Kansas will be playing TCU in primetime on FOX this Saturday. The Jayhawks are 37.5 point underdogs. The nation doesn’t need to see #4 TCU do whatever they’re going to do to Kansas, but we’re going to see it anyway.
Our Sean Keeley pointed out just how unfortunate this scheduling choice is:
In spite of their putrid performance in recent weeks, Kansas will play the No. 4 TCU Horned Frogs on Saturday in what will be the Jayhawks’ first prime-time, nationally-televised game since Nov. 21, 2009. It’s also going to be their first national appearance on FOX since they played in the 2008 Orange Bowl, which feels like a millennium ago. Oh, and did we mention Kansas is a 37.5-point underdog on Saturday, the widest spread of any college football game between two FBS schools this weekend?
And after FOX pointed to the recent history of close games in this particular series:
Technically, he’s right. Despite the fact that TCU has been generally very good and Kansas has been generally very bad since the two became conference-mates in 2012, the budding “rivalry” has produced a lot of reasonably-tight football games. TCU has won all five contests but the widest margin of victory was just 14 points (2012). Last year’s contest was a 24-23 squeaker and TCU hasn’t won by more than six points since 2013.
Couple that with the results of last weekend, when multiple top-ten teams faltered against underdog opponents, and it looks like FOX is willing to gamble that lightning will strike for them as well.
However! There’s one group of people who very much don’t expect lightning to strike: Kansas football fans.
When thew news broke on Twitter, the responses were, well, see for yourself:
— Jon Schlitt (@jschlitt) October 18, 2017
— PayHeed (@Bwarephog) October 18, 2017
https://twitter.com/kbreer/status/919983390039986179
Really? We have to get embarrassed in prime time on network TV?
— Foster D. Coburn III 🌻 (@fostercoburn) October 15, 2017
https://twitter.com/krisilou/status/920048563022733312
Great, prime time spot to show the whole country what a joke we are
— Brian Jimenez (@comegetserved) October 15, 2017
There are more, too.
Sean’s piece dove into the details of how and why this game ended up here for FOX, and it’s certainly worth reading for that. And it’s not Kansas’s fault they’re going to go out and serve as a likely sacrificial lamb while TCU attempts to impress the college football playoff committee.
However, having read all of these rational, realistic fan perspectives, I really want Kansas to win now.
(They won’t.)
[KC Star]
