Kansas Jayhawks Football a 29-point Favorite over Rhode Island|Kansas Hot Topics|Team BattleGround|College BattleGround

Earlier this week, Jon Kirby over at JayhawkSlant picked up on a line put out by sportbet.com installing Kansas as a 29-point favorite over Rhode Island in their season-opener on September 3.

Maybe you think four touchdowns is too high. Maybe you’ll think differently by the time you’ve read this. We’ll get into Rhode Island more next week, but here are a few things to consider.

CBSSports.com recently ranked Bryant College as the best college football team in the state of Rhode Island. For your consideration, Bryant went 5-6 in 2011 in FCS’s Northeast Conference. Also consider that Bryant is 18-15 over the past 3 seasons.

Per the Providence Journal, the University of Rhode Island was picked to finish last in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) by the preseason media poll. The Rams did put two players on the preseason All-Conference team, RB/KR Harold Cooper and LB Adam Parker – the first time since 2011 that URI has had more than one preseason All-Conference selection. In addition, the Rams are only 14-60 all-time in CAA play, with four seasons of zero or one win. (Rhode Island joined the CAA as a football-only member in 2007.)

URI has had three winning seasons since 1985.

Last year against Syracuse, a team that would finish 4-8 in the ACC, Rhode Island came up with 64 yards of total offense, two first downs, and four turnovers in a 47-0 loss. They averaged seven inches per carry on 20 rushes. The defense allowed 312 rushing yards and 114 passing yards.

The Rams reportedly signed the best recruiting class in the CAA last February, but why let that scare you? As recently as 2015, the question was being asked as to whether or not URI should drop its football program.

The Rams went 1-10 in 2015, their lone victory a 20-0 defeat of Delaware, who would finish 2015 at 4-7. That followed a 1-11 campaign in 2014 and a 3-9 season in 2013, making the Rams 5-30 over the past three seasons.

Rhode Island is the Kansas of FCS.

Shoot, they may even be worse than the Kansas of FCS. After all, the Jayhawks fell by only three points to South Dakota State last fall, who finished 2015 ranked #14 in FCS. Meanwhile, Rhode Island fell by a 35-7 count to Albany, who finished exactly one game ahead of the Rams in the final CAA standings.

So I’ll ask again: Do you think four touchdowns is too high?