R. Bowen Loftin hadn't been at Missouri long before he started working to get the Border War back.

Although his educational background was in engineering, the new Missouri chancellor recognized the value of college athletics and knew renewing the rivalry would mean a lot to his campus. He privately met with Kansas chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little about what it would take to get Missouri and Kansas playing each other in sports again. There was a lucrative offer on the table for the Border War to restart in Arrowhead Stadium.

Loftin figured it was a win-win for everyone involved. Yet more than three years since he arrived as Missouri's chancellor, the Border War is still on indefinite hiatus. He doesn't mince words for why it still hasn't happened.

"The problem was a man named Bill Self who made it very clear this wasn't going to happen," Loftin says.

Such is the opportunity cost of realignment.

Missouri and Texas A&M both lost their top rivals after making the move to the SEC five years ago this Saturday. All it took was one decision to end more than 100-year rivalries that were hugely important to their fanbases. The cause? Mostly bitterness with more than a touch of jealousy.

Missouri lost its Border War partner, Kansas, which it started playing against in 1894. Texas A&M lost its in-state rivalry with Texas which culminated each year with a football game Thanksgiving weekend. It's not that Missouri and Texas A&M didn't want to keep the rivalries going -- they did -- but their old Big 12 brethren had no interest in rewarding their perceived treachery.

Bill Byrne, Texas A&M's athletic director at the time, expected the rivalry to continue. He even told the SEC to keep the Thanksgiving weekend open when doing conference scheduling so the Aggies could maintain their rivalry with the Longhorns. More than five years later, Byrne looks back and admits that was a bad assumption.

"Their AD (DeLoss Dodds) at the time came out and said we will never play Texas A&M again, and they worked along with Baylor and the conference to have no one in the (Big 12) schedule us," Byrne says. "There were other forces at work to make sure we didn't play."

Life goes on, though, and new rivalries are established. Neither has built a rivalry on the level of the one it lost, but that's to be expected only five years into the move. Texas A&M now plays LSU on Thanksgiving weekend, and there's hope that could develop into a quality rivalry. The Aggies have already had a few memorable games against SEC West rivals Alabama, Ole Miss and Auburn, too. Missouri is in a tougher spot as it doesn't have many natural geographic rivals in the SEC, but it does border Arkansas and there's real potential in that rivalry.

"I think those rivalries will only continue to build the longer we are in," says Missouri athletic director Jim Sterk. "Our students now don't know any different. They are creating a whole new legacy of what they remember. It takes awhile, a couple generations to go."

Sterk has publicly stated he'd like to restart the Border War but it doesn't appear Kansas' opinion has changed. Texas and Texas A&M officials have both indicated some willingness to restart the rivalry but there haven't been any serious discussions about doing so. The most positive sign in the five years since A&M left is Texas AD Mike Perrin vaguely stating in February the rivalry will return "one of these days."

Byrne, who served as A&M's AD from 2003 to 2012, doesn't think there's much desire amongst the Aggies faithful to play Texas again. Texas' decision to end the rivalry was meant to be punitive, but the Texas A&M athletic department is as healthy ever -- even generating more revenue in 2016 than the school residing in Austin. Texas A&M, Byrne says, has already shown it can survive without its in-state rival.

"We don't need them anymore," he says.

Loftin, a former president of Texas A&M, agrees. He was recently back in College Station for his 45th-year class reunion and got the sense fans are relishing being out of Texas' long shadow. "We have been the weak sister too long," he says. "We were regarded as No. 2 for so long and being out of that has been a blessing for A&M."

There is a lot of money to be made for all involved should the rivalries ever resume. And money might be what it takes to get all parties to push aside their issues to get back on the field together again. That strategy hasn't worked yet but everyone, even wealthy schools like Texas and Texas A&M, has a breaking point, in theory at least. However, Texas A&M and Missouri are both making so much money in the SEC now that it could be past the point of return.

Loftin isn't particularly optimistic about either rivalry restarting. But after working to either maintain or restart them as a university leader at both Texas A&M and Missouri, he has perhaps the most qualified opinion on which one is more likely to happen.

"I think it's more likely Texas will bend than Kansas," he says,"as long as Self is involved. He has a big ego."

Editor's note: This is the second in a series of stories looking at the five-year anniversary of Texas A&M and Missouri joining the SEC. The first story looked at what realignment would look like should the SEC expand again.