MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Kansas State trailed Oregon by three-thousandths of a point in the initial BCS standings, so the Wildcats will -- some wacky, rogue computer notwithstanding -- pull past the Ducks when the second installment is released Sunday evening.
That's meaningful in some capacity to every member of K-State's team after a 55-14 road whipping of 13th-ranked West Virginia moved the Wildcats to 7-0 and 4-0 in the Big 12. But it means more to senior receiver Chris Harper. He transferred from Oregon to Kansas State to be closer to his home in Wichita, Kan.
"Yeah," a smiling Harper said late Saturday night. "It means a little something extra."
Harper said he called Ducks back Kenjon Barner (more on him later) on Friday. The former teammates did some friendly chirping, and they looked forward to the possibility of their teams meeting in the BCS title game.
"You know, that just might happen," Harper said, stepping out of every player's one-game-at-a-time trance to consider it.
Oregon-Kansas State isn't the likeliest of outcomes, not with Alabama and Florida still up top and looking strong Saturday. But it isn't completely implausible, either.
Harper said he "definitely" considers Kansas State to be every bit the team as those around the Wildcats in the BCS standings.
"We just don't get the love that they get," he said. "We beat Oklahoma, and everyone's still talking them up. We're like, 'Can we get any kind of love?'
"I hope they [the national audience, media] were watching today. I think we proved something."
To read Travis Haney's full Week 8 college football takeaways column, including which team is No. 2 in the country, you must be an ESPN Insider.
Travis Haney
ESPN Insider• Joined ESPN as Insider's national college football writer in April 2012
• Previously wrote for The Oklahoman and The Post and Courier
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Travis HaneyTravis Haney joined ESPN in April 2012 as Insider's national college football writer. He previously covered the University of Oklahoma Sooners for The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman for one season, and the University of South Carolina Gamecocks for The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier for four. Additionally, Haney has contributed since 2003 to ESPN publications and projects, including ESPN The Magazine.
A native of Cleveland, Tenn., Haney's initial introduction to a college football cathedral was Neyland Stadium. He later graduated from the University of Tennessee, in 2003, and has spent time covering the Volunteers, the University of Georgia, Clemson University, and other schools. Safe to say, football, and football in the South, was injected into his bloodstream at a young age.
Haney is the author of three books -- Gamecock Glory and Gamecock Encore, which chronicled the South Carolina baseball team's run to the 2010 and 2011 national championships, and State of Disunion, a historical look at the Clemson-South Carolina football rivalry that he co-wrote with Larry Williams.
Haney resides in Charlotte, N.C. You can follow him on Twitter here.
