A city prosecutor in Columbia, Mo., has wisely put an end to one of the silliest chapters of recent times in the Kansas-Missouri athletic rivalry.

The attorney has decided not to pursue a trespassing charge against a former Kansas University student arrested after a dispute with the University of Missouri police chief during a basketball game last season. The chief, Jack Watring, overreacted and was out of line from the outset. The prosecutor is smart to get it off the docket before the chief, the city and the university suffer any more embarrassment.

Andrew Wymore from KU was ejected from the Missouri arena before a March 6 game when he and three fellow students displayed a 6-foot-long banner. The banner poked fun at a controversy over the renaming of MU’s new arena. The arena had been named Paige Arena after the daughter of a $25 million donor. However, it was renamed after evidence was found that Paige Laurie, who never attended MU, had paid a roommate to complete her course work at the University of Southern California.

What did the banner carried by KU students say?

“Call it what you want, it’ll always be Allen Fieldhouse East.” KU’s arena was worked into the jibe that obviously rankled the police chief. Although the students said an usher had given them permission to display the banner, the chief tried to confiscate it, and there was conflict. Wymore was ejected then bought another ticket to the game and tried to re-enter. Chief Watring arrested him on a trespassing charge and the matter has been flailed around ever since, until the city prosecutor put MU, Columbia and its people out of their misery.

Every time this case seeps back into the news, the police chief looks increasingly foolish. Had the banner been gross or off-color, it would have been a different story. And how many times has the chief turned his head and closed his ears while the notorious Antlers cheering section at Missouri tosses one chunk of bad taste and insult on top of another?

The end of this case surely is pleasing to Wymore, who now is a law student at UCLA, but it also should be a relief to Missouri officials and fans.