Oddsmakers say Kansas is due to open its 2007 football season with a one-touchdown victory over Central Michigan while Kansas State is likely to lose by two touchdowns at Auburn. Both need to do at least that well to set the compass for the kinds of seasons they think they’re capable of.

Central Michigan will give KU all it can handle Saturday. The Chippewas were 10-4 last season, with the losses to major-leaguers Boston College, Michigan and Kentucky, then Northern Illinois. CMU won eight of its last nine games and whipped Middle Tennessee in the Motor City Bowl. Mid-America Conference teams like Toledo, Kent State, Bowling Green and Ohio have embarrassed KU before, and their teams often feature players Kansas would love to have.

With good fortune and no injuries, KU conceivably could fashion a whopping 7-0 start before going to Texas A&M. An upset by Central Michigan would belabor the Jayhawks with great self-doubt and ruination of that 4-0 express KU wants to help derail Kansas State’s Wabash Cannonball on Oct. 6.

Colleague Tom Keegan recently wrote that, in the eyes of a lot of the faithful, KU coach Mark Mangino is behind the eight-ball, with a lot of followers expecting at least seven victories and many thinking Mangino needs eight to really reflect progress.

If the Jayhawks get careless and let Central Michigan prevail, there’ll be massive uneasiness.

Then there’s Kansas State, with high hopes for a good showing at Auburn despite all the question marks. Wildcat fans keep talking in terms of “a moral victory” if the Purples wind up with no worse than a 14-point deficit. What they need to face up to is that the death knell could ring in four touchdowns or worse in a losing effort, along with injuries.

If you haven’t been to games at hotbeds like Auburn, Alabama, Georgia, Florida or Tennessee, you have no idea of the intimidation that can unsettle a marginal club like K-State, with Josh Freeman still iffy at quarterback. We Big 12’ers see intense crowds and atmospheres at Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Texas A&M, but they don’t come close to those southern schools, which annually feature such mobs as the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.

Kansas knows the feeling; Auburn drove it home twice. In 1987 Bob Valesente took the Jayhawks to face the Tigers. A 49-0 drubbing before 65,711 set the stage for a 1-9-1 season. In 1988, Glen Mason’s KU team was slaughtered 56-7 before 55,700 screeching the “War Eagle” battle cry in that Alabama madhouse and wound up with a 1-10 season mark. But big money was made, like $400,000.

All well and good that Kansas State carries the league banner into Auburn, Ala., with confidence. But the Wildcats may not be totally conversant with how that joint jumps and how the involvement of a crowd there can undress a visitor. Truth is, KSU may justifiably claim a moral victory if it loses by only 14.

Kansas is heading into a pivotal 2007-08. It must win at least seven football games; basketball boss Bill Self needs a banner season with so many good men engaging in a last hurrah; Bonnie Henrickson has to start winning enough basketball games to justify the huge outlay for her program.

The stage is set for some great things by Jayhawk jocks and halter-tops between now and May. A shaky start in football would not be reassuring. Central Michigan is fully capable of committing a dastardly anti-KU deed.