Eight football games are guaranteed for the Big 12 Conference during bowl season. Seven teams currently are qualified.
Just one — Kansas University — has a legitimate shot at making it eight.
That said, officials for the eighth bowl in the Big 12 pecking order, the Fort Worth Bowl, are wondering whether the Jayhawks could make the trek down I-35 next month. KU must beat Iowa State in its season finale Nov. 26 to get the magical sixth victory.
“I think there’s a good chance for that,” Tom Starr, the Fort Worth Bowl’s executive director, said of KU playing in his game. “Since the other seven have qualified, they’re starting to line up. And the fact that the Champs Sports Bowl had KU a couple of years ago, they might be looking in a different direction.”
Only two Big 12 teams still are playing for a postseason berth: Kansas, which dropped to 5-5 after last week’s loss to No. 2 Texas, and Texas A&M, which is 5-5 and must beat the loaded Longhorns.
Obviously, KU’s chances are more favorable.
Although the Jayhawks are facing an Iowa State squad that has blistered to four straight victories, Kansas has the advantage of playing at Memorial Stadium. KU is 5-0 this season in Lawrence.
Jayhawk coach Mark Mangino said Sunday that the 66-14 loss to Texas already was behind his team, and that attitude was crucial for KU’s chances against the Cyclones next week.
“I don’t think I need to sit down and explain all the reasons why,” Mangino said. “I think they understand that going to a bowl game — if we do it, it’ll be our second in three years — makes us a more recognizable program, which helps recruiting.”
Starr said he liked the potential of Kansas at his bowl because of the recognition the Jayhawks had in college sports.
One of the youngest bowls in the business, the Fort Worth Bowl has played just two games — Boise State beat TCU in 2003, and Cincinnati beat Marshall in 2004.
A Conference USA team will fill the other slot, and Starr said Houston was a strong possibility.
Like KU, Houston needs one more victory. Unlike KU, the Cougars have two games left — the next two Saturdays at home against 3-6 SMU and 1-8 Rice.
“We look at the Texas teams if we can,” said Starr, who added No. 24 Texas-El Paso likely would go to a higher-seeded bowl.
Starr said he hadn’t been in touch with KU athletic director Lew Perkins in awhile, but he planned to be in Lawrence for KU’s regular-season finale.
The Fort Worth Bowl will be played at 7 p.m. Dec. 23 at Amon G. Carter Stadium, a 44,000-seat stadium that’s home to TCU football. It will be televised by ESPN.
Under terms of his incentive-laced contract, which runs through the 2008 season, Mangino would earn $30,000 for a victory next week — $10,000 for reaching six victories and $20,000 for playing in a bowl game.
Mangino already earned a $5,000 bonus this season when KU beat Nebraska, busting the Jayhawks’ 36-game losing drought against the Huskers.
Currently, Iowa State and Missouri sit one game behind Colorado in the Big 12 North standings. Missouri plays Kansas State on Saturday, while Colorado plays Nebraska on Nov. 25.
If Colorado wins (scenario one), it clinches a chance to play Texas in the conference title game. But if the Huskers beat the Buffaloes, the title race becomes more complicated.
If Colorado and Mizzou tie for first with ISU a game back (scenario two), Colorado wins the tiebreaker based on the Buffs’ 41-12 victory over the Tigers on Nov. 5.
If Mizzou, Iowa State and Colorado all finish 5-3 in conference play (scenario three), head-to-head results would be wiped out since all three are 1-1 against the other two. The next tiebreaker is how each team fared against the fourth-place North team — Nebraska. That gives the edge to Missouri, which was only team to beat the Huskers in this scenario.
Long story short, Iowa State needs Missouri to lose Saturday AND Colorado to lose Nov. 25 (scenario four) to have anything to play for against Kansas on Nov. 26.