Former Kansas University guard Ryan Robertson lets out a yell after the Jayhawks defeated Missouri, 73-61, in this file photo from 1999 in Robertson's final trip to Columbia, Mo., as a Jayhawk.

Let me start by saying I’m a “Big Eight Guy.”

I was born in Oklahoma and cheered for the Billy Tubbs’ Sooners. I went to OSU football games and watched Barry Sanders live. My parents met at K-State, where my dad played football. I went to high school and live in Missouri. And, obviously, I played basketball at Kansas.

I love the Big Eight. I miss the Big Eight. Things were simpler, and rivalries were easy to figure out. I have to be honest; I am not even sure who is in the new Big 12. West Virginia?? I hate conference realignment and the destruction of century-old rivalries.

People ask me all the time living in Missouri what I think about Missouri leaving the Big 12 and also want to know what I think about the KU-MU rivalry ending.  

My answer is always the same.  

I am sad. I am sad for the same reason that I watched my beloved St. Louis Cardinals lose Albert Pujols to the Anaheim Angels. I am not mad at Albert for leaving. I am just sad that he doesn’t get to sit at the same table with Stan Musial and Bob Gibson as Cardinal legends any more.  

That is how I feel about Mizzou leaving the Big 12 and ending the KU-MU rivaly. I actually don’t blame Missouri for leaving the conference. In fact, I wonder if KU was asked to leave for the SEC what we might say or do?? Wouldn’t a game EVERY year at Rupp Arena vs. Kentucky be fun to watch?! But I digress. The Missouri-Kansas game is something that ALL players from both teams each year circle on the schedule and look forward to playing.  

In my four years at KU, we had a record of 124-24, won three conference titles, three conference tournament titles and were ranked No. 1 in the country for weeks at a time. Missouri, on the other hand, was inferior. No conference titles, no tournament wins, and barely even sniffed the top 25. Yet in my career, KU’s record vs. Missouri was 5-4. A rivalry. Yes, it is cliché, but KU-MU is the definition of a rivalry, and when we played each other records truly didn’t matter.  

Maybe my time now living in Missouri is getting to me or maybe I am just older and more mature, but I miss Norm Stewart. I realize he and my family had “our moments,” but if I saw him at dinner or at a bar I would like to buy him a beer. I think after all the battles we had vs. his teams what is left in my mind is respect. Quin Snyder was a disaster. Mike Anderson was boring, and dare I say Frank Haith is … nice.  

I hear coach Haith on the radio once a week in St. Louis, and he sounds sincere and like someone I would like to play for. My guess is that he will be at Missouri for a long time. A rivarly needs a villain, though, and for KU fans coach Stewart filled that role perfectly. He didn’t shake my hand for 31?2 years when we played against them. It wasn’t until my senior year before he extended his hand to me and said “good game.” I think Bill Self is the best coach in America, and KU is lucky to have him. Wouldn’t it be fun to see a Bill Self-coached team play a Norm Stewart-coached team one more time?? I get chills thinking about the crowd screaming “Sit Down Norm!”

Kansas’ record vs Missouri in basketball all-time is 171-94. We have dominated our biggest rivals and in the process won 54 conference championships and five national championships. I hope in the two games we play Missouri this year we beat the heck out of them and move closer to winning our eighth consecutive conference title. But I will miss Mizzou. I will miss the rivalry. I miss the Big Eight.

— Ryan Robertson is a former KU guard from St. Charles, Mo. (1996-99) who now works as sales director for Goldman-Sachs in St. Louis