Contemporary college football practice sites are like prison yards without the guard towers and razor wire.

Paranoid coaches, worried about unscrupulous foes stealing line splits, snap counts, etc., put a premium on security. It is not wise, for instance, to be seen near a college football practice field with binoculars around your neck.

That paranoia has never been more pronounced around Kansas University than before games against Kansas State. When Don Fambrough was the Jayhawks’ head coach, he always conducted pre-KSU game practices at Memorial Stadium and had managers patrolling Campanile Hill looking for spies.

When Glen Mason was KU’s coach, he didn’t make security a priority until after a Kansas State game in which he realized the Wildcat defenders knew the Jayhawks’ snap counts.

Way back when Pepper Rodgers was KU’s coach and Vince (We gonna win) Gibson was at Kansas State, the paranoia reached a peak. Rodgers decided the only place in Lawrence where he could control the practice site was Municipal Stadium at 11th and Delaware streets.

Now a slow-pitch diamond with chain-link fencing and known as Municipal Field, the facility was the home of the Legion baseball team in those days and was surrounded by a high board fence. So, Rodgers secured city buses and transported the Jayhawks across town to practice in secrecy.

Today, it’s no secret much of the luster has faded from the KU-KSU series because of the Wildcats’ recent dominance. In fact, it’s news if the ‘Cats don’t score at least 50 points.

That won’t change this year. Kansas State will win big.

Don’t think so? Then go to kusports.com, click on the “We Whacked Woodling” icon, and pick the Jayhawks. You might win a nifty T-shirt if you whip me on this week’s Big 12 Conference picks.

Here they are:

Oklahoma State 23, Texas A&M 15 Â Idle last week, fresh-legged Cowboys hand enigmatic Aggies, their confidence flattened by last week’s home loss to Nebraska, first road defeat of the season.

Texas Tech 59, Baylor 11 Â Red Raider QB Kliff Kingsbury licking his chops at prospect of fattening his passing stats against baleful Bears, the league’s designated road kill.

Oklahoma 30, Colorado 20 Â Sooners remain in running for national championship, but it won’t be easy. If Buffs’ Chris Brown goes on another stampede, Sooners’ title hopes could be trampled.

Texas 20, Nebraska 12  Remarkable UT string of consecutive road victories  not counting neutral sites  grows to 12. More important, Longhorns remain in lucrative BCS bowl picture.

Kansas State 55, Kansas 12 Â Wildcats hand Jayhawks still another flogging when the series, known as the Sunflower Showdown until it recently became the Sunflower Slaughter, celebrates its centennial.