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The oldest college football rivalry West of the Mississippi will be played at Arrowhead Stadium the next two years Kansas City Chiefs President Carl Peterson announced on Monday. The Chiefs, the Kansas City Sports Commission, the University of Missouri and the University of Kansas have entered into a two-year contract that brings the Tigers and Jayhawks to Kansas City for a Big 12 Conference football matchup. Both universities are guaranteed $1 million per year as part of the agreement. Arrowhead Stadium owns a reputation as a showplace for outstanding college football. As in past years involving non-Chiefs events at Arrowhead, Chiefs season-ticket holders will be given priority option to purchase tickets for both games.

“Nineteen years ago I had a sit-down conversation with our late Founder Lamar Hunt and he said, ‘Carl, besides all of the things that we want you to do with the Chiefs, I have had a strong desire ever since Arrowhead was built that it would host Division I-A college football games,’” Peterson said. “Then Lamar specifically said, ‘I think it would be fabulous if Arrowhead could host the oldest college football rivalry West of the Mississippi; The University of Missouri and The University of Kansas.’ Now, 19 years later, we are going to get this game in Arrowhead. This is indeed a very special day.”

Both Missouri and Kansas played at Arrowhead as recently as 2005 when the Tigers squared off against Arkansas State and the Jayhawks faced Oklahoma. The two universities have faced off in Kansas City 21 previous times with the Jayhawks holding a 12-6-3 advantage in those games. The series dates back to 1891. Kansas will be the host team in 2007 and Missouri is slated to entertain the Jayhawks in 2008.

In the past nine years, Arrowhead Stadium has hosted 15 college football games, with two more games on tap for 2007. Big 12 Conference teams such as Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Colorado, Nebraska and Oklahoma have already visited. Other NCAA Division I-A teams who have visited Arrowhead include the University of Iowa, Florida State University, the University of California - Berkeley.