K-State Football
They're separated by only 80 miles with no state boundary in between, but K-State and KU are in completely different states leading up to this Sunflower Showdown.
Tom Keegan thinks KU has a chance to pull off the upset against K-State. Laugh at your peril. This team is good, but it's not good enough to take anyone lightly.
I'm going to link this every day this week to make sure people see it. Please donate to Jamie's Wish.
Bill Snyder thinks KU is better than the numbers suggest. Which is good for KU, because the numbers suggest it's pretty bad.
You probably knew this already, but Sam Mellinger notes that K-State has won four straight games in which it was the underdog and was outgained.
Arthur Brown gets most of the headlines, but Vai Lutui and Ray Kibble have been an important component in K-State's resurgent defense, especially against the run.
College Football
Check out this week's Alphabetical, particularly "V." No Numerical yet, but check out Bill's Market Adjustments for Week 7 in the mean time.
The Missouri Saga (f/k/a Conference Realignment)
A New York Times report last night cites an unnamed source who says that Missouri's application to the SEC is "inevitable and imminent." Missouri's board of curators will meet in the very city they are planning to royally screw this Thursday and Friday, including an executive session that will presumably deal with conference affiliation issues.
Missouri is confident they have the votes for the SEC to accept their application. As I tried, and failed, to link yesterday, that apparently depends on Missouri agreeing to play in the SEC East.
This Kansas City Star article actually does a pretty good job of describing the different forces at play in Missouri's decision. Having lived in this state for a relatively short period of time, I get the feeling that Missouri is dealing with a lot of different constituencies, and no single group by itself can do much to move the needle. Hence, Kansas City's apparent inability to have much sway despite the fact that it stands to lose the most in Missouri's move.
Of course, Jason Kirk has the right solution: just send Missouri's Bootheel to the SEC.