Pretty sure people say that tongue-in-cheek.
They are quite serious. Whatever indoctrination they receive at KU is second to none. They talk about Lawrence being the best college town in the country (even though I don't think they've been to any other campus), the "view" at Memorial Stadium, etc. I remember when there was a professional survey of quality of graduates in my profession, my KU friends were certain that KU would be #1 (they didn't even break into the top 100 university programs, K-State was in top 20). They're all pretty delusional, which provides great entertainment, and the hope that if I ever need to pull a con, I can look to KU for inspiration.