Even if the 2003 Kansas University football team posts a winning record and goes to a bowl game, two factors will be against it doing as well, let alone improving, next fall.

The first major hurdle will be finding a quarterback who can come even close to the productivity and leadership of Bill Whittemore. The second barrier will be the questionable Big 12 Conference scheduling cycle which throws a southern division trifecta of Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech at the 2004 Jayhawks.

As the southern slate is set up, KU then gets another dose of OU-Texas-TexTech in 2005 before it returns to this year’s slightly softer Baylor, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State lineup in 2006 and 2007.

As the league is set up, KU plays five games against its northern division neighbors and three with southerners. Then add the non-leaguers. Some genius figured out the two-year cycle for the south foes without any hint of a helpful rotation. In view of how tough OU, Texas and Texas Tech have been for Kansas, the immediate future is challenging, to say the least.

KU is 27-64-6 with Oklahoma, 2-4 with Texas and 1-7 against Texas Tech. As for the other three, KU is 2-4 with Baylor, 28-26-3 with Oklahoma State and 1-5 with Texas A&M.

A sobering fact: Oklahoma State is the only one of the six against which KU has a winning record. But as the Jayhawks struggle for respectability this year, I’d rather be playing Baylor, OSU and A&M than OU, UT and T-Tech. The latter three all are terribly potent, far too much for Kansas, despite Texas’s embarrassment by Oklahoma.

And Kansas has the weaponry of Whittemore this season while it won’t have him, or perhaps anyone nearly as good, next season.

Other schools, of course, also can complain about the north-south two-year cycle. One has to wonder why there isn’t some way for computers to set up rotations where there’s a better chance for struggling teams to move up.

Pro teams sometimes benefit from based-on-record schedules designed to help the have-nots climb against the titans. A version of seeding. Why can’t the Big 12 do something like that instead of dooming struggling clubs to the kind of grind facing Kansas?

For Kansas State, the computer spit out Texas, Oklahoma State and Baylor for this year. Since KSU lost narrowly to Texas and OSU, it can contend that Baylor is the only favor the schedule did for it. Presumably the Wildcats will have Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Oklahoma next season. They will have to struggle to do as well as 2-1 against that lineup.

But the K-State program hasn’t had a losing year since the 5-6 of 1992 while Kansas hasn’t had a winning season since 1995. Miles of ground to cover.

Not sure what KU will do for non-league scheduling but it will do well to keep seeking cupcakes the way K-State has done. The Big 12 is a nightmare.

The Jayhawks have to relish Whittemore and the chances for six or more wins this fall because there’ll be little relief in 2004. Oh, it’s too bad Northwestern got away in that opener or the Jayhawks would have five victories. Of course, I wouldn’t want to be playing Missouri again.

Basketball-wise, the Big 12 has a division team play other teams from its division twice each, then arranges for singles with the guys in the other division, 16 games in all. That’s not ideal, a lot of coaches contend, but it sure is a lot more equitable than the two-year cycles for football.

So live it up this season, Jayhawks. Tough as this one might be, it’s due to get worse next year.

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Nebraska footballer Kellen Huston is being benched this week because he slugged a Missouri fan, from Lee’s Summit, Mo., on the Columbia field after the Tigers upset Nebraska last Saturday.

Huston, a place-kick holder, deserves a rap but the nitwit who was on the field is not one bit better. If he was bound and determined to run down and celebrate, why did he rush at a Nebraska player? Word is he plans an assault charge for his two black eyes and swollen nose; he deserved the lumps.

It was a great victory for MU, and it’s easy to see why supporters would want to stomp, holler and scream. But Columbia crowds have a reputation for getting groadier than most others; their reputation for muckerism is widely known. KU people often have been accosted in various ways at MU. Worst I ever saw was in 1960 when KU hare-lipped unbeaten, No. 1-rated Missouri, 23-7. You talk about ugly! Some of those hasslers made Lon Chaney look handsome.

The Nebraska kid probably reacted too soon, perhaps overdid it. But if the lippy MU dolt he hit hadn’t put himself in harm’s way, there’d have been no incident. If Custer had it coming, so did that MU fool.

Whether I root for or against New York’s baseball Yankees (depending on my bias at the time), I am always appreciative of how relief pitcher Mariano Rivera comports himself, win or lose.

The handsome Panamanian, now in his ninth season at New York, may pump a fist but there is no dickey-doo dance or silly gyrations with his cap on backward. He sometimes smiles confidently, quietly congratulates his mates or accepts plaudits from them, with dignity, and strides calmly toward the clubhouse.

The guy is making $10.5 million this year. With his record for brilliance he could be excused for a little show of emotion. If I were making $10.5 mill and caught even a pop fly I’d flop around like a sunfish on a hot rock. Not Rivera.

He does his job with pride, displays class and dignity and acts like he’s been there before, which he has, lots of times.