Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Pack your bags, it’s official. Kansas State secured a Fiesta Bowl invitation Saturday night by whooping Texas 42-24, winning the Big 12 championship outright and securing their automatic bid. After that, the only thing left to do was wait. Oregon was widely speculated to be the Wildcats’ opponent for several weeks following their loss to Stanford, assuming both teams won out the rest of the year. K-State upheld its end of the bargain, and Oregon followed through with theirs by downing Oregon State, 48-24, last week. The final regular season BCS rankings had K-State at #5 and Oregon at #4.

After the automatic bids were awarded to BCS conference champions (including K-State’s), the Fiesta Bowl received first priority in choosing its match up. Several promising options were available. Theoretically, Georgia demonstrated its ability to hang with anyone after narrowly missing on converting a red zone opportunity as time expired against Alabama in the SEC championship game. Also in SEC were LSU and Florida, who finished the season 10-2 and 11-1, respectively. Texas A&M, which also finished 10-2 and defeated Alabama, offered a meeting between the two leading Heisman trophy candidates in Collin Klein and Johnny Manziel. However, Florida received an automatic BCS bowl bid by finishing #3 without winning their conference championship – leaving their SEC brethren on the outside looking in as only two teams from any conference can receive a bid.

Clemson also held a (very) outside chance after finishing the season 10-2, 7-1 in the ACC, but an obvious lack of marquee wins would have made the Tigers a highly questionable pick. In the end, it was Oregon who offered a fan base on the West Coast (the Fiesta Bowl is played in Arizona) and a team ranked number three in the USA Today Poll (Florida was ranked ahead of Oregon in the Coaches Poll).

The match up will be intriguing as both teams were expected to meet in the national championship game one month ago before losing on the same night (K-State to Baylor and Oregon to Stanford). Klein will not be the only dual-threat quarterback on the field, as Oregon’s Marcus Mariota has burned defenders with both his legs and arm all year. It also promises to provide an epic coaching duel, as Bill Snyder will face off against Chip Kelly, who has become the head coaching candidate in the NFL this year due to his consistently dangerous offensive units.

The Fiesta Bowl will be televised January 3 on ESPN. If you have any interest in attending the game, The Jug suggests booking a hotel yesterday. Short of that, please don’t delay later than tomorrow. In fact, do it tonight. Don’t worry about asking off for work – your boss will understand. They’ll probably be there too.

Andrew Weber-US PRESSWIRE

A week after K-State’s humbling loss to Baylor, the shock of how far the team has tumbled has yet to wear off. Due to a pair of upsets that happened that weekend and a pair of upsets that didn’t this week, the Big 12 may be relegated to only one BCS representative this year. Kansas State currently sits at number six in the standings with a home game against Texas remaining. Should the Wildcats win, they become the conference champions and are virtually guaranteed a spot in the Fiesta Bowl. Alternatively, an Oklahoma loss would also give K-State a BCS nod.

While no one knows what to expect of K-State following their head scratcher against Baylor, Oklahoma may be primed for an upset. The Sooners must travel to Fort Worth and play an extremely stingy TCU defense. While Oklahoma needed overtime to defeat Oklahoma State on Saturday, TCU handled Texas 20-13 on Thanksgiving night in a game that didn’t look as close as the score indicates. There’s no guarantee Oklahoma finishes the regular season with a victory.

The key for Kansas State is the head-to-head win over Oklahoma earlier this year. The two teams sit at 7-1 in conference play and although matching records of 7-2 or 8-1 would technically make the teams co-Big 12 champions, the Wildcats would get the BCS nod by virtue of their head-to-head win. However, a loss by K-State could easily send them tumbling to the Cotton Bowl. Several teams are ready to overtake a Wildcat team finishing the season with two straight losses. Additionally, it looks very likely that a BCS buster will make an appearance this year. The Mid-American Conference has two teams ranked in the BCS standings; Kent State is 17th in and Northern Illinois is 21st. A 16th place finish will automatically qualify a non-BCS school for a BCS game, and the Golden Flashes would be very likely to climb at least one spot if they win the MAC championship (Kent State and North Illinois play for the conference title on Friday night). Such a scenario could push K-State out of a big money bowl.

There’s still some important football yet to be played. As long as the Wildcats continue their ownage of Texas the Wildcats will be fine. Odds are still in favor of a Fiesta Bowl invitation. Adding intrigue to that game will be Kansas State’s expected opponent, Oregon – the team most of the country expected to play K-State in the national championship only two weeks ago.

Jim Cowsert-US PRESSWIRE

The results are in, and K-State officially owns the number one ranking in the nation. And while the ranking is reason for excitement, work remains. The Wildcats currently own a commanding lead with a .9674 average, compared to .9497 for Oregon and .9396 for Notre Dame. However, the computer rankings (1/3 of the formula) remain the component lifting K-State’s ranking. While K-State has the number two computer ranking, Notre Dame is one and Oregon is at four (Florida holds the third spot). Oregon has the number one position in both the Harris and Coach’s polls (the other two components). Kansas State is second in both polls and Notre Dame is third.

Conventional wisdom is that while Oregon has a chance to climb to #1 due to a backloaded schedule, Notre Dame will be on the outside looking in assuming all three teams remain undefeated. Oregon must still play Stanford and Oregon State, which are ranked 13 and 16 in the most recent BCS iteration, respectively. The Ducks than face the Pac-12 South champion in the championship. Although the Ducks have yet to play a very strong schedule, the difficulty level is about to get significantly greater.

Notre Dame can’t climb any higher in the computer rankings, and would need more convincing wins over powerful opponents to increase its appeal in the eyes of the voters. Wake Forest (5-5) is up first for the Fighting Irish, where a win would do nothing to enhance their reputation. They must then travel to #18 USC. It’s unlikely a win for Notre Dame would convince pollsters that they should be ranked ahead of K-State or Oregon, and it wouldn’t be entirely surprisingly if Notre Dame walked out of Los Angeles with their first lost of the season.

Of course, all of this talk is moot as far as Manhattan is concerned if the ‘Cats don’t take care of their own business. Following a near gimme against Baylor, #15 Texas comes to town. Before the season started, no one believed K-State would be in this position. Four games into the season, no one believed Texas would have the chance to impact anything other than the Big 12′s Pinstripe Bowl representative. And now this game appears to be the only thing standing between the Wildcats and the national championship game. Senate Resolution 1 for the 2013 State of Kansas Legislative Year: rename to the state to ‘Greater Snyderville.’

The prize. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

From the moment Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney stepped out of the way of progress this past winter, a Division 1 college football playoff has become a fait accommpli. Only the most deeply-entrenched obstructionists (we’re all staring in disgust at your wrinkled mug, Harvey Perlman) are still holding out for a “plus-one” system. Make no mistake, the talk yesterday of discussing such a convoluted system was nothing more than placation of those obstructionists. There will be no plus-one; in fact, there will only be a token discussion of such a model. Perlman and his ilk have lost, rationality and fairness have won.

(more…)

The Coaches Trophy crystal ball. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-US PRESSWIRE

Leave it to college presidents and athletic directors to bicker and quibble over a disagreement that is quite easily resolved. On one side, you have those who demand that only conference champions be included, while the other side wants no qualifications at all, other than that the top 4 teams be included. The solution, as is usually the case in such matters, is found in compromise.

(more…)