A guilty facial expression, followed by a barely audible question can be found at Hy-Vee and Dillons, Eagle Bend and Alvamar, Zig and Mac’s and Shenago. A glance this way and then that to make sure nobody else is listening, and then: “Do you suppose it’s at all possible Kansas could play for the national championship?”

This is not basketball talk. That’s a given. The question doesn’t need to be asked. It’s football talk. Nobody wants to say it too loudly for fear of jinxing the team, especially now, with the toughest game to date on the schedule this coming Saturday in Stillwater, Okla.

Yet, this surreal undefeated season has stretched on too long to ignore the 800-pound Jayhawk sitting in the middle of the mind.

It’s possible, but only if Kansas can win out, with victories against Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Missouri, and presumably Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game.

The BCS standings released Sunday had Kansas ranked fourth, behind Ohio State, LSU and Oregon.

This is unfamiliar territory for KU football fans, and it’s going to require adopting most unusual rooting interests in order to approach the rest of this season reasonably. Such as – are you sitting down with a glass of water at the ready? – rooting for Missouri to win every game until the Border War at sold-out Arrowhead Stadium. Oklahoma winning out until the Big 12 title game also gives KU its best shot to play for a national title.

The stronger Missouri plays coming into the KU game, the more value a victory would have for the Jayhawks. Ditto for Oklahoma, should KU win the Big 12 North.

Under that scenario, should KU defeat Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game and finish 13-0, then it would be coming off of victories against a pair of teams that at worst would have been ranked in the top seven in the nation. At that point, Kansas would have a better argument than Ohio State. Even if the Buckeyes win out, their best victories would be against Michigan (now 12th in the BCS and 13th in the AP) and Penn State (23rd in the BCS, unranked by AP).

Winning is no guarantee of holding a spot in the polls. The teams’ season performances are re-evaluated weekly. For example, KU passed West Virginia this week in part because the Mountaineers’ early-season loss to South Florida looks worse every week, now that USF has lost three in a row.

Just in case the rest of the voters don’t see it the same way, it still will pay for KU fans to root for either Illinois or Michigan to upset the top-ranked Buckeyes.

Second-ranked LSU finishes with Louisiana Tech at home, Ole Miss on the road, Arkansas at home. The best chance at a loss will be in the SEC title game, likely against Georgia, Tennessee or Florida.

As is the case in the Big 10, the Pac-10 does not have a championship game. No. 3 Oregon finishes at Arizona, at UCLA, and at home against Oregon State. Forget the outcome of last season’s basketball NCAA West regional title game, and root for the Bruins on Nov. 24.

“I dream about it,” KU receiver Marcus Henry said of running the table. “But the reality is all we’re thinking about is the next game.”

The only relevant OSU for now is in Stillwater.

For now.