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I was in Lawrence, Kan., as the Ducks went down. Took in a Jayhawks hoops game -- the Rock Chalks roughed up Division II Washburn, 92-60 -- while in town to fill the notebook for the Apocalypse on the Plains: KU vs. Missouri at Arrowhead Stadium the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Lost most years amid accounts of other, better known rivalry games, this year's Border Showdown will pit the No. 2 Jayhawks against the No. 4 Tigers.

Meanwhile, that hissing sound you hear is the steam escaping from The Game, which kicks off at noon Saturday in Ann Arbor.

Just don't tell Bo Biafra (not his real name) that Ohio State-Michigan has hemorrhaged much of its national significance. Biafra is the front man for The Bastard Sons of Woody Hayes. The self-described "Best damn punk band in the land" performed for years as the Dead Schembechlers, but changed their name following the death of Bo a year ago. (The passing of the legend was not enough to prevent the band from performing at a Hate Michigan rally later that night, a show I attended, thoroughly enjoyed, and chronicle in Saturday Rules, my book on college football, right down to descriptions of my favorite songs, Bomb Ann Arbor Now; Wide Left: the Ballad of Mike Lantry, Michigan Stadium Is A Pile of S---, and Biafra's eloquent distillation of the beauty of college football: "Who ever thought we would all love to hate so much?")

If Biafra's name is popping up in sports sections, it must be Michigan-Ohio State week. "Illinois is meaningless," he recently told the Detroit News. "The only important thing is to bomb Michigan back to the Stone Age, which for you Neanderthals up there is only about 10 years."

On the possibility of Lloyd Carr retiring after this season: "Lloyd Carr retiring? Is that what they call it up there when someone gets fired? How quaint. We don't care who they send against us. We will use their bones for toothpicks and belch forth the Wolverine flesh we dine upon."

It's all most entertaining. But honestly, I think the bile runs deeper beneath the Kansas-Mizzou set-to, a rivalry with roots reaching back to an actual guerrilla war. This week, Mizzou students have been sporting T-shirts depicting the depredations of William Quantrill, who once led a band of pro-slavery irregulars on a raid of Lawrence, killing an estimated 150 citizens. The shirt, which I haven't seen, is said to depict that murderous raid, along with the word, "Scoreboard."

Wow. Kind of makes that old Jayhawk staple, "Muck Fizzou," seem tasteful by comparison.

A few years ago, officials at both Kansas and Mizzou decided to rename the rivalry known for decades as The Border War. "Showdown my ass," growls ex-Jayhawks football coach Don Fambrough, still vigorous and profane at 85. Coach Fam speaks for many Kansas fans when he continues, "It's a goddam war. And they started it!"

They started it! What is this, pre-school? Emotions are running high before the most significant Border Showdown/War ever. As Daily Kansan sports editor Travis Robinett told me, "I wouldn't be surprised if there are multiple arrests in the parking lot before the game."

Who would have thought we would all love to hate so much?

For a copy of Austin Murphy's latest book, Saturday Rules, go here.