Kansas State football adds Vanderbilt to schedule
By Andrew Towne
Jan 2, 2015; San Antonio, TX, USA; Kansas State Wildcats head coach Bill Snyder looks onto the field during the second half of the 2015 Alamo Bowl against the UCLA Bruins at Alamodome. The Bruins won 40-35. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
In an interesting move, the Kansas State football added a home-and-home series against a Power Five Conference team.
ESPN’s Brett McMurphy first made the report about about the agreement between the Kansas State Wildcats and Vanderbilt.
Kansas State, Vandy agree to home/home series, sources told @ESPN; 2017 at VU, 2020 at KSU
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) January 22, 2015
This move comes as surprise, since the Wildcats really don’t like scheduling teams from the Power Five Conferences.
In the coming years, Mississippi State is the only team on the feature schedule from on of the five conferences.
The Bulldogs and Wildcats are due to meet in 2018 and 2019.
Back to Vandy, yes, it’s a SEC team, but they are coming off a 3-9 season in which it finished winless and last in the SEC East Division.
In fact, in the last 10 years, Vandy hasn’t finished higher than fourth in the East and has only had three winning seasons (2013, ’12, ’08) in the last 10 years.
In some ways, its a step up from the likes of South Dakota, Texas-San Antonio and Louisiana Tech that K-State will play next year, but not much.
Kansas State’s future nonconference games
2015: South Dakota, at Texas-San Antonio, Louisiana Tech.
2016: Missouri State, Florida Atlantic, TBA
2017: Central Arkansas, Charlotte, at Vanderbilt
2018: Texas-San Antonio, Mississippi State, TBA
2019: Bowling Green, at Mississippi State, TBA
2020: Vanderbilt, two TBA