KU Q&A: Which team has best chance of ending The Streak? And does KU need football?

We’re back for another Kansas Jayhawks Q&A.

Thanks for the questions, and please follow my Facebook page if you haven’t yet.

Though I think most people would say Kansas State, I’ll actually go with a different team: West Virginia.

The Mountaineers received a huge boost when big man Sagaba Konate announced he was returning, and coach Bob Huggins probably hasn’t gotten enough credit for the consistency he’s given to the Mountaineers’ program over the last few years; West Virginia has finished 25th, eighth, seventh and 12th in KenPom in the past four seasons.

You knew there’d be numbers here too. In early 2018-19 projections, BartTorvik’s college basketball site has West Virginia 12th and Kansas State 26th. That formula puts KU’s odds at a won/shared Big 12 title at 82 percent, with West Virginia at 20 percent and Kansas State at 4 percent.

I combined these two because the premise is basically the same: Does KU need football?

And the answer is absolutely yes — at least if the school wants to continue to compete at the highest level in future years.

No one knows the exact path college athletics will take, but many believe it’s only a matter of time until the creation of a few superconferences that separate themselves from the rest. It only makes sense; when the NCAA looks to pass legislation as it stands now, you often have top-end schools ready to do more for athletes (because they have financial backing to do so) while lower-level schools are fighting against it (because they don’t have the same resources).

So at some point, the split will probably happen. The top 64 or so schools will make a break — perhaps even from the NCAA — where they can make their own rules without worrying about the poor. When that day comes, football will play the largest role in whether schools (like KU) are able to make the cut or not.

KU chancellor Douglas Girod seems to understand all this based on comments he made last September when KU first announced $350 million fundraising plans, saying he wanted to emphasize “how important it is for (KU) to continue to be a strong member of the Big 12 Conference and how important a Power Five conference is to the university, to help maintain our national stature, which is critical to recruiting, among other things.”

So KU has a few years to get football back to respectable shape so that, combined with men’s basketball and other factors, it can be considered more likely to get into a top conference.

This goes without saying, but the shakeup detailed above would forever change the NCAA basketball tournament. If the top schools split off, they’d probably create their own bracket using only their own teams, meaning the days of Cinderellas and mid-majors getting invites would be gone (they’d be participating in their own league, much like FBS and FCS are divided in football).

And this is why KU basketball fans should be concerned with football’s growth. A future move to a lower conference wouldn’t mean the basketball program would go away. It would instead mean that the Jayhawks would be playing in an inferior college-based league that would be locked out from the NCAA Tournament as you know it now.

That would not be good at all.

Because I’m never afraid to throw shameless plugs out there(!) ... we discussed the number of wins it might take for Beaty to keep his job in the July 13 KU Q&A. The TL;DR answer is that it’s hard to guess now, but 4-5 is likely to be the range.

And as far as who gets more playing time between Vick and Garrett ... another link! I wrote earlier this month about who stood to lose the most playing time following Vick’s return, and unsurprisingly, Garrett was in the top three.

It all leads to this: I think Vick will get more minutes than Garrett, and I don’t think it’ll end up that close.

I think this is definitely possible and perhaps even likely.

KU Athletics has been smart to take on this big project in stages, starting with the indoor practice facility that is scheduled to be completed late fall.

Still, as many KU fans have noted, KU’s “Raise the Chant” fundraising website (that had original renderings of the project) is no longer available online and has been down for a few weeks now. It seems unlikelier each day that’s a coincidence.

So yes, once new athletic director Jeff Long starts on Aug. 1, don’t be surprised if there are some changes to the final stages of KU’s Memorial Stadium renovation.

Great question. What’s so interesting here is that, from Allen Fieldhouse, Des Moines is actually closer than Tulsa from a driving perspective (3 hours, 33 minutes compared to 3 hours, 55 minutes) but a further overall distance (236 miles compared to 220).

Here’s one thing to know: The NCAA made a rule change a few years ago to reward the No. 1 overall seed by allowing it to choose its first and second round site. Other schools after that are still at the mercy of the NCAA selection committee, but just know that if KU gets that No. 1 overall seed, it will be the school’s choice where it goes.

As far as an answer to that ... I spoke to one KU official who believed that Tulsa would be the preferred location over Des Moines because of its proximity to both Dallas (a huge KU alum site) and fans in south and western Kansas. Remember, KU had a ‘terrific’ crowd according to coach Bill Self during its NCAA games in Wichita last season, and Tulsa would be likely to draw many of those same people.

As it stands now, the odds of him sitting out seem extremely low.

I’ll refer back to last week’s Q&A again for more discussion on this, but as of now, both Self and De Sousa have spoken confidently about him being able to play again this season.

It seems, at this point, the only thing that could change De Sousa’s status would be more information coming forward regarding his recruitment from either the FBI or NCAA. If that doesn’t happen ... KU and Self are expecting him to be eligible.

I think two things at this point: That KU coach David Beaty will announce a starter earlier than he has in seasons past (he hinted at this during Big 12 media days) and, like previous years, the game-one quarterback shouldn’t get too comfortable.

Beaty spoke last week about getting the QB battle down to a two-man competition soon, and my guess (just a guess) at this point is that it’ll be between incumbent Peyton Bender and juco transfer Miles Kendrick.

Bender has a big arm, while Kendrick seemed to make an immediate off-field impact with his work ethic this winter and spring.

To finally answer your question, though: I’ll say Bender starts the opener against Nicholls State.

Easy one. Greg Ostertag. He came to my hometown of Emporia during a KU barnstorming tour 23 years ago, and I still remember how he had to duck through a back doorway to make his way into the gym. Needless to say, I’d never seen a human that large before.

He also produced one of the greatest KU big-man highlights ever — a 7-foot-2 center going behind his back on a fast break before finishing the play with an emphatic dunk.

Poor Coppin State.

This story was originally published July 23, 2018 at 1:50 PM.