Temple, Cincinnati, Akron and Northern Illinois.

No, I’m not compiling a list of mediocre or not-so-mediocre college teams. Instead, I’m giving a rundown of all the non-conference opponents Kansas State has faced this season.

The Wildcats, who play the Cyclones on Saturday afternoon at Jack Trice Field, did not exactly set up a schedule chock- full of national powerhouses. Quick, name the conference that even one of K-State’s non-conference foes plays in. The typical sports fan would struggle to come up with even one.

Don’t get me wrong. The point of this column is not to criticize K- State’s non-conference schedule, but to applaud it instead. Why not? The bowl and ranking system is set up to be exploited, and it’s not K-State’s fault they choose to do so.

What has K-State’s weak early season schedule done for the team? It has only helped them claim the No. 7 spot on both polls, with an 8-1 record. True, five touchdown wins against Kansas and Oklahoma had more to do with where the Wildcats sit in the poll more than anything else. But who knows where Kansas State would be in the polls if they scheduled such non-conference foes such as Ohio State or Notre Dame?

I believe that if a team plays in a tough conference, such as the Big Eight among others, why shouldn’t it play an anemic non-conference schedule? The team will eventually face someone who is decent. Why sabotage the season with a couple of early season losses to some really top-notch football programs. Like Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said after the Virginia loss, “Things will sort themselves out.”

If you need proof of what a strong early season can do to a team, just look at Iowa’s 1992 season. The Hawkeyes came into the season with a Top-20 ranking and national champion aspirations. Five games into the season the Hawks were 1-4 with losses to Michigan, Colorado, Miami of Florida and North Carolina State. The season ended with a record of 5-7 and the Hawks staying home during the bowl season.

Conversely, Brigham Young won the national championship in 1984 without beating a team in Top-20 rankings. The best team the Cougars faced that year was Michigan, which finished with a less than sparkling record of 6-6.

I have a proposal that would spare college football all this ranking and scheduling nonsense. It would keep the bowl system intact and also decide who the real national champion was.

The first part of the proposal would do away with polls and rankings. What good do they serve? How would a sportswriter in Seattle know who is better between Nebraska and Ohio State? That’s why they play the games in the first place.

The second part of my proposal would modify the way bowl selections are handed out. The four major bowls (Rose, Orange, Sugar and Fiesta) would be showcases of games featuring the various conference champions. The Rose Bowl would feature the Big 10 champ against the Pac 10 champ, the Orange would be Big 12 vs Big East, the Sugar would have the SEC winner play the best independent team and the Fiesta would have an ACC-WAC match up. The rest of the bowls would still remain, but they could not select these conference champions.

Two weeks after the bowls are played you would have the Rose winner face the Orange winner and the Fiesta champion play the Sugar champion in the national semi-finals. A national championship game would follow one week later.

This would finally do away with all the second guessing and bowl posturing that has pervaded college football.

Bill Kopatich is a sophomore in journalism from Des Moines.