It’s never too early to talk college football. Never.

Even if the calendar say it’s barely summer, fall cannot get here fast enough. So over the next two weeks or so, Kermit the Blog will count down the 10 Easiest Schedules of the 2007 College Football season. We’re aiming for one a day (weekday… generally), but we’re lazy, so it might take longer. Thankfully we’ve got time.

Enjoy.

#3 University of Kansas

mangino.jpgThere’s probably a Wizard of Oz joke somewhere in here, but it couldn’t be as funny as the Kansas Jayhawks schedule itself.

Kansas plays in the Big 12 North. That’s like playing in a sandbox. This year there is just one bully, Nebraska, in that sandbox. So while Kansas is bad enough to where they have no gimmes (and in fact are the gimme to most other teams), they should at least be competitive in four games against divisional foes; not to mention Kansas also doesn’t have to go to Lincoln.

In the South, the Jayhawks manage to avoid both Texas and Oklahoma. They also don’t play Texas Tech, who will be probably be battling Texas A&M for the third place spot in the South. So in conference, they couldn’t possibly draw it up to be any easier.

They don’t even leave the state of Kansas until October 20.

That’s seven games before they travel to Colorado to take on Disaster Dan Hawkins and the Buffs, which sounds more like the name of a Jimmy Buffet cover band than a football team. That out of state tilt is against a Colorado team that went 2-10 last year, including a home loss to I-AA Montana State (although they should have won at #9 Georgia, so go figure).

The Jayhawks managed to get all four non-conference opponents (and I use that term ‘opponent’ loosely) to travel to Lawrence. And those four opponents? Central Michigan, Southeast Louisiana, Toledo, and Florida International. The second in that list is I-AA and the last is generally regarded as the worst team in I-A.

The projected best of that bunch for 2007, Toledo, last season managed to lose to Michigan.

Not the Wolverines, but the entire state.

Directionally speaking, that is, as Toledo racked up losses to Central, Eastern, and Western Michigan. They also did this rather convincingly by a cumulative score of 90-43.

Of course Toledo beat the Jayhawks last year in Toledo in double overtime. So now the Rockets have awakened a sleeping giant. Ooops, I’m sorry. Typo. That’s should be ‘gnat.’ They’ve awakened a sleeping gnat.

mangino-1.jpgBasically if Kansas can manage to beat both Baylor and Iowa State at home, they can probably go bowling.

Again, Kansas is generally another team’s weak opponent, so to bootstrap itself to respectability, it looks like head coach Mark Mangino is using the program-building model successfully employed by former Kansas State coach Bill Snyder: Play nobodies, start winning, hope success begets more success.

Eventually though, Mangino’s going to need to start attracting better players to Lawrence.

His gravitational force alone should do the trick.

Hey-o.

2007 Kansas Football Schedule
9/1 Central Michigan
9/8 SE Louisiana
9/15 Toledo
9/22 FIU
10/6 at Kansas State
10/13 Baylor
10/20 at Colorado
10/27 at Texas A&M
11/3 Nebraska
11/10 at Oklahoma State
11/17 Iowa Sate
11/24 vs. Missouri (at Kansas City)

The Rest of the List

Number 10
Number 9
Number 8
Number 7
Number 6
Number 5
Number 4
Number 2
Honorable Mentions
Number 1