New rankings

Ohio State’s loss to Illinois on Saturday shuffled the top of the Bowl Championship Series standings on Sunday to KU’s advantage.

The Jayhawks moved up a spot to No. 3 in the rankings, behind only No. 1 LSU and No. 2 Oregon. Kansas is followed by No. 4 Oklahoma and No. 5 Missouri.

Ohio State fell from first to seventh.

The top two teams in the standings at the end of the regular season will play in the BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 7 in New Orleans.

In addition, Kansas now is ranked No. 4 in all three major polls – the Associated Press, USA Today coaches and Harris Interactive. The Jayhawks received first-place votes in all three, though LSU, Oregon and Oklahoma ranked 1-2-3 across the board.

Resby out

KU strong safety Patrick Resby did not play against Oklahoma State on Saturday because of an undisclosed injury suffered Nov. 3 against Nebraska.

The Jayhawks’ depth at the position – specifically Darrell Stuckey, Justin Thornton and Sadiq Muhammed – absorbed Resby’s loss, and Kansas beat Oklahoma State, 43-28, in Stillwater, Okla.

The status of Resby, who started KU’s first nine games, is uncertain heading into Saturday’s contest against Iowa State. If he’s not available, Thornton may start, as he did against Oklahoma State.

“He’s showed significant improvement,” coach Mark Mangino said of Resby, “but we don’t know yet, to be quite honest with you.”

Other nicks

Several key players were moving with slight limps during Saturday’s game, including quarterback Todd Reesing, left tackle Anthony Collins and defensive tackle James McClinton.

McClinton sat out a few snaps during the meat of the game, but for the most part all three played through what troubled them. Mangino said nobody was held out of Sunday’s practice.

“It’s that time of the year where you’re going to get kids nicked up,” Mangino said. “You’re headed to Week 11, and there’s going to be bumps and bruises and twists and things like that.

“I don’t foresee, as I sit here, having any major problems this week. That could change, but I don’t see it.”

Simple speculation

Don’t expect an official announcement until Saturday night at the earliest. But the Nov. 24 Kansas-Missouri game at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., is shaping up to be a 7 p.m. kickoff.

ABC will choose between Kansas-Missouri and Oklahoma State-Oklahoma for its 7 p.m. window that night, with Fox Sports Net broadcasting the other game at 2:30 p.m.

The ABC announcing crew hinted during the Oklahoma State broadcast that it would be airing the KU-MU game, and it’s presumed that the network was waiting until this weekend to see which of the two options had higher stakes.

If Kansas and Missouri win this week, the Border War game will be for the Big 12 North title featuring two teams with a combined 21-1 record. With the Cowboys’ loss on Saturday, they dropped to 5-5 and are unlikely to catch Oklahoma in the Big 12 South standings.

But again, official word probably won’t come until this weekend.