Missouri and Kansas to play basketball scrimmage for hurricane relief

The ice, it might be thawing, and for a very worthy cause — hurricane relief.

COLUMBIA, Mo. - In unity, the University of Missouri and the University of Kansas men's basketball programs will square off in a charity exhibition game Sunday, Oct. 22, at 3 p.m. at Kansas City's Sprint Center. The purpose of the charity event – Showdown for Relief – is to raise awareness and financial support for hurricane relief efforts.

MU, KU and the Sprint Center, working in concert with the Kansas City Sports Commission, have collectively agreed that proceeds from the game will be donated to organizations assisting victims of the natural disasters that have occurred recently in the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Money raised from the game will be contributed to the organizations that the five living former U.S. Presidents have come together to support: the Houston Harvey Relief Fund, the Rebuild Texas Fund, the Florida Disaster Fund, Juntos y Unidos Por Puerto Rico and the Fund for the U.S. Virgin Islands.

MU and KU together sought and received a waiver from the NCAA to play the extra exhibition game. [...]

The two schools will split the approximately 18,000 seats in the Sprint Center; each athletics department will distribute its allotment. The game will not be televised or streamed, but each school's radio network will broadcast it. The goal is to sell out the Sprint Center, which could yield approximately $1 million to distribute among the five charitable organizations.

Carrington Harrison of Kansas City’s 610 am first reported the news on Thursday, and the schools confirmed it on Friday afternoon.

Aside from tournament settings in Olympic sports, Missouri and Kansas haven’t agreed to play each other since Missouri left the Big 12 for the SEC in 2012. The last two basketball games in 2012 were classics — first, the Marcus Denmon game in Columbia (a 74-71 Mizzou win), and then the (ahem) Thomas-Robinson-throws-Phil-Pressey-into-the-eighth-row game in Lawrence (an 87-86 OT win for Kansas).

We’ll see if this results in a period of detente between Mizzou and Kansas. Regardless, it could be a great event for a great cause.

Jarrett Sutton, member of the 2012 team, do you have thoughts on this?

Also: never change, Bill Self.

“Not that big from a fan standpoint.” Sure, sure.