National Game of Disinterest (Week 5)

If you took a look at RedCrake's always excellent TV schedule, you know just how bleak it is this weekend. It was a struggle, but we identified an SEC Game of Interest and a National Game of Interest.  But he toughest pick this week is determining what should be our National Game of Disinterest amid so many bad games. We settled on Texas at Kansas.

How did we determine that this game was particularly disinteresting? Well, to keep from picking on small schools and cupcake games, we restricted the list to games airing on national TV. This is one is airing on Fox Sports 1 at 4 p.m. ET, so it passes that test. To add an extra level of difficulty, we decided to restrict it to intra-conference games because inter-conference games can (arguably) provide some information about the relative strength of the two conferences. Finally, we tried to figure out which game would be the most boring and/or painful to watch. That part was easy.

If you want to quantify exactly how easy it was, spend a little time staring at Texas's and Kansas's offensive and defensive statistics. The Longhorns and Jayhawks rank 107th and 110th nationally in scoring offense, respectively. That number may already seem terrible (and it is), but keep in mind that these numbers were accumulated before either team started conference play. The only ranked team that either of them played was UCLA, which we believe is the most overrated team in the country, and Texas lost it.  Similarly, Kansas lost the only game that it has played against FBS competition (a 41-3 drubbing at Duke).

The defensive statistics are slightly better. The 'Horns and 'Hawks rank 52nd and 83rd, respectively. But again, it's important to note that these numbers were compiled against teams like North Texas, Southeast Missouri State, and Central Michigan.

The only bright spot for either Texas or Kansas is that the Lone Star Longhorns have a statistically respectable pass defense, ranking 9th and 13th nationally in passing yards allowed per game and passing yards allowed per attempt. Then again, they gave up more than 200 yards on the ground to each of BYU and UCLA, so it's not like anyone really needs to try to pass against them.

Just in case you're too busy to look up that statistical information we mentioned above, here it is in a convenient tabular form. If you can find anything in there that makes you think that this game won't be the worst thing on TV Saturday afternoon, please let us know in the comments.

Go Dawgs!