Denver ? The Colorado Buffaloes finally put an unflattering little losing streak behind them. By throttling Oklahoma State, the Buffs beat a team in the Big 12 South for the first time in 10 tries.

Next comes the real test. Over the next two weeks, CU plays Texas A&M and No. 2 Texas – both from the South – and that’s when Gary Barnett’s team will get a better feel for whether it really has closed the rather significant gap between North and South in this conference.

“We played well today, but you’ve got to look at Okie State,” Barnett said after CU’s 34-0 victory in Stillwater, Okla. “They are struggling on offense. They even struggled in the games they played that weren’t against Big 12 teams. If we do that to Texas or A&M, then I’ll chirp a little bit. But until then, I can’t.”

The victory established Colorado (3-1, 1-0 Big 12) as the team to beat in the North. Anyone who watched Nebraska and Iowa State slog through the first half of a game the Huskers finally won, 27-20 in double overtime, likely would agree with that. (To their credit, the Huskers finally, after 31â2 woeful games, started putting things together in the second half.)

The question is, what is being a front-runner in the North really worth? Last season, the Buffs made it to the title game, only to be embarrassed, 42-3, by Oklahoma. CU lost its games against South powerhouses Oklahoma and Texas by a combined score of 73-10.

Much was made in the offseason of the huge gap between North and South in the Big 12. Oklahoma and most of the Texas schools spend far more money on football, have nicer facilities and a bigger base in their home stats to recruit from.

Colorado, meanwhile, is in a budget crisis. The news this week was that the Buffs had no way to pay Barnett the $2 million bonus he’ll earn if he serves out his contract through 2006.

In the offseason, Barnett insisted that despite the natural advantages the South has, teams like Colorado could compete.

“Yeah, facilities and money are issues,” Barnett said. “But what do you do with the facilities and money?”

Texas, Barnett pointed out, wasn’t always a powerhouse. And Oklahoma had a decade of struggle and has, surprisingly, come way back to the pack this year.

Barnett also noted that Colorado and Kansas State had won two of the last four conference championships. That conference title game does, indeed, give the so-called disadvantaged schools a chance of being better on one day and winning the Big 12.

And Colorado has been in that title game three times in the last four years, proving that even under difficult circumstances, the Buffs keep giving themselves chances.

Colorado likely will be favored over Texas A&M on Saturday at home. If the Buffaloes win, that would make them 2-0 against the South with Texas – that one could hurt – to follow, and then the full slate of Northern opponents.

Overall, it looks promising. At least promising enough to think the Buffs might give themselves another chance in the title game.

“I said you’ve got to win on the road, and you’ve got to beat some South teams,” Barnett said of goals he set out earlier this year to be successful. “This happened to cross both of those lines.”