Oklahoma, Wisconsin will make their points Saturday

Kansas and Indiana never had a chance Saturday. They lost when the schedules were released. Both were helpless and hopeless against superior opponents that, unfortunately, had to run up the score to improve their national title aspirations.

Wait a minute…Kansas and Indiana haven’t even kicked off yet.

Picky, picky…it’s only a formality.

It’s not very often you see lopsidedness so far in advance as Oklahoma at Kansas and Indiana at Wisconsin.

It’s not that the impossible can’t happen. In 1998, Temple shocked Virginia Tech, 28-24, in Blacksburg. It was Douglas beating Tyson. Temple was 0-26 in Big East road games entering that contest.

Want-to-believers can also turn to Stanford over USC in 2007, which was as shocking as the look on Pete Carroll’s face. Stanford was a 40-plus underdog that night at the Coliseum.

Still, we will comfortably proclaim in advance that Kansas overcoming Oklahoma in Lawrence would rank among the biggest upsets of our times, only to be outdone if Indiana somehow won at Wisconsin.

What if Kansas and Indiana win? In that case, call off the season.

We’ve pored over the pregame paperwork and can’t find a sliver of a prayer.

Las Vegas handicappers almost appear like softies in making Wisconsin “only” a 41-point favorite in Madison and Kansas “only” a 36-point home underdog to Oklahoma.

For starters, Wisconsin slipped past Indiana last year, 83-20. This year’s Wisconsin team, with the addition of transfer quarterback Russell Wilson, appears even better.

Russell was at North Carolina State when Wisconsin ransacked the Hoosiers. He noticed the final on the crawl of a college football scoreboard.

“I was aware of the score,” Wilson said this week. “I saw it on the bottom rollout and I pay attention to college football. But it’s a new year and a new opportunity for us and them.”

Well, yes, technically. But Indiana is 1-5 this year with its lone win over sub-division South Carolina State.

This is a traffic-accident matchup. Wisconsin averages 48 points and allows about 10 while Indiana averages only 23 and ranks No. 97 nationally in total defense.

First-year Indiana Coach Kevin Wilson is using last year’s score as motivation, but what can he really do about it?

“We’re going to embrace it,” he said of the challenge.

Oklahoma at Kansas has a similar shield-your-eyes element.

Kansas, in better times, stands 27-68-6 all-time against Oklahoma. Kansas is coming off a 70-28 loss to Oklahoma State in which the Jayhawks trailed 56-7 at the half.

“It hurts your pride seeing that kind of number,” junior Kansas cornerback Greg Brown said afterward.

Kansas ranks dead last in total defense (556 yards per game) and points allowed (49.4).

The only positive note Kansas’ stat department could find was that Jayhawks Coach Turner Gill, as a former Nebraska player and assistant, was 10-3 against Oklahoma.

Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops, looking for something to say, offered, “When you look at them at home, they are much better.” (Kansas has home wins over McNeese State and Northern Illinois).

Oklahoma is coming off a crushing 55-17 win over Texas in which the Sooners’ defense scored three touchdowns.

Sooners defensive end R.J. Washington said of playing Kansas, “It’s a great opportunity to get some tackles for losses and to be physical.”

There’s another element here, though, that could add to the ugliness.

Wisconsin and Oklahoma are locked in a national title race in a sport where final scores count as part of the evaluation process. The first BCS standings will be released Sunday.

The system encourages punishing opponents and, rest assured, Wisconsin’s Bret Bielema and Oklahoma’s Stoops have never shied away from the notion.

Wisconsin was criticized last year when, already leading Indiana 69-13, backup Jon Budmayr heaved a 74-yard touchdown bomb to Jared Abbrederis.

The Badgers could justify it by saying they were in a BCS race.

Last week, Stoops left starters in against Texas long after the game was decided. Starting quarterback Landry Jones played into the fourth quarter, throwing seven straight passes at one point.

Maybe it was because it was Texas, or maybe it was because Stoops noticed his team had dropped from No. 1 to No. 3 in the AP poll.

Or maybe it was both.

It would be nice to think Indiana and Kansas stood any sort of chance against this black-and-blue backdrop, but playing nice has nothing to do with it.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com

Twitter.com/dufresnelatimes