Since this is Kansas University and the national title remains in play, view the Jayhawks’ situation in basketball terms.

Kansas defeated Iowa State, 45-7, Saturday in packed Memorial Stadium to advance to the Elite Eight. A victory against Missouri in Arrowhead Stadium this coming Saturday night advances KU to a Final Four semifinal matchup in San Antonio. A victory there moves the Jayhawks onto New Orleans to play in the national title game.

It’s that close. And it’s so far away, considering going 3-0 from here will be a great deal more difficult even than building the seemingly impossible 11-0 record that KU brings into Arrowhead.

Since this also is a football school now, it’s OK to view it in football terms, which is to say, KU in its final three games plays for the Big 12 North title, and if it wins, then the Big 12 title, and if it wins, then the national title.

And why not? After all, this is a team that has the front-runner for national coach-of-the-year honors in Mark Mangino, who is 36-35, making him the first KU football coach with a winning record since Jack Mitchell, who last coached Kansas in 1966. It’s also a team led by a bona fide Heisman Trophy candidate in sophomore quarterback Todd Reesing, who in the first half Saturday completed 17 of 18 passes for 221 yards and four touchdowns. He has thrown 205 consecutive passes without an interception. On the season, he has 30 touchdown passes and four interceptions.

Only Florida’s Tim Tebow can boast better overall numbers, and his team isn’t 11-0.

A Saturday poll of the Memorial Stadium crowd would have given Reesing the award by unanimous vote. A throng numbering 51,050 turned out for the home finale. About 15 minutes after the game, when the door opened to allow the media into the interview room, fans leaned over the rail on the southwest end of the stadium and hollered, hoping their words would carry all the way into the locker room: “Reesing for Heisman! … 11-0, baby! … Ed Warinner for president!”

Warinner, the offensive coordinator, is having far too much fun watching Reesing execute his offense to want any part of the White House. Arrowhead Stadium is the only house on his mind now. Too bad KU won’t have the intimate feel at Memorial Stadium that enables such a connection between spectators and participants going for it again until 2008.

The timing of moving the Border War to Arrowhead could have been better for KU since it does its best work at Memorial Stadium, but the players and coaches won’t waste a second burning negative energy on that.

“Anytime you get a chance to play at home, you love it,” Reesing said. “You have your fans behind you. You’re playing in a place you’re comfortable. At the same time, getting a chance to play at a place like Arrowhead, it’s going to be an awesome experience. It will be something we’ll always remember. And the atmosphere, with all the people who are going to be there, it’s going to be pretty awesome.”

None of the seven opponents that visited Memorial Stadium came close. Toledo, which lost by 32 points, lost by the smallest margin. The Jayhawks outscored visitors by an average of 56.1 to 9.9. They now happily would settle for a trio of one-point victories.