Item: Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard blasts Gene Chizik for taking the Auburn football job, saying Chizik assured him he would stay with the Cyclones.

Comment: Does this remind anyone of a couple of years ago when Kansas State officials bellyached about Bob Huggins’ abrupt departure to take the West Virginia job? Quit whining, hire a coach, and get on with your life.

Item: Kansas junior guard Mario Little breaks a bone in his left hand during practice and will miss two to four weeks after sitting out the entire month of November with a stress fracture in his left leg.

Comment: Well, at least the right side of Little’s body appears to be holding up nicely.

Item: Six Big 12 Conference women’s basketball teams are ranked in last week’s AP college poll — Texas A&M (4), Texas (5), Oklahoma (6), Baylor (7) Oklahoma State (22) and Kansas State (23).

Comment: Poor Kansas. The Jayhawks have won seven of nine and can’t even climb into the Others Receiving Votes category.

Item: By scoring 702 points in its 13 games, Oklahoma becomes the first football team to cross the 700-point barrier since Minnesota amassed 725 points in 13 games in 1904.

Comment: If you think NCAA teams schedule too many cupcakes today, take note of the fact the ’04 Minnesota team flattened Grinnell, 146-0, and flogged Twin Cities Central High, 107-0.

Item: Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, who turned 82 on Sunday, agrees to a three-year contract extension.

Comment: No doubt Paterno hopes his new pact isn’t the equivalent of a lifetime contract.

Item: Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins creates a new position and hires Nicole Corcoran, press secretary for Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, to become his chief of staff.

Comment: Perkins, who may be surrounded by the most bloated bureaucracy in college athletics, has essentially hired someone to tell people who want to talk to him to call Jim Marchiony instead.

Item: Carl Peterson’s 20-year tenure as general manager of the Kansas City Chiefs ends with the announcement he will step down at the end of the season.

Comment: Twenty years is an eternity for a GM in the NFL, so give the guy some credit. Peterson’s biggest mistake? Underestimating the role Will Shields, Willie Roaf and Casey Wiegmann played in Larry Johnson’s success.

Item: The Chiefs plan to use $10 million generated from the sale of state tax credits to help build a $13.5 million indoor training facility on the campus of Missouri Western in St. Joseph, Mo.

Comment: If the Chiefs keep losing, they may be able to accommodate their fan base at Mo Western’s 6,000-seat Spratt Stadium.

Item: Larry Keating, KU’s senior associate athletic director, has been listed by the Newark Star-Ledger as a possible candidate for the AD opening at Rutgers.

Comment: The Rutgers job pays about 400 grand a year, or about double what Keating makes here. Then again, the cost of living in New Jersey is about twice what it is in Lawrence.