For the first time since the 1800's, I suppose.
It's now official: The Border War game will be a primetime, national affair.Kansas University officially learned that KU's football game Saturday against No. 6 Missouri will kick off at 7 p.m. and be televised by ABC.
It's a full national telecast, too, meaning that 100 percent of ABC affiliates across the country will air the game.
I doubt anyone saw that coming before the season, huh? Throw in Oklahoma's upset loss to Texas Tech and the cherry on top for both of these teams is a visit from ESPN College GameDay.
The stakes are obviously quite high. The winner will ascend to the Big 12 Championship Game and a shot at a BCS bowl appearance if they beat the champion of the Big 12 South (likely Oklahoma or Texas). It could be extra special for Kansas which has a fairly good shot at playing in the BCS National Championship Game if it can win twice more.
Personally, I'm thrilled. This could play out a lot like a regular season BCS Bowl game. It's good for the game and good for these oft-struggling teams having among the best seasons in school history. It could also be a Heisman Trophy showcase game for both quarterbacks: Missouri's Chase Daniel and Kansas' Todd Reesing.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. Gee, think we need an 8 team playoff in college football? Great to see teams we wouldn't normally expect in this big of a game but how did Kansas fare against Texas or Oklahoma? Right, didn't play them so we will never know. Way too many flaws in NCAA football, understand why people watch NFL instead.
Posted at 9:00PM on Nov 18th 2007 by KGar
2. Go watch the NFL then. Frankly I find the NFL unwatchable. It's 30 teams all running the same stuff on both sides of the ball, with almost no playmaking and the storyline dictated not by events on the field but events off it (Pacman Jones, Spygate, etc. etc. etc.) It's US Weekly for men and neatly packaged into three hour time blocks so as to be entirely sterile and set-your-watch-to-it mundane. No thanks.
The flaws within college football make it great and compelling. With a playoff this game Saturday means absolutely nothing. It doesn't get the ABC national broadcast and instead some other big name teams with less at stake get it.
Playoffs don't even prove anything in a one-game football setting. You don't necessarily get the best team winning that specific game, only the luckiest or hottest team that day.
At least with college football a team's yearlong performance matters and determines its fate. A playoff of one-game battles rewards the lucky, injury-free and hottest teams.
With college football we can at least fix some of what's wrong and educate voters on ways to better judge teams, steer teams towards better non-conference schedules etc. A playoff is what it is and you can't make it better, at least in the college game. One and done's don't really say a lot about anything which is why the NCAA Basketball tournament is so flukey and a poor determinant of that season's best team.
And as for Kansas, their OOC is a joke but they've got two games right here against a good Missouri team that is unlike anything they've faced so far scheme-wise, and against whoever wins the Big 12 South before we get a final say on them. If they're a fluke it will probably be proven these next one to two games, right?
Posted at 9:11PM on Nov 18th 2007 by Brian
3. why is missouri 4 and not 3 we have a better record than west virginia this is dumb!
Posted at 10:33PM on Nov 18th 2007 by bob
4. KNASAS'S NON-CON IS A JOKE. BLA-BLA-BLA-BLA. I IMAGINE MOST OF THE BIG BOY'S NON-CON ARE WEAK SAVE A FEW GAMES. IT'S THE FIRST TIME THEY HAVE GONE 11-0 SINCE FOREVER. AGAIN I IMAGINE 90 PERCENT OF THE D-ONE SCHOOLS HAVE NEVER GONE UNDEAFEATED. KANSAS DEFEATED K-STATE WHICH HAD JUST PUNKED TEXAS THE WEEK BEFORE IN THIER OWN PLACE NO LESS!!! YEA, YEA I KNOW YOU CAN'T JUDGE A TEAM THAT WAY. I GUESS WE'LL FIND OUT THIS WEEK!!! AS I FRIEND OF MINE SAYS " DON'T HATE US 'CAUSE YOU AIN'T US!"
Posted at 10:44PM on Nov 18th 2007 by dick shepard
5. Expect a hight scoring affair.
Missouri - 45
Kansas - 32
Posted at 10:45PM on Nov 18th 2007 by aaorn W
6. BCS don't want Missouri playin in any reindeer games. They can beat number 2 Kansas and the big 12 south winner ( OU or Texas ) and they still won't get a national championship bid. And that sucks.
West Virginia sneaks into the 3 spot when nobody is looking...
Posted at 11:30PM on Nov 18th 2007 by jimbo
7. BCS don't like Missouri!
Posted at 11:30PM on Nov 18th 2007 by jimbo
8. "The flaws within college football make it great and compelling. With a playoff this game Saturday means absolutely nothing. It doesn't get the ABC national broadcast and instead some other big name teams with less at stake get it." Nov 18th 2007 by Brian.
Here we go....I seem to remember in the last three weeks the NFL grabbing 1/4 of TV Households for two games....UMM...Does the NFL have a Playoff? Why yes, by golly they do. Eeeddiiaatt!!! People love great games and matchups, whenever it's played. You guys are a bunch of fools who have the mentality that has caused Baseball to get passed by the NFL and is keeping College football on par with if not behind College Basketball.
The day College Football adopts a Playoff? They will be one two with the NFL in popularity. Never mind the money.
Posted at 11:43PM on Nov 18th 2007 by Pigskin28
9. Good thing about football, the game is played on the field. A week non-conference schedule means very little just ask Florida, the 2006 national champions. Teams are much different in the early going so it is impossible to decipher how good they are at this juncture in the season. KU's defense is stingier than OUs and this will present momentous problems for Missouri.
Posted at 11:52PM on Nov 18th 2007 by nikestud
10. The NFL's always had a playoff but hasn't always had that kind of TV pull. There is no connection between having a playoff and drawing huge Sunday ratings otherwise the NFL would have had that kind of popularity long ago. Something else is at work.
The recent bump in NFL popularity has more to do with fantasy football and the soap opera storyline to the game now, don't fool yourself. It's also a centralized league that shrewdly looks at ways to make a buck whereas college football is decentralized and for all its flaws is still more about the actual game on the field and the fans and traditions outside of it. College football has a soul, the NFL doesn't.
College football adding a playoff would make it more of an NFL copycat league and a bad copycat at that, actually marginalizing it instead of helping it. Think about it, part of the immense appeal to college football is that it stands unique among the American sports landscape with the bowls and meaningful regular season. Many of its fans are drawn to that and a playoff would lose them without adding any new fans.
The NFL isn't a "good game". Its almost unwatchable. What people are tuning in for is simple entertainment on the last day of the weekend and to get their fill of silly storylines and keep tabs on their fantasy teams.
As far as keeping up with college basketball? Please. College football is so far out ahead of college basketball in popularity it's not even funny. People actually pay attention to college football's regular season. College basketball is a three week event for the vast majority of the public. It will never pass college football. Besides, like the NFL it's another poor game, just 90% anonymous guys on upwards of 300 teams jacking threes all day (although they got smart in finally moving the 3 line back).
Like the NFL the saving grace is for the short attention span set the college basketball game is a sterile, neatly packaged with a bow two hour 30 minute event and NFL games about three hours. They're games for the lazy sports fan (in general).
Posted at 11:55PM on Nov 18th 2007 by Brian
11. I guess you are God therefor you know the minds of millions of Americans.
If people are merely looking at Entertainment, why is MNF suffering so much while trying to shove entertainment down our throats?
Why has College Football viewership rose along with the NFL's rise.
Dude get over yourself....you are drunk on school pride, thats the only reason you are spouting this garbage. College football relies on the passion of fans for their Alma Maters. Not necessarily a great product on the field. Just go ask ND and NBC .
Posted at 12:12AM on Nov 19th 2007 by Pigskin28
12. Give this some thought:
Team: Opponents won-loss record:
LSU--------60-45
KANSAS-----42-66
West Va.---50-52
Missouri---58-60
OREGON-----54-38
I believe the injury on Oregon's quarterback cost them the National Championship. LSU stil has to get by Arkansas and the SEC Championship game. A tough road.
Posted at 12:20AM on Nov 19th 2007 by Melville Tiger
13. Kansas versus Missouri in prime time football? Let me guess a Japanese woman is Miss Universe and the Miami Dolphins are winless this year.
Posted at 12:34AM on Nov 19th 2007 by George B Vieto
14. No one is talking much about Boise State 10-1 or Hawaii at 10-0. How do you think they might do against someone like Ohio State? Does anyone doubt that either one would put up more than 3 points against the Buckeyes like Michigan did? Gezzz..they would both score at least 35....and probably win. And how about LSU? They really should be 9-2 except for a miracle against Auburn...and yet they are a consensus Number One? They barely beat Ole Miss who is 3-8....and yet moved higher in the rankings. East Coast bias get higher rankings. Wonder what happened to Boston College and Southern Florida who were both insanely ranked as number two ealier this year. No one thought they were the second best team...but they got the votes. Where are those votes coming from? Has anyone ever done an analysis of the voting process??
Posted at 12:50AM on Nov 19th 2007 by Dee
15. Buckeyes went to the west coast and whipped on Washington handily. I think that Boise State is a nice team, just not top 15. Ohio State is getting screwed by the polls. West Virginia is over-rated and so is the Big EAST. LSU is over-rated too. I hope Ohio State could play them. Ohio State got beat by a good Illinois team that has been on a roll. I think that the Big 10 is equal to if not better than any conference out there.
Posted at 5:17AM on Nov 19th 2007 by mrcafeman
16. It all depends on which defense shows up.
Both teams score at will with a pro attack.
Getting tired of east and west coast teams getting all the attention.
Missouri by 7
Posted at 10:24AM on Nov 19th 2007 by E Schnitzler
17. Mark my words....Mizzou will beat Kansas,in a great game, then loses to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship.
Kentucky will beat Tennessee leaving Georgia to play LSU in the SEC Championship. Georgia Beats LSU to move to the #2 spot,jumping over Ohio State, and plays West Virginia for the National title. The way this season has been it's more a probability than a possibility. Should all his happen we can say one thing about College Football.......parity. Go Dawgs!!
Posted at 4:23PM on Nov 19th 2007 by Patrick
18. Ohio,Kansas,Missouri,and Oklahoma. Four teams in the top ten who haven't beaten a quality team all year. Go figure. What's next....Hawaii in the title game?
Posted at 9:47PM on Nov 24th 2007 by Mike