A sign in front of the Kansas Union.

I admit it feels a bit funny, filing updates for you all on how many people are clicking on a “vote” button for a chicken wrap as part of a cable-channel promotion, but all the evidence out there suggests a lot of you are into it, so I’m going to continue.

The KU Crunchy Chicken Cheddar Wrap has moved on to the Elite 8 of the Cooking Channel’s college food bracket, but it faces a stiff challenge in this round from the Marquette University entry, which received more than 10,000 votes during the last round to KU’s 2,500 or so.

The Marquette entry — a dish at a Milwaukee chili restaurant just called “The Marquette” — appears to be a plate of spaghetti topped with chili and about 6 pounds of sour cream and cheese. (The Crunchy Chicken Cheddar Wrap isn’t exactly light fare — it’s got 735 calories and 8 grams of saturated fat, according to the KU Dining Services online nutrition site — but it doesn’t sound as bad for you as the other stuff remaining, including something from Baylor called the “Gut Pak.”)

This all may be kind of funny and allow me to type “Gut Pak,” but the KU Memorial Unions are treating this as a serious chance to get some media exposure. Claudia Larkin, the Unions’ marketing director, came to see me during Heard on the Hill Office Hours this morning and tells me the staff have had “strategic planning meetings” each step along the way during this bracket process (and I think that was only a little bit of a joke).

The KUcrunchtime.com URL the Unions bought has gotten quite a few hits, she said, they’ll be sending posters and banners around campus as things warm up here and now they’re printing “thousands” of stickers for students to take and further their crunchy chicken cause.

KU is winning the matchup with Marquette narrowly as I type this late Wednesday afternoon. You can vote here.

We’ve got you covered on the chicken-wrap front, but you can send your tips from all other areas of KU news to merickson@ljworld.com.