Thanks to the forces of March Madness, the 22-year armistice between the Kansas and Wichita State men’s basketball teams — a relationship still characterized as a rivalry — is coming to an end.

A table full of Kansas fans cheer following a three-pointer from KU guard Brannen Greene during the Jayhawks' win over New Mexico State on Friday at Johnny's Tavern in North Lawrence.

Wichita State fan Debra Brodbeck, of Girard, talks about her wish for the Shockers to play the Jayhawks in the NCAA Tournament's Round of 32, while eating with her husband, Leonard Brodbeck, also a Shockers fan, on Friday.

Their arenas are separated by 164 miles, but the two will face off in Omaha, Neb., on Sunday, in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 32 for the first time since before many of the players were even born.

Although the public has largely put the onus on KU to arrange a regular season meeting between the two teams, Jayhawk followers, like Shocker fans, had been hopeful they would cross paths ever since the tournament’s bracket was revealed.

“I’m looking forward to it, but I know they’re looking forward to it more than we are,” said Bob Thurber, a 64-year-old Jayhawk fan, as he watched KU win its tournament opener Friday, before WSU had even tipped off.

Tom Hoffman, a 60-year-old Wichita resident who’s been following the Shockers since he was a boy, said Shocker fans are really fired up for the opportunity to play KU but that the match-up brings mixed emotions.

“I think it will be by far the toughest game we’re going to play, so you can’t help but be nervous,” he said. “You’re excited, but you’re nervous, too.”

When it comes to scheduling a regular season game, KU has long been seen as the disinterested party of the two, with head coach Bill Self telling the Kansas City Star in 2013 that “if it was best for our program, I would reach out to them about scheduling them.”

The two teams first met in 1908 and have played a total of just 14 times (KU has won 12 of them). The current 22-year drought is only the third-longest cease-fire between them.

For Shocker fans hoping for a regular season meeting between the two teams, the success of the WSU program the past few years along with the upcoming game brings optimism, Hoffman said.

“We just want to do our best, and hopefully it will lead to something more,” he said. “Who knows when somebody will start having a change of heart.”

Nearly a dozen other Jayhawk fans at the same tavern as Thurber were polled, and almost all of them expressed reservations about meeting the Shockers in the regular season, where a victory over a smaller program like WSU would not influence KU’s national ranking — or its appeal to blue-chip recruits — as much as a loss.

“(KU is) afraid of them,” said Debra Brodbeck, a 61-year-old Wichita State alum who also calls herself a Jayhawk fan.

“Wichita has nothing to lose and everything to gain,” said Randy Ortiz, a 59-year-old KU fan. He said Wichita State will have to join the Big 12 or another one of the Power Five conferences for things to change.

In 2013, state senator Michael O’Donnell, R-Wichita, proposed legislation that would force KU and Kansas State to play Wichita. The bill went nowhere, but O’Donnell believes that a WSU win on Sunday could increase the odds of a future regular season match-up.

“I think the drumbeat would grow louder and louder that there should be a game, that we’d be a worthy opponent,” he said.

That scenario isn’t unheard of. Wichita State defeated Kansas 66-65 in the 1981 NCAA Tournament, their first meeting in 33 years. And three years after that game, they began a string of regular season contests that lasted until 1993.

But Jim Marchiony, an associate athletic director at KU, couldn’t see a scenario where KU would be persuaded otherwise.

“No, KU will continue to construct its schedule to suit KU’s interests,” he said.

Despite all of that, fans for both teams are happy Sunday’s game is happening, with many of them saying they like both teams anyway and it will be good for basketball.

Marion Taylor, a 94-year-old resident of Wichita, said she is a diehard fan of both teams and that she “just cannot choose between the two.”

Hoffman said that for the Shockers, he sees the game as a double-edged sword.

“You want to win, but if you don’t win you at least want to put up a good, competitive fight just to show you belong,” he said. “The worst-case scenario is you go in and you get embarrassed and everybody says you don’t belong.”

Four of six Kansas fans — after leaning back in their chairs and thinking about it for several seconds — said they would still root for Wichita State even if the Shockers ended the Jayhawks’ season Sunday.

“We like to see the family do well,” said Monica Thurber, 53.

More coverage of Kansas-Wichita State from KUsports.com

• Rock/shock: KU, WSU to meet at long last

• KU-WSU notebook: Conner the spy?

• Column: Two Jayhawks Shocker-like