In an age when college football schedules are cut in custard instead of Carborundum, it was a bit of a surprise when Kansas University announced its 2003 schedule last week.

Heck, the Jayhawks didn’t finalize their 2002 schedule until early last March when Tulsa University was added as the 12th game. And it wasn’t until early in the year that the Iowa State game was moved from the bottom of the ’02 schedule to the top for TV purposes.

Now, except for the Big 12 Conference kickoff times – hostages of television – and the date for homecoming, the 2003 schedule is set, if not in granite, then in limestone.

“It’s pretty solid,” said Richard Konzem, KU senior associate athletic director who is in charge of football.

KU coach Mark Mangino has watered it down by disposing of a trip to San Diego State and adding a home game with NCAA Div. I-AA Jacksonville State – the one in Alabama, not the one in Florida.

I suspect Mangino would have liked to dump a journey to Wyoming and replace the Cowboys with a home game against a prune danish, but eight home games would have been a hard sell to season-ticket holders. Seven home games is plenty when selling tickets requires innovative marketing strategies and plenty of shoe leather.

By buying out San Diego State for $50,000 and agreeing to plunk down $250,000 for a Div. I-AA school, Kansas University officials took another step to prove they are committed to football. Other indicators include giving Mangino a one-year contract extension – or six months for each 2002 win – and exploring the possibility of moving the football offices from Parrott Complex to Memorial Stadium.

When those offices are moved to the stadium, Kansas will prove once and for all it is committed to Mangino because the athletic department already spent well into six figures to renovate the old coaching digs after Mangino was hired a little more than a year ago. Not that the old football area would go wanting – office space is tight in Parrott as well as in adjacent Allen Fieldhouse.

Whether new offices will be built under the west stands in time for the 2003 season remains to be seen, but it’s clear Mangino wants to turn the ancient football facility at the foot of Campanile Hill into a temple, a shrine to be shared only with track, and reluctantly at that.

In the meantime, Mangino will be entering the last year of his honeymoon. New coaches usually aren’t expected to make a splash until their third season. That isn’t always the case – KU fired Bob Valesente after two seasons in 1987 – but it’s the general rule. In Mangino’s case, however, I can sense an urgency to produce a bowl team in 2003.

Remember, with the proliferation of bowls and with the Big 12 tied to at least eight of them, all you have to do is win half your games. Six wins will do it. Sure, you won’t be tabbed for the Nirvana Bowl, but KU wouldn’t be picky.

Ah, but can Kansas win six games next fall?

Well, the Jayhawks will have a shot if they win all four of their nonconference games, and not a single one of them had a winning record last season. Wyoming was 2-10, Northwestern 3-9, Jax State 5-6 and Nevada-Las Vegas 5-7.

Add a win over Baylor – if you can’t beat Baylor at home, you don’t deserve to go to a bowl – and that leaves one more win required in the other seven games. Three of those are at home against Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa State. The four road games are against teams KU wouldn’t be expected to defeat anyway – Kansas State, Colorado, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M.

Adding to the urgency is the change in the Big 12 South teams on the Jayhawks’ schedule in 2004. Baylor, A&M and Okie State will be replaced by Texas, Oklahoma and Texas Tech in ’04. In baseball, that would be a little bit like facing Barry Zito, Pedro Martinez and Jamie Moyer instead of Paul Byrd, Jeff Suppan and Darrell May.

On paper, it will be easier for Kansas to make some noise in 2003 than it would be in 2004, but nothing has been easy for the Jayhawks in football since they became a member of the Big 12.