While Kansas University released its 2009 football schedule Friday, the site for the Jayhawks’ annual Border War matchup with Missouri – and college football’s oldest rivalry west of the Mississippi – hasn’t yet been determined.
The two schools are currently in a two-year agreement during which the game is being held at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, approximately halfway between the two schools.
KU senior associate athletic director Larry Keating, who is in charge of scheduling, said this week that discussions are ongoing regarding the venue of the Jayhawks’ Nov. 28, 2009, game against the Tigers, although the schools’ officials likely wouldn’t reach a verdict until later this fall.
“We’re talking about it, but that’s all there is so far,” Keating said. “I think at this point, we’d probably make a decision by the time we play this year’s (Missouri-Kansas) game. It could happen earlier, it could happen around that time.”
In their first four games of the ’09 season, the Jayhawks will take on nonconference opponents Northern Colorado (Sept. 5), Texas-El Paso (Sept. 12), Duke (Sept. 19) and Southern Mississippi (Sept. 26), in addition to an eight-game conference schedule that will be the same as the 2008 version.
In all, Kansas will play seven games at Memorial Stadium, including games against Northern Colorado, Duke, Southern Mississippi, Iowa State, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Missouri (assuming it isn’t moved to Kansas City), while traveling to UTEP, Colorado, Texas Tech, Kansas State and Texas.
Keating, meanwhile, added that the 2010, 2011 and 2012 schedules could potentially be completed within the next few months, at which point they would be released to the public.
“As soon as we get a season done, we put it out,” he said. “We don’t like to put out the partials (schedules). You put that information out and people plan stuff out ahead of time, and if you change it, people get upset. … (But) as soon as we get it done, we’ll put it out.”
2009 Kansas Football Schedule
Sept. 5 NORTHERN COLORADO
Sept. 12 at Texas-El Paso
Sept. 19 DUKE
Sept. 26 SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI
Oct. 10 *IOWA STATE
Oct. 17 *at Colorado
Oct. 24 *OKLAHOMA
Oct. 31 *at Texas Tech
Nov. 7 *at Kansas State
Nov. 14 *NEBRASKA
Nov. 21 *at Texas
Nov. 28 *MISSOURI
Dec. 5 Big 12 Championship, Arlington, Texas
* – Big 12 Conference game.