Annette Koland, a Kansas University freshman from Chapman, loads up on KU T-shirts Tuesday at the KU Bookstores location in the Kansas Union, which offers a Touchdown Tuesdays discount during football season. The promotion gives customers a 5 percent discount for each touchdown scored by KU the previous weekend.

When the Jayhawks take the field Saturday, Kansas University’s football team will be playing for more than:

¢ a chance to go 11-0 for the first time,

¢ the possibility of playing for its first Big 12 North title and

¢ the ability to stay in the hunt for a spot in the BCS national championship game – something considered a virtual impossibility just 11 weeks ago.

Also at stake during the game against Iowa State: a chance to save shoppers money on merchandise next week at KU Bookstores.

“If we get to 30 percent (savings), with the Missouri game coming up, it will be pretty crazy,” said Steve Rhodes, assistant director of KU Bookstores. “Even at 25 percent, it will be crazy. It will be a huge game against Missouri. The whole town is pumped about it, and we’re hoping for a big day.”

The popular savings program is known as Touchdown Tuesdays, a promotion that kicked off in 1999 to offer discounts at KU Bookstores based on the number of touchdowns the football team scores the previous week. Shoppers get 5 percent off their purchases – anything but computers, electronics and textbooks – for each touchdown, up to a maximum 30 percent off for six touchdowns.

Times, of course, have changed a bit during the past nine seasons.

This year’s Jayhawks are averaging more than 45 points per game, good enough to rank second nationally. The team averages 5.9 touchdowns per game, and has scored the maximum savings for shoppers during six of the team’s 10 games.

Emily Madrueno, a KU freshman, recently was among the many value-conscious shoppers to benefit from the football team’s offensive prowess.

“They have really good deals,” Madrueno said. “My parents wanted some KU gear so I’m doing some Christmas shopping for them.”

KU Bookstores established the promotion during the Terry Allen era, an attempt to boost sales during the week and to spur interest in buying KU football merchandise. That’s back when KU was finishing 5-7, averaging a relatively tepid 24.5 points per game.

“But this year on Tuesdays, especially after home games, it’s been wall-to-wall in here,” Rhodes said. “It’s unimaginable, really, to us how good it’s been.”

While this season’s football campaign is far from over – there’s still that big game against Missouri, plus a potential Big 12 Championship game and, certainly, a bowl game later on – the heightened savings are sure to continue into the new year.

KU Bookstores is preparing to launch a similar promotion, called 3-Point Thursdays, in which shoppers will get a 3 percent discount for each three-point shot made by the Jayhawks’ men’s basketball team during the preceding game.

That promotion will start with the Big 12 Conference basketball season, which begins Jan. 12.

Just FYI: The Jayhawks averaged a little over six 3-pointers a game this past season, which would be good for 18 percent off.