by ALLEN HOPKINS, FOXSports.com

After severely limping across the Bundesliga finish line last season, Kaiserslautern is marching through the league in this season. Aside from their play on the field, which has been first-class, here's why Kaiserslautern may have already won the title.

An eighth-place finish last year, their lowest since winning promotion in 1997-98, cost them a coveted European place and plenty of money. But this will allow the Lauterer to focus on the league, a novel concept in these times. With all four major title contenders, Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Schalke, and Borussia Dortmund pre-occupied with the Champions League, Kaiserslautern could build a big lead before the winter break or before anyone crashes out of Europe.

Championship experience is another reason. Five key members from their 1998 championship squad are still with the club. Harry Koch, Hany Ramzy, Marian Hristov, Ratinho and old-guard striker Olaf Marschall are still valuable and called upon regularly. They also bring the swagger of a champion, an intangible that only Bayern and Dortmund can boast of in recent years.

Player availability is a bit more subtle, but still an important consideration. Coach Andy Brehme has little to worry about in terms of international call-ups. The above four teams - minus Schalke - count on South Americans and will have to juggle their availability due to CONMEBOL's refusal to play by their own odd rules. The less you have to deal with South American soccer federations, the better.

The math gods also work in favor of the Lauterer. A year ago they finished with fifty points; they currently sit with 21 points. It took until round 15 last year to reach 24 points, something they can do against bottom Wolfsburg this weekend. Last season, 63 points were all Bayern needed to win their seventeenth title. Kaiserslautern is already a third of the way there with almost 80 percent of the matches left.

Convinced?

Skeptics need look no further than the 1995-96 edition of Bayern Munich, the only other team in the 39-year history of the Bundesliga to win their first seven matches. That season, late-season losses to Bremen and Schalke saw them finish second, six points back of Borussia Dortmund.

Probably the most important factor to keep all Roten Teufel fans firmly on the ground is their schedule. After this weekend's match at Wolfsburg, four of their next six - and four of their last eight to close - are against Bayern, Leverkusen, Schalke and Dortmund. That's not to mention tough matches during that exact same stretch against Energie Cottbus and Stuttgart. Yes, I said Cottbus and Stuttgart.

The Red Devil's start is worthy of a championship finish, but titles aren't won in September and Kaiserslautern knows that. Twenty-seven games remain and this league has become accustomed to deciding its champion on the very last weekend. And with the way Kaiserslautern finished last season, anything and everything is possible.

So let's hold off on those commemorative championship items. And with all do respect to the Lauterer, let's go ahead and play the rest of the season. Just to be sure.

You can watch Allen Hopkins every Saturday and Sunday as he covers the 2001-2002 Bundesliga season on Fox Sports World.