K-State Q&A: Making sense of Big 12 football and the Buffalo or North Dakota debate
We finally got some clarity from the Big 12 earlier this week. Not a ton of it, but some. I guess that will have to do for now.
Here’s what we know: The Big 12 is moving forward with plans to play a 10-game season in the fall that will feature nine league games and one non-conference game for all 10 of its members. Here’s what we don’t know: when will the season start? Which non-conference opponents will remain on schedules? What will the league portion of the schedule look like?
One more: Will there actually be a football season?
As the conference works to come up with answers, I’m ready to project a few outcomes.
For starters, we can all expect Big 12 games to begin on Sept. 26. Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard said that’s the start date the conference is shooting for in his latest letter to fans, and there’s no reason to doubt that information. He has been as forthcoming as anyone with information throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
But when will teams play their lone non-conference game? I’m guessing most will try for Sept. 12. Playing on that date will allow teams a week off before the start of conference play, just in case any teams run into problems. Playing any earlier than that, especially on Aug. 29 as Kansas and Oklahoma were scheduled, would leave way too much dead time between games.
With those two riddles solved, we can now turn our attention to the teams each Big 12 member will play before conference games begin. That is a tricky question at the moment. It is also hard to say if any teams will be responsible for cancellation fees or guarantee payments as games get scrubbed. My guess is no, because every conference outside the American is playing a reduced schedule. It would be much simpler for teams to reschedule the canceled games than to sue each other over them.
It might not be correct to say K-State’s nonconference game against Vanderbilt has been canceled. More likely, it has been postponed several years.
Anyway, here are some probable matchups:
- Oklahoma vs. Missouri State*
- Kansas vs. Southern Illinois*
- Texas Tech vs. Houston Baptist*
- Texas vs. UTEP
- TCU vs. Tennessee Tech*
- Oklahoma State vs. Western Illinois*
- Baylor vs. Incarnate Word* or Louisiana Tech
- West Virginia vs. Eastern Kentucky*
- Iowa State vs. South Dakota* or Ball State
- Kansas State vs. North Dakota*
*Subject to being replaced by a mystery opponent.
Why do I think K-State will play North Dakota (or a mystery opponent) rather than Buffalo, you ask? There are a few reasons. For starters, Kansas is one of the many states currently listed on the quarantine list for New York residents. Until that changes, I don’t see Buffalo playing a game here. How could they justify send their football team all the way to Manhattan for a game and then quarantine for two weeks? The guarantee payment for the Buffalo game ($900,000) is also significantly higher than the guarantee payment for the North Dakota game ($475,000).
It also seems like everyone is trying to play a FCS team at home for its warm-up game this season. K-State would prefer to follow that trend. Chris Klieman doesn’t lose to FCS opponents.
But even those games are far from given.
Neither the MAC (Buffalo’s conference) nor the Missouri Valley (North Dakota’s conference) have decided on a schedule format for the upcoming season. With the Big Sky Conference opting to cancel fall sports yesterday, FCS football is now in danger of not being played because of a new rule that states that 50% or more of eligible teams in a particular sport have to participate for a NCAA championship to occur.
If that happens, darn near every Big 12 team will be left scrambling to find a replacement opponent from the smaller FBS conferences in the next few weeks. That shouldn’t be a problem, given how many teams have lost games recently. But many of the above matchups could be wiped out at any moment.
It’s possible K-State may need to find a mystery opponent other than Buffalo and North Dakota. For what it’s worth, at this exact moment in time, my money is on the Wildcats playing a mystery opponent.
So that question remains up in the air for now.
Now let’s move onto some questions that have definitive answers. It’s time for another K-State Q&A.
When it comes to fans watching football games inside Bill Snyder Family Stadium this season, I’m not sure K-State will be able to choose how full or empty the stands will be.
That is a decision for local health officials.
And right now, Riley County health officials don’t think it’s safe for many fans to watch games this season. The county is currently restricting public gatherings to 50, but certain events can apply for a waiver that (if approved 14 days in advance) will allow them to host up to 2,000 guests.
There is plenty of time for that to change between now and mid September when college football games are tentatively scheduled to begin, but if coronavirus restrictions remain the way they currently are in Manhattan, well, K-State won’t be allowing any fans into its football games.
I asked a K-State insider what the Wildcats could do with 2,000 tickets and he replied with one word: “nothing.”
University leaders are holding out hope that they can host anywhere between 10,000 and 25,000 fans at games this upcoming season. Maybe that will happen. Penn State has already given up hope and announced it will play in an empty stadium this season.
Personally, I think having fans at games is a bad idea under the current circumstances. I have come around to the idea of college football players attempting to go at it on the gridiron because they are getting tested like crazy and they are following strict safety protocol. But none of that applies to fans.
I can see certain ways that K-State could properly socially distance a crowd at 25% capacity. I don’t personally think it’s a great idea. My advice would be to play games without fans like they are doing in pro baseball, basketball and soccer right now. But the Wildcats could potentially pull off a small-ish crowd with the right plan.
Still, any athletic director talking about full capacity is off his rocker. Even 50% capacity seems insane.
There is value in starting the season early, as Oklahoma and Kansas attempted to do. I actually kind of like the idea of spreading 10 games across as many as 17 weeks to create the most flexibility possible. But starting games on Sept. 12 still gives teams 15 weeks. That should be enough time.
An early start also coincides with students returning to campus.
By waiting to start in late September, the thinking is that teams can have a little extra time to prepare for the season just in case something goes wrong during that time. The Big 12 also found a way to give itself extra time to play in December, so it all should work in the end.
If teams can find a way to limit positive COVID-19 cases within its roster between now and opening weekend, we will have football games this season.
As many others have said, it’s a good bet that college football teams will start the 2020 season. Finishing the season is a different matter.
Teams and conferences across the country are building in extra off weeks to their schedules to accommodate make-up games. Everyone is planning for COVID-19 delays. A few of them won’t derail the season, but an abundance of them will.
It’s hard to say what exactly might cause all of college football to shutdown. But a player or coach getting sent to the hospital (or worse) because of the coronavirus might do it. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
And if one of the power conferences bails on football, I fully expect the other four to follow suit.
I’m not the best person to answer this question.
I don’t have a single tattoo on my body and I don’t plan to add one anytime soon. Aside from having a low pain threshold, there aren’t many things I love enough to tattoo them to my body forever.
But I suppose if I was forced at gunpoint to tattoo a K-State sports moment to my back I would choose the time Will Spradling put Joel Embiid on stilts and beat him to the rim for a layup inside Bramlage Coliseum. That would look good in the form of a silhouette style NBA logo.
That play was majestic!
Automobile racing is something I have never had much interest in. The movie “Ford vs. Ferrari” made Formula One type racing look cool. The movie “Days of Thunder” made NASCAR racing look cool. But I’ve never been able to sit down and actually watch a race. It’s just not for me.
I would rather get back into watching cartoons on Saturday mornings. Have you seen the new Transformers series on Netflix? I would definitely watch that on my own without a room of kids to please.