Jayhawks leading the Big 12 in football??? A tradition dating back to last Saturday

Two games into the college football season and the Big 12 finds itself with an unaccustomed leader alone at the top of the standings — the University of Kansas Jayhawks.

Really.

The Jayhawks are 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the Big 12.

Now, before I get flamed by fans of perennial bowl apearer K-State, let’s put the asterisks where they belong.

There has actually been only one Big 12 conference game played so far this year. On Saturday, KU beat West Virginia 55-42 in a weird overtime thriller.

That puts KU in first place in the Big 12 standings. West Virginia, with a conference record of 0-1, is in last place and everybody else is tied for second (or next to last) at 0-0.

KU will be at No. 1 least one more week, because no other Big 12 teams have an in-conference matchup until Week 4 of the season.

It’s spawned a funny meme that’s making the rounds of social media: “Kansas Football: A tradition since September.”

The Jayhawks did beat a decent West Virginia team and also notched a 56-10 victory over Tennessee Tech, a lower-division cupcake.

An interesting side note on Tennessee Tech: The university is currently mired in a scandal over an on-campus drag show. It featured a performer who came on stage dressed as a monk, who then took off the robe and performed a dance number in a corset ensemble.

While the university furiously backpedals from the incident, I watched the video and saw a missed opportunity for TTU football to recruit:

Scouting report — Drag performer shows good size and agility, potential for offensive tackle. Bonus quality: would be fabulous in shoulder pads.

But I digress.

In the 25 years I’ve been in the Sunflower State, KU football has finished a season with a winning record only three times.

Oddly enough, one of those was a Cinderella season and the Jayhawks won the state’s biggest bowl victory of the college football championship era.

In 2008, they took the Orange Bowl, one of the “Big Four” games of college football.

But boy, has it been a long drought since then.

Since the Orange Bowl win until this year, the team record has been 33 wins and 121 losses, under six head coaches.

In football parlance, that’s what you call a record of futility.

KU has finished 10th in the Big 12 nine out of the last 10 years. That actually sounds better than it is.

Despite the name, there are only 10 teams in the Big 12, so 10th is last place — not to be confused with the Big 10, which has 14 teams.

I came to this state with no rooting interest in any of these universities.

Since then, one of my twin sons graduated from K-State. The other got his bachelor’s degree at Wichita State and a law degree at KU.

So now I root for all three.

Realistically, KU football fans might want to print out the current standings sheet and frame it, because my gut is telling me this is too good to last.

On the other hand. . .

Maybe KU football is actually kinda good again. It takes six wins to get to a bowl game and the Jayhawks are already a third of the way there.

Houston and Duke are next up on the schedule and those are both winnable games.

KU can put points on the scoreboard. The question is, can they get their defense in order and maybe at least slow down the scoring of quality opponents — and Tennessee Tech doesn’t count.

But however this turns out, I’m enjoying the ride. For my birthday, we’re going to the Oct. 8 game.

The Jayhawks are No. 1 in basketball and championships breed championships.

KU football is at the top of the conference and they had to win to get there, even if it is a scheduling fluke keeping them there.

So Rock, Chalk.