Well, those of you who have whine and complained and fussed for years with anger over the BCS being fair or not crowning a ‘true champion’ consistently, you could finally have a taste of what playoff college football is like.Though we’ll only know that for sure after Saturday.With Oregon’s [34-24 loss Thursday night][1] in Tucson to the upstart Arizona Wildcats, the next two weeks could be the most significant fortnight of football the Big 12 has ever seen.Let us say, for argument’s sake, that KU beats Iowa State, Missouri wallops K-State, Oklahoma quiets Texas Tech’s offense (and its coach, too) and LSU dumps off Mississippi.That means the BCS standings come Monday should read like this.1) LSU 2) Kansas 3) Oklahoma 4) Missouri 5) West VirginiaBasically, what it sets up is a Final Four, of sorts in the Big 12, with the prize being a trip to the BCS title game.On one side of the bracket (er, in one ‘semifinal’) on Nov. 24, you’d have Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State, which I’d guess would be kicking off at 2:30 on ABC. On the other side, you’d have the most important showdown ever in the Border War series. The winners go on, while the losers (or, at least the loser of the KU-MU game) packs it in until their posh New Year’s Day bowl game.The Big 12 Championship game then becomes more than the decider of the conference champ – there’s a trip to New Orleans on the line.(Also, don’t forget West Virginia waiting in the shadows, hoping for two of the teams to stumble _plus_ an LSU pitfall. The Mountaineers still have Cincy, UConn and Pittsburgh on the slate.)It will be fun to see what playoff college football looks like……well, then again, with the way this season has gone, assuming all those things happen _this_ Saturday is far from safe.But KU faces a defense which has been atrocious on the road.Missouri, the only team in the Big 12 to have scored 30-plus points each week, faces a defense which has given up 104 points over the past two.Texas Tech has fallen from existence, with its ranting coach being the only thing keeping the Red Raiders on the radar screen.And LSU, well, its one loss was a fluke and the Tigers travel to face an Ole Miss team that is 0-6 in SEC play and has no more Mannings left.Lets leave it at ‘highly likely.’**-Now lets get into what went down last night in Allen Fieldhouse for a bit…**Brandon Rush has had such a tough time being consistently aggressive on the offensive end over his first two seasons at KU. So with that said, who would have thought he’d look like the Rush that everyone’s been craving to see in his first game back from ACL surgery on his right knee? Bill Self pointed out after the game that falling down and getting knocked from his feet was something Rush needed. Now it’s out of the way.The place held in air collectively when he went crashing to the floor twice, but he bounced back up and was über-effective in 12 minutes played, with seven points, three rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block.Self guaranteed after the game that Rush will not start next Wednesday against Northern Arizona. My personal guess is that his first start will be Nov. 28 against Florida Atlantic – also known as three games from now – so that he’s ready to start and play big minutes Dec. 2 at USC.**One more hoops note,** has to do with recruiting.While many consider the rankings thrown at recruits just fluff for regular guys like you and I to talk about, coaches for the most part seem to ignore them.Bill Self has done a good job of that so far this recruiting season, as his [early signing period haul][2] has been ranked by Rivals as the No. 8 class in the nation, despite having no prospects ranked no higher than No. 37 in the top 150 (Marcus Morris is that guy). Chipola (Fla.) Juco transfer Mario Little is considered one of the top transfer prospects in the land (he’s scored 67 points in four games so far for the undefeated Indians, by the way), but still, right now it’s a recruiting class without a star. For that to draw national praise from several sources, that’s impressive.What could give KU the top class in the nation would be Willie Warren, who’s still lurking around and has said he won’t sign until the spring. But that’s for another time.It’s football season.Look forward to talking to you all next week, which is sure to be the most fun six days of football buildup this season has seen. [1]: http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/recap;_ylt=AqVxcotHZnzf9kSf7au9mxscvrYF?gid=200711150057&prov=ap [2]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2007/nov/16/two_more_preps_sign/?mens_basketball
