Don't Bet On It!: National Game of Disinterest
by T Kyle King on Nov 21, 2008 12:15 PM EST
in Football
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PrintI’ve given you my predictions for the games of consequence, both in the S.E.C. and around the country, so it is time for me to post the final installment of this week’s "Don’t Bet On It!" selections; namely, the national game of disinterest.
For the uninitiated, the national game of disinterest is the least intriguing college football contest of any given weekend. This is the one game that I would least like to watch and am least likely to pick, because forecasting the outcome would imply that I cared enough to look up the final score afterwards.
This week, the choice of the national game of disinterest is obvious:
I freely admit that I am ambivalent about Big Ten football on a good day, but surely no one intends to pay attention to this one, much less sit out in what is bound to be weather fit for neither man nor beast in order to see it.
This is pretty straightforward, actually. Ohio State has owned Michigan lately. That period of Buckeye dominance has come during a period in which the Wolverines ordinarily have been good.
"Good" is not a word you would use to describe the Maize and Blue this year.
To put this game into context, try imagining a Georgia-Florida game from the height of the Steve Spurrier era in Gainesville. Now imagine that, instead of playing an average or above-average Bulldog squad, the Gators are playing the worst Red and Black club ever, the 3-8 team of 1953.
Think about the beatdown that would result . . . only don’t think about it for too long, or else you’ll go into catatonic shock, curl up in the fetal position on the floor, and begin babbling incoherently until someone comes to sedate you.
It’s going to be a bad game featuring bad football in bad weather. In other words, it’s going to be bad.
I’m not picking it because I prefer to concentrate on all that is good. You can stick around if you want to, but, with apologies to Bo Schembechler, those who stay will be cold and bored. Can you chant "D-U-L-L"?
Go ‘Dawgs!
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Agreed skigator93
And the Apple Cup doesn’t make it here how?? Both are going to be bad games, but HBO didn’t do a special about Washington/Washington State rivarly. It seems to me that one is lower on the radar of interest than Ohio State/Michigan. People will still watch that.
http://hobnailboot.blogspot.com/
Fair point, skigator93 and AuditDawg
I thought about going with the Apple Cup, but I didn’t, for these reasons:
1. There is a train wreck quality to the Washington-Washington State game that isn’t there for the Michigan-Ohio State game. Two trains colliding is intriguing, because you want to see which train wins; a train running into a brick wall is dull because you know already what is going to happen. Equivalent levels of awfulness offset, but beatdowns are boring if you’re not emotionally invested in them.
2. The Huskies and the Cougars are fairly evenly matched. That’s because they’re both terrible, but it should produce a competitive game. Competitive games are entertaining games, even if they’re only competitive because both teams are playing poorly. Neither Georgia nor Auburn played particularly well against the other, but that produced an exciting contest that went down to the wire. Two wrongs don’t make a right, but, sometimes, two bad teams can produce a good game.
3. The HBO special and the generally solemn tones with which the traditional media speak of the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry is, in my view, a reason for picking the Wolverines and the Buckeyes over the Huskies and the Cougars for the national game of disinterest. At least this year, Michigan-Ohio State is terribly overrated; Washington-Washington State has always been a much better rivalry than most football fans on the East Coast appreciate.
That said, your selection is a good one with which I cannot conscientiously quarrel; speaking solely for myself, though, I will be following the score updates from Pullman a great deal more closely than those from Columbus.
Go 'Dawgs!
As someone who lives in Western New York, only a few hours from Columbus...
I can tell you that today’s forecast is not what this transplanted southerner would call “game day weather.”
Garnet and Black Attack: A Blog by and for Gamecocks Fans. http://www.garnetandblackattack.com
Looks like you were right
Apple Cup ended up going overtime and Ohio State/Michigan was well, bleh.
http://hobnailboot.blogspot.com/
Actually, "bleh" is a bit generous
It was the biggest beatdown of Michigan by Ohio State in 40 years (since Woody Hayes went for two while up 50-14 and, when asked why he went for two, explained, “Because they wouldn’t let me go for three”), gave the Buckeyes their longest winning streak over the Wolverines ever, and caused the Maize and Blue to lose to Michigan State, Notre Dame, and Ohio State in the same season for just the second time ever.
Go 'Dawgs!
Apple Cup
It was so insignificant that I didn’t even know it went to overtime until I read Audit’s post above! I still don’t even know who won the game and don’t care! Now THAT’t a game of disinterest~
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