Sam Mellinger

The Kansas City Star

Last Dec. 12, the Chiefs fired Todd Haley because of a lack of consistency and progress. Today, exactly 11 months later, they’re consistently losing and progressing deeper into punch lines.

Today’s column tries to answer what the heck happened.

Aside from the terrible Chiefs, the biggest story in our area is obviously Kansas State’s now completely-up-to-them BCS championship chances.

I know K-State fans well enough to know they might need some reassurance that they aren’t about to get screwed, but the simple fact is that if the Wildcats beat Baylor this week and Texas on Dec. 1 they will play for the national championship 25 years after Sports Illustrated’s Futility U article.

Absolutely incredible.

K-State just needs to make sure there are no new Sirr Parkers.

You may have seen where Lance Armstrong cut all ties to the Livestrong foundation he started, removing himself from the board.

I wrote last week that Sporting Kansas City had a decision to make about its own ties to Livestrong, most notably the name on the stadium. The decision makers aren’t saying much publicly, but privately, this is one of their top offseason priorities.

I haven’t talked to anyone from Sporting since this latest news broke, but I assume the parameters are the same as before. Sporting wants to be assured that Livestrong can continue its mission of fighting cancer without Armstrong, and that its own brand as a franchise — meticulously cultivated over the last few years — won’t be harmed by the association.

Again, I haven’t talked to anyone since Armstrong did this. But I do think it’s a step toward maintaining the partnership between foundation and franchise.

Missouri and Kansas each had good football weekends. The Tigers saved their bowl chances by beating Tennessee in four overtimes. If MU can beat Syracuse this week at home — a game that looks at least a little more difficult after the Orange beat Louisville — the Tigers can at least get a bowl game out of a disappointing first season in the SEC.

Even if it’s just symbolism and some extra practices for next season, Gary Pinkel can be much more comfortable going forward.

As for Kansas, I dig Charlie Weis saying “there’s no such thing as a great game when you lose,” but the truth is there is such thing as a great game when you lose if you coach at Kansas and you went into overtime in Lubbock.

I’ve been skeptical about Weis’ prospects of turning Kansas football around — a bowl game in year three is a reasonable goal — but combined with taking Texas down to the wire the Jayhawks are clearly improving.

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