Kansas gets ‘victory’ over foe Missouri

A week later than it wanted, Kansas beat Missouri. An Orange Bowl bid is the surprising Jayhawks’ reward.

The eighth-ranked Jayhawks (11-1) got their first Bowl Championship Series berth Sunday and will meet No. 5 Virginia Tech (11-2) in Miami on Jan. 3.

The Hokies got their Orange Bowl spot by beating Boston College for the Atlantic Coast Conference title. Kansas, which set a school record for wins, was an at-large pick and benefited greatly from Missouri’s 38-17 loss to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship.

“A two-loss team compared to a one-loss team was probably the most pressing thing that we looked at,” Orange Bowl CEO Eric Poms said.

Never mind that both of Missouri’s losses were to Oklahoma, that the Tigers were two slots ahead of Kansas in the final BCS standings and beat the Jayhawks head-to-head on Nov. 24 to doom Kansas’ national-title hopes.

Let another round of BCS debate begin.

“Well, I was optimistic,” Kansas coach Mark Mangino said. “We were an 11-1 team that played consistently well most of the year … except for our last game.”

Edsall says he’s staying

Connecticut coach Randy Edsall is staying with the Huskies.

Edsall traveled to Atlanta earlier this week to talk to Georgia Tech officials about their coaching vacancy.

Edsall informed his team at its annual banquet Sunday that he had withdrawn his name from consideration for the job.

NAIA semifinals

Quarterback Chad Cavender directed a 99-yard scoring drive in the closing minutes to rally Sioux Falls to an 11-10 win over Missouri Valley at Sioux Falls, S.D., in the semifinals of the NAIA playoffs.

Top-ranked and defending national champion Sioux Falls (13-0) advances to meet No. 2 Carroll (14-0) in the NAIA championship game on Dec. 15 in Savannah, Tenn. Carroll, whose four-year championship reign ended last season, defeated St. Francis, Ind., 23-7 on Saturday.