A table on college endowments printed in USA Today this week could be considered something of a carrot on a stick for schools such as Kansas University and nine other Big 12 institutions.

It wasn’t too long ago that the Kansas University Endowment Association had just cause to celebrate and be grateful when its portfolio exceeded a billion dollars for the first time. KU long has been blessed with some of the most generous alumni and friends and often has had top 10 ratings from the standpoint of gifting for state-supported schools.

But the USA Today table provided a good look at what is possible and how much can be accomplished by continued efforts to boost endowments.

The top l0 included, in order, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, the University of Texas system, Princeton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of California system, Columbia, the Texas A&M University system and foundations and Michigan. Harvard led the way with a $25.4 billion package, Yale came next at $15.2 billion. It graduated down to Michigan with nearly $5 billion.

The schools included in this list are no surprise to anyone who keeps even mild track of endowments – all of which rose the past year, by the way. But their largesse does point the way to what KU, Kansas State and other area schools can strive for. Not that they ever will come close to the top 10, but they certainly see what kind of competition they face.

Some may be surprised at the Texas and Texas A&M status in this notable list, but both long have been far better financed than their Big 12 compatriots.

Most will agree there is little likelihood KU will be “keeping up with these Joneses” in most of our lifetimes. But gifts continue to come in, alumni and friend support continues to grow, outreach broadens and the time may come when the gap has closed reasonably – to the advantage of our community, our state and our region.