Big 12 Tournament 2012 Schedule: Missouri and Kansas Slated for Border War Final

Missouri and Kansas won't set foot on the court at the Sprint Center in Kansas City until Thursday afternoon, but you can bet they're already looking ahead to Saturday's 5 p.m. EST finale.

If all goes according to plan, the Tigers and the Jayhawks will meet for the 266th—and perhaps final—time with the Big 12 Tournament title on the line.

Because after this season, their Border War rivalry and the nearly 105 years of history that it encompasses will go by the wayside, the unfortunate sacrifice of Mizzou's decision to bolt the Big 12 for "greener" pastures in the SEC.

The Jayhawks claimed their eighth consecutive regular season conference title of the Bill Self Era, thanks in large part to a thrilling 87-86 overtime victory against the Tigers at Phog Allen Fieldhouse in late February. Thomas Robinson and company battled back from a 19-point deficit in the second half to upend then third-ranked Mizzou, turning a gritty performance and a slew of questionable calls into a positive result for the home crowd.

On the whole, though, the turnabout was fair play in light of Mizzou's thrilling 74-71 win over KU in Columbia earlier in the season, when Marcus Denmon rallied the Tigers back from an eight-point deficit with 3:24 left to play.

It would only be fitting then that after a season series that seemed to settle very little (if anything) between these two blood rivals, they'd turn the finale of the Big 12 Tournament into a rubber match for the ages.

At the de facto midway point between Lawrence and Columbia, no less.

Of course, both teams will have plenty of work to do between now and Saturday. After all, it's not as though Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas State and Texas are simply going to lay down and allow the favorites to waltz their way into the last game of the week.

That being said, the college basketball world at large will be pulling for chalk in Kansas City, and not just the kind that the Jayhawks rock with.

What better way to draw the curtains on one of the sport's fiercest rivalries than with one final game for the Big 12 Championship and the likely No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament that comes with it?

Follow @J0shMart1n