Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports
It’s always nice to have a bye week before your toughest opponents. Thanks to a late schedule changed by the Big 12, K-State will now have that benefit twice in 2014. On Monday it was announced that K-State would play UTEP next year in a move that put K-State in the weird situation of playing on August 30, and then not playing again until it’s match against Auburn on September 20. It was addressed this afternoon when the conference announced the Farmageddon match between K-State and Iowa State will be moved to September 6 next season.
The move will leave the Wildcats amble opportunity to prepare for its most dangerous opponents. The team will still have the weekend of September 13 off, allowing a week of preparation before it faces Auburn. However, Kansas State now gets a bye week before traveling to Oklahoma as well. The Wildcats will open Big 12 play at home against Texas Tech on October 4, but will then have a bye October 11 when the Iowa State game was originally scheduled. That allows the Wildcats to prepare for a brutal stretch of at Oklahoma, versus Texas, versus Oklahoma State, at TCU.
Finishing the season, K-State will play a Thursday night game five days after the TCU match, traveling to Morgantown to take on West Virginia. The squad then enjoys another bye week before games against KU and at Baylor. It K-State intends to compete next year for a spot in the Fiesta or Cotton Bowl, the byes couldn’t fall out much better. Before Auburn, before Oklahoma, and then late in the season to allow the team to rest and regroup before a final push against KU and then Baylor. Baylor will be returning quarterback Bryce Petty, among others, and should be among the favorites to win the Big 12. That game could help determine the league’s champion, and if K-State is in the running, a week of prep (or two, if you count the Sunflower Showdown) could help bring home the second Big 12 football title in three years.