Prior to one of his early seasons at Kansas University, the likable but naive Terry Allen broke an unwritten rule of college football coaching.

Allen used the B-word to assess the Jayhawks’ chances for the upcoming season. As it turned out, Kansas didn’t even post a winning record, much less earn a bowl invitation.

Never, never, never talk about a bowl game until you receive an invitation. That is the unwritten rule.

Mark Mangino obviously subscribes to that admonition. In the wake of Saturday’s euphoric 35-14 win over archrival Missouri, the Jayhawks’ second-year coach said: “I’m not going to touch bowl talk with a 10-foot pole.”

Or a 20-foot pole. Or a 30-foot pole. Or a pole in a different area code.

Still, with seven games remaining, it’s a fact the Jayhawks need just two more victories to become bowl-eligible. Yes, KU can count the win over Jacksonville State, even though the Gamecocks are in NCAA Div. I-AA.

In the Big 12 Conference, with its numerous bowl affiliations, six wins is tantamount to earning a postseason berth. In theory, as many as nine Big 12 teams could go to a bowl, but that’s only if two schools qualify for a BCS berth. Otherwise, the conference has seven bowl tie-ins — the Cotton, Holiday and Alamo in the top echelon, and the Independence, Houston, Fort Worth and Tangerine in the lower tier.

In other words, if you win six games, you’re probably destined for Shreveport, La.; Houston; Fort Worth, Texas; or Orlando, Fla. At least one of those spots is more desirable than the others — Mickey and Minnie don’t live in Louisiana, after all — but when you’re as bowl-starved as Kansas, you’ll go to the Iditarod Bowl in Fairbanks, Alaska, if your phone rings.

Actually, it really hasn’t been that long since Kansas frolicked in the postseason, and it was in Honolulu — a nice place to visit, if you can afford to make the trip, which hardly any students can. Playing in the Aloha Bowl in both 1992 and 1995 was such a tight financial fit that KU couldn’t even afford to send its marching band.

Many is the former collegian who remembers how he and a few friends crammed themselves into a car, drove all night and slept in a fleabag hotel just so they could count the experience of a going to a bowl game among their youthful memories.

Kansas University students haven’t really had that opportunity since Don Fambrough’s Jayhawks played in the defunct Hall of Fame Bowl in Birmingham, Ala., way back in 1981. To put that into perspective, if you went with Fam to Birmingham for that New Year’s Eve day game and were 22 years old — the common age for a senior — you’re twice as old today as you were then.

Some schools count on going to bowl games every year. Woodrow Wilson was president the last time Nebraska stayed home for Christmas, or at least it seems that way. Texas and Oklahoma are locks. Kansas State has been a virtual certainty for the last decade. Bowl proprietors also keep a close eye on Texas A&M because of the Aggies’ huge following. Colorado also fits into the bowl-positive category.

In the bottom-line bowl business, you have to remember it’s not whether you win or lose but how many fans you can potentially bring to town. In lieu of the fan factor, bowl folks will gladly accept a team that made national headlines during the regular season, usually for a surprising victory over a favored, tradition-rich foe.

For instance, if Kansas won six or seven games and ended its 35-year losing streak against Nebraska, KU’s cachet would skyrocket. But that’s a big if and ifs don’t count. Wins do, and until Kansas hits a half-dozen, it’s all just speculation.

Uncustomary speculation, granted. But if you take a calculator into the chicken house you may wind up with egg on your face.