Thursday, November 14, 1968
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
9
Speaking of sports
Which bowl will it be?
By Ron Yates, Kansan sports editor
A mild brand of sorcery transpired after KU lost to Oklahoma Saturday.
Just when everyone thought they were seeing oranges—PUFF—all of a sudden they were hit with visions of sugar bowls. When a person is orange-oriented, well, let's face it, sugar can be a letdown—at least for an hour or two. Right now at least, KU appears to be high on the Sugar Bowl list, low on the Orange Bowl list and somewhere in the middle on the Cotton Bowl roster.
Somehow, through wishful thinking by KU football fans or through Orange Bowl scouts who had watched the Jayhawks demolish several opponents until their loss to Oklahoma, many people got the idea that KU was number one on the Orange Bowl invitation list. Perhaps we were.
Orange Bowl officials apparently want two undefeated, high-scoring teams to play in their bowl and right now, Penn State and Georgia fill this bill. Georgia has an added attractiveness to Orange Bowl officials because it is a Southeastern Conference team and could certainly draw thousands of fans into the New Year's day classic. Kansas, on the other hand, is from the midwest and a match-up between Penn State of the East and Kansas might not draw as many southerners who normally make up the majority of the audience in the Orange Bowl.
Current rumor, however, has it that Penn State (7-0) and either Georgia (6-0-2) or Auburn (6-1-1) are now the top choices for an Orange Bowl invitation. Evidently, Kansas (7-1) which supposedly had been the top choice for the Orange Bowl all these weeks, has dropped out of the picture. This is hard to believe.
If Auburn upsets Georgia in their game this Saturday, then Kansas could come back into the picture—but only if KU survives the "Purple Pride" in Manhattan Saturday. There is no guarantee, of course, that KU would even be considered for the Orange Bowl even if the Hawks win and Georgia loses. Auburn is a southern team, and as always, good southern teams apparently are more attractive than good midwestern teams when the final bowl selections are made.
Missouri head coach Dan Devine has indicated he would "walk to the Cotton Bowl" if he had to. Thus, MU appears to have arranged a deal with Cotton Bowl officials, though the "deal" probably hinges- on whether or not the Tigers can beat Oklahoma in Norman this Saturday. If Missouri loses and if KU wins, then the Cotton Bowl may come knocking at the Jayhawk door.
Talking about who is going to what bowl can only be considered small talk at best. The big talk usually comes on the Monday after a school's ninth game. If KU beats K-State, then KU fans could possibly know by Monday, Nov. 18, if we are going to a bowl or not. Most bowls will announce their selections on this date.
If KU wins, then it is highly probable the Jayhawks will receive a bid from a major bowl. "Major" bowls, including the Rose Bowl which always matches a Big Ten team with a Pacific Eight team, are most often considered to be the Orange Bowl, the Cotton Bowl and the Sugar Bowl.
However, there are several "minor" bowls which KU might consider if a major bid does not come.
They are the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla. (Penn State 17, Florida 17 last year); the Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston, Tex. (Colorado 31, Miami (Fla.) 21 last year); the Liberty Bowl, in Memphis, Tenn. (North Carolina State 14, Georgia 7 last year), and the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Tex. (Texas (El Paso) 14, Mississippi 7 last year).
True, these bowls do not carry the prestige with them that the big bowls do, but if KU does not receive a bid from a major bowl, then the smaller ones should be considered. After all, the team has earned a bowl game this year. If it must be a small bowl, then let it. Whoever we play won't be a pushover.
But perhaps thinking big is more in line at the moment. KU is still high on the Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl lists. Kansas may still be high on the Orange Bowl list . . . nobody really knows for sure and won't until Nov. 21.
Right now, Jayhawk fans should be concerned with going to Manhattan en masse to help KU turn the "Purple Pride" pale.
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If the Hawks don't take the game Saturday, it might mean the end of bowl talk until next year.
No matter what happens during the rest of the year, Jayhawk football fans can be proud of the 1968 KU football team and its coaches. It's been a long dry spell between winning teams at KU and somehow one cannot help feeling that with Pepper Rodgers and his staff in the picture, the drought is at an end.
"Ive never seen our team more disappointed with its own play than it was a halftime at Kansas," says Colorado assistant Chet Franklin. "They were determined to do a better job in the second half, and did. If you would have taken a vote at the end of the game on playing a fifth quarter, our people would have been all for it.
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"At Missouri, I'm not so sure we would have voted the same way- we were glad to get the heck out of there," Franklin adds.
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