It seems the biggest rumor/media whore in Kansas City is still trying to get someone to notice him and his displeasure for the Kansas Jayhawks and their Orange Bowl appearance. His latest attempt is that he said on his show that the Big 12 was going to launch a formal investigation into allegations that Lew Perkins was guaranteeing ticket sales to the Orange Bowl in return for an invite. Now this has also been posted by MU Grad Dennis Dodd on CBS Sportsline.

I understand they’re upset. Keitzmann is trying to figure out what he’s going to do now that K-State’s football program is officially back in the cellar where it belongs and that the basketball team might very well have wasted one of the best freshman in the last few years on a high-school level coach and little other talent.

Dennis Dodd on the other hand posted this gem:

The national championship matchup is OK with me. But just OK. As I stated in Sunday’s story, Ohio State and LSU were least worst than everyone else. The next biggest controversy had to do with Missouri getting slotted into the Cotton Bowl despite being No. 1 (for a week) and beating Kansas head-to-head.

Kansas got into the Orange Bowl ahead of Missouri because the school guaranteed tickets. Attendance is still an issue with the Orange, and KU AD Lew Perkins guaranteeing ticket sales probably put the Jayhawks over the top.

As unseemly as it sounds, Missouri could have bought its way into the BCS. The ticket thing is left over from the old bowl system. It’s clear that Perkins knows how to play the game. Missouri thought everything would work out. Well, it didn’t.

The only reason the Tigers got as high as the Cotton Bowl (against Arkansas) is that Texas lost to Texas A&M. Had the Aggies won, Missouri would be in the Holiday Bowl at 11-2. Great for the bowl, bad for the program.

If we move on to an article written by Dan Angell in the Missourian, he points out another weird happening in the BCS:

Disagreements between human voters and computer rankings, which each contribute to the overall rankings, are the main cause. The most obvious example this year involved the Tigers and Big 12 champion Oklahoma. Despite the Sooners’ two victories over the Tigers, three of the six BCS computers still believe that MU is the better team, which led to the Tigers being ranked higher overall than the Sooners in the computer portion of the BCS.

He even mentions that the BCS may possibly amend the "Kansas State Rule" which guarantees an at-large bid to any BCS conference team ranked either third or fourth that does not win its conference or implement a new "Missouri Rule" so that we don’t have this problem again.

I still would like someone to explaing to me why Kansas was moved down in the rankings on an idle week and Ohio State was moved up in the rankings on their idle week. Anyone?

I guess I just don’t see the point in complaining about it still. K-State had this problem and lost to Purdue in the Alamo Bowl further cementing the decision to keep them out of the BCS. The only positive thing here is that Pinkel and his team aren’t publicly complaining about it. They’re celebrating the fact that Chase Daniel had a great season and was invited to the Heisman Trophy Ceremony. That’s exactly what they should be doing and I commend them for that. It’s just a little sad that the only way Keitzman has come up with to drive ratings is still complaining about the BCS situation. Apparently he’s done beating the dead "Kansas City Chiefs are terrible" horse.

Dennis Dodd’s article on Sportsline.com >

Article on JoeSportsFan.com >

Dan Angell article in the Missourian >

On Wednesday, Mark Mangino and Frank Beamer were in Miami for an Orange Bowl press conference. I knew I liked Mangino for a reason and with comments like this, how can you not:

“Our football tradition is not really a great one,” Mangino said. “But anyone can have a bad century.”

Read the rest of the article from Gatorsports.com here >

This article is much easier to follow and makes quite a bit more sense than Chuck Woodling’s article from yesterday. It’s basically for the same reason posted yesterday, Kansas was 11-1, Missouri was 11-2. It’s as simple as that.

Click here to read the article

In a rather pointless article by a writer that I’ve never really understood, Chuck Woodling states that the at-large bid for the Orange Bowl was basically a product of Lew Perkins and the bill of goods he sold the Orange Bowl Committee. I’m sure it’s a big part of the reason…but who really cares? Isn’t that why you hire a money-grubbing cutthroat Athletic Director? You have to sell your soul to the devil for gifts like these…but sometimes it’s worth it. (Don’t say anything to the basketball season ticket holders who are now sitting in obstructed view seats because of Lew Perkins though…they might not agree.)

Read the full article on KUSports.com here >

Now that we all understand how badly MU thinks they got screwed, let’s move on. Representatives from the Orange Bowl Selection Committee were in Lawrence on Monday morning to officially extend their invite to Kansas in person. Now that’s some good hospitality…

Read the article from KUSports.com here.

I know all of the MU fans out there have said that VaTech will basically just wipe the floor with the Jayhawks in January, but apparently the Accuscore system does not think so. In fact they basically say the game is a toss-up. Here’s a quote from one of the analysts:

It might take more than two quarterbacks to match the balanced offense of this speedy Kansas team, which leads the Big 12 in scoring offense at 44.3 points per game. After an embarrassing loss to LSU in the second game of the season, this is a chance for the ACC champs to redeem themselves on the national stage.

– Heather Dinich

Click here to go to the ESPN.com page.

So I have been reading every article on every website about what a disaster this year’s BCS is going to be and the one consistency is that no one can understand why KU has been included in the festivities and MU isn’t. I’m not going to lie…I’m loving every minute of it.

Merrill Hoge can say all day that the game should be on Comedy Central because KU is such a joke. It doesn’t make it any less real. For the first time in 39 years…KU is going to the Orange Bowl and their first-ever BCS bowl. It’s a wonderful thing. Keep checking back here for more KU Football and Basketball content…