One of the local football players actually said Kansas University has “the best 3-5 team in the nation” the other day, which would be an honor akin to being named the healthiest man on death row.

No point in naming the player and bringing the wrath of KU’s national fan base down upon him. Why make the poor guy burn in message-board hell?

Glad he said it though, because it provided an excuse to visit the Sagarin computer football rankings published by USA Today. Sagarin ranks 241 schools and lumps the Division I-A and Division I-AA teams together.

The predictor column of the rankings is considered the best for forecasting outcomes. First, a check of standings revealed KU is one of 10 teams in Division I-A football with a 3-5 record.

The coach of the “best” 3-5 team, based on Sagarin’s rankings, has KU ties, but his name isn’t Mark Mangino. His name is Glen Mason, coach of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. Mason’s been getting headlines lately, but not for being the “best” 3-5 team in the nation.

After his team was booed and chants of “Fire Mason” were sent his way, Mason said he could handle the criticism aimed at him, but had a problem with the student-athletes getting slammed.

Here’s what else Mason said: “I’ll probably get criticized for saying this, but a lot of drinking goes on in there. We serve alcohol in that stadium. Not many college stadiums do that. I was at one game, looking up there, I thought, ‘Where’s Fox News? There’s a lot of underage drinking out there because I know that guy ain’t 21.’ Right?”

The coach of the “best” 3-5 school in the nation wants to sic Fox News on the team’s loudest fans.

Minnesota checks in at 41 in the rankings, Syracuse at 50, Vanderbilt 72. KU starts a run of 3-5 teams in Sagarin, ranked 74th, followed by Virginia (75) and Arizona (76).

This Saturday’s opponent, Colorado, is 70th in Sagarin, which, you guessed it, makes the Buffaloes the “best” 1-7 team in the nation, even better than Miami of Ohio and Utah State.

Sagarin advises to add three points to the home team’s computer strength number, which in KU’s case is 68.35. Colorado’s is 68.94. So according to Sagarin, the Jayhawks should be favored by 2.41 points.

KU would rather be known as the worst 6-6 football team in the nation than the best 3-5 team anyway because that would mean the Jayhawks would be eligible for a bowl game.

Since Missouri would be a tough victory to count on, KU needs to go on a three-game winning streak, quite an achievement for a team now on a four-game losing skein.

Colorado, Iowa State and Kansas State, the next three opponents, are a combined 2-10 in Big 12 play. It would have been easier for KU fans to find encouragement in that number if Mangino hadn’t announced after practice Wednesday that injured Kerry Meier would not be the starting quarterback.

Bad news. Colorado doesn’t have the passing attack to take advantage of KU’s bad pass defense, but now, KU doesn’t have the offensive spark that Meier creates with his exceptional running ability. Barmann’s no running threat; the best approach is to let him direct a vertical passing attack and see what happens.