SLATE: Jayhawks finally relent

There are only two Kansas State items to discuss today, and we’ll get to those in a moment. The big news — for our area at least, if not our school — is that after nearly a decade of sniping and snarling, Kansas and Missouri have announced a resumption of their ages-old rivalry. (Blair Kerkhoff, The Star)

In yet another instance of thawing relations between Big 12 schools and their former partners in crime, Kansas and Missouri have agreed to a pair of home-and-home dates in 2025-26 and 2031-32. With the already-announced resumption of the Unholy Rivalry in 2022-23, that means Mizzou will face their former Sunflower rivals six times over 11 years. Not perfect, but a good start.

Unfortunately for the Cats, that 2032 date means they’ll go another decade without facing Missouri. K-State’s Power 5 slot is already spoken for through 2031, so the earliest a resumption with the Tigers could occur is 2033 (unless the administration is open to playing two power-five games in 2029, but the return game still couldn’t happen until 2033). Whether Missouri would be up for that is an open question, as they already have games scheduled with Illinois in 2033-35.

The new agreement puts Missouri in a spot in 2025, however. They already had four non-conference games contracted for that year, so they’re going to have to cancel either North Dakota, Miami (OH), Colorado, or UMass.

As mentioned, only two small K-State items to note.

The first is that campus authorities have tentatively announced that they do intend to open the fall semester on time and on site. (Rafael Garcia, Mercury)

The second is an article by the Merc’s Tyler Kraft delving into the developmental challenges K-State baseball will be facing as a result of the loss of summer amateur leagues this year.

EDIT: BREAKING: It was just announced as we published that former Miami Dolphins head coach Don Shula passed away this morning at the age of 90.