embarassment sports media is in this town.