Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images / Denny Medley-Imagn Images
A collage shows Kansas Jayhawks starting quarterback Isaiah Marshall alongside Missouri Tigers quarterback Austin Simmons during the 2026 college football season.
For the first time in over a decade, the iconic Border War football game between the Kansas Jayhawks and Missouri Tigers returns to Lawrence on Friday night, and there’s no shortage of animosity.
The two rivals have played 121 times, dating all the way back to their first matchup in 1891, with Missouri holding a slim 57-55-9 lead in the record books.
However, when the Tigers left the Big 12 for the SEC in 2011, the game went on hiatus for over a decade, only returning again in 2025, when Mizzou came away with a 42-31 victory in Columbia.
This time around, the Jayhawks are set to play host, and let’s just say the game clearly means more to them than anyone could’ve imagined.
It is that deep. pic.twitter.com/4BEcdbLv7S
— Kansas Football (@KU_Football) September 10, 2026
Kansas Calls Out Missouri’s History Of Slavery In Border War Hype Video
Obviously, any rivalry that dates back over a decade is going to have a good bit of animosity on the football field. But the rivalry between Kansas and Missouri is about much, much more than football.
The issue dates all the way back to 1854, when Congress allowed settlers to use “popular sovereignty” to vote on whether Kansas would be a free or slave state.
A number of pro-slavery Missourians (Missouri had been a state since 1821), crossed into Kansas to stuff ballot boxes, commit voter fraud, and intimidate anti-slavery settlers.
Ultimately, Kansas entered the Union as a free state in 1861, and the two sides had many bloody battles leading up to and throughout the American Civil War.
In their hype video released Thursday, Kansas included imagery alluding to these flashpoints, including a picture of famed abolitionist John Brown, who was at the center of the historic Bleeding Kansas confrontations.
College football fans were stunned to see the Jayhawks take things so far.
Kyle Whittingham: I don’t want to say I hate Ohio State.
Kansas: Missouri was pro-slavery and they are evil. https://t.co/JStOssnRhO
— Chris Vannini (@ChrisVannini) September 11, 2026
Nothing like a little “we were on the right side of history because we weren’t a slave State” before a rivalry game https://t.co/5j0h49EkoX
— Wisconsin Homer (@wisconsintakes) September 10, 2026
Some rivalries: “We’ll crush them on the field but it’s only a game and we respect them as a peer institution 🤗”
Kansas: “These are deeply evil people and we must destroy them.” https://t.co/F5ChnCAryR
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) September 11, 2026
Ultimately, it’s hard to blame Kansas for going that route. I mean, the history books tell the story for all to see. But it’s still a pretty shocking approach in modern times.