CU’s loss Jayhawks’ gain

By David Mitchell     Nov 29, 2003

AP Photo
Nebraska quarterback Jammal Lord (5) celebrates with teammates Jake Andersen and Josh Sewell (79) after Lord's five-yard touchdown against Colorado in the second quarter. The Huskers won, 31-22, Friday in Boulder, Colo., making the Buffaloes ineligible for a postseason bowl.

Kansas University’s football team is going bowling.

Colorado’s is not.

Colorado’s 31-22 loss to No. 25 Nebraska Friday made those two things perfectly clear.

The rest, as Big 12 Conference assistant commissioner Bo Carter said, is “clear as mud.”

“They’re guaranteed a bowl,” Carter said of KU Friday. “The question is, where? But KU will go.”

The Big 12 is affiliated with seven bowl games. In addition, the league will put its champion — and likely a second team this season — into the lucrative Bowl Championship Series. The Jayhawks (6-6 overall, 3-5 Big 12) became bowl eligible Saturday with a 36-7 victory over Iowa State in their regular-season finale.

Colorado (5-7, 3-5) had a chance to become the league’s ninth bowl-eligible team Friday, but CU was doomed to a long offseason when it lost to NU in Boulder, Colo.

If Colorado had prevailed and Texas A&M had knocked Texas out of the BCS with a victory in Friday’s other Big 12 game at College Station, Texas, the league likely would have had nine bowl-eligible teams with only eight spots available.

Either Kansas or Colorado likely would have been left at home because six-win teams are allowed only to play in bowl games their leagues are contractually tied to; they cannot be at-large teams in other bowls.

The Buffs’ loss made the Jayhawks a lock for the postseason, but not for any particular bowl.

Kansas coach Mark Mangino said earlier this week that he hoped to know his team’s postseason destination after Missouri and Iowa State played the league’s final regular-season game today at Columbia, Mo.

Carter, however, said it was unlikely any conference teams would be allowed to make formal bowl announcements until Dec. 7, the day after Kansas State meets Oklahoma in the Big 12 championship game at Kansas City, Mo. That game will determine which Big 12 teams advance to the BCS.

Why should KU fans care? The seven bowls affiliated with the Big 12 can’t set their pairings until after the BCS games — Rose, Orange, Fiesta and Sugar bowls — fill their slots.

Oklahoma has been No. 1 in the BCS all season, while Texas entered the week at No. 6. KSU, however, was still a factor at 16th. A maximum of two teams from any one conference can play in the BCS games.

Here are a two of the many scenarios that could unfold next weekend:

  • Undefeated Oklahoma defeats Kansas State and advances to play for the national title in the Sugar Bowl. Texas — which improved to 10-2 with a victory at A&M — is the second Big 12 team in the BCS.
  • Kansas State defeats Oklahoma and earns the conference champion’s automatic spot in the BCS. Oklahoma likely would remain near the top of the rankings, and UT would be left out of the BCS.

When the dust settles, the Cotton, Holiday, Alamo, Independence, Houston, Fort Worth and Tangerine bowls will pick among the six remaining Big 12 teams to fill the league’s seven spots. One of those bowls will have to fill the void with an at-large team from another conference.

A Tangerine Bowl spokesman expressed interest in KU earlier in the week, but bowl officials were not in their offices Friday and could not be reached for comment.

North Carolina State already accepted an invitation to be the Atlantic Coast Conference’s representative in that game Tuesday.

The ACC, Carter said, was able to set its matchups early because the league was conceding it would only get one team in the BCS. The Big 12 was not about to do that. Putting two teams in the BCS would guarantee the league $9 million, which would be split among the dozen schools and the conference office.

KU’s piece of that pie will be $692,307.69. That’s nearly as much as Kansas will receive for a date in either the Fort Worth ($750,000) or Tangerine ($750,000) bowls.

That could be one reason Kansas officials aren’t in an uproar about the waiting game the conference office is asking them to play.

“We are in a very good position,” KU associate athletic director Jim Marchiony said. “We’re going to a bowl game, and we’re very happy about that. We’d like to know as soon as possible, but we understand there are procedures that have to be followed, and we’re willing to follow them. We just have to wait and see what happens.”

KU officials continue to talk to bowl officials while they wait. Could an invitation be extended — but not announced — before Dec. 7?

“To think a bid is going to be offered and accepted and kept quiet for a week is far-fetched,” Marchiony said.

So KU fans will have about two weeks to make travel plans for either the Tangerine Bowl Dec. 22 in Orlando or the Fort Worth Bowl Dec. 23 at Fort Worth, Texas. A Dec. 30 date in the Houston Bowl appears to be a long shot.

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