Kansas State football has been around since about 1893 with most sources saying they first started playing around Thanksgiving. They didn't play their true first season till the following year. The bottom line is that Kansas State football has been playing football for a long time.
In that time, they have played a lot of different teams. We know who they have not played, however, who has Kansas State played, but struggled to ever beat?
There have been a total of 20 teams that Kansas State has never beaten. For some of them, the Wildcats only played once or twice, but a few teams seem to have K-State's number. So let's take a look at each team Kansas State has faced, but yet to beat.
Non-power conferences schools
Army (0-2): Army and Kansas State have faced off twice, once back in 1966 and again in 1987. Now in the 60s, Kansas State was better than in the 80s. The second matchup was at the time when the Wildcats had gone 27 straight games without a win.
Fresno State (0-2): Fresno State faced Kansas State for the first time in 2004 and the 2004 and 2005 seasons under Snyder were not his best. Those actually led up to his first retirement. then in 2007 when the teams faced off again, it was not against Snyder, another time when Kansas State was struggling to find wins.
Navy (0-1): The first and only time Kansas State and NAvy battled was back in 2019 in the Liberty Bowl. This was the end of Chris Klieman's first season with the Wildcats and unfortunately, it ended on a 20-17 loss to Navy.
Tulane (0-2): Interestingly, Kansas State and Tulane faced off twice, both on September 17th, once in 1988 and the second time in 2022. The 2022 loss was probably the hardest because it was a key loss that season for the Wildcats in a year that was one of their best, a season they won the Big 12 Championship.
ACC
Boston College (0-4): Boston College is one of those teams that seems to just have Kansas State's number. These two teams have faced off four times ranging from the first matchup in 1937 to the latest matchup in 1994.
Florida State (0-3): Florida State is another team that just seems to have the Wildcats number, but they also have not played each other since the 1970s. A rematch and a change for revenge might be due.
Louisville (0-2): Kansas State played Louisville twice in 2006 and 2008 after Snyder retired for the first time. That is not to say that is the reason they lost, but they weren't winning a lot of games in that time.
Big Ten
Illinois (0-1): The only time Illinois and Kansas State faced off was back in 1948, which is a bit of a surprise with how close these teams are. One would think a rematch would be an easy one to set up, but there must not be much interest there.
Michigan State: (0-5-1): Michigan State is the one team on this list that has beaten Kansas State the most. The Wildcats have faced the Spartans six times and were unable to bring home the win, but that was also back starting in 1933 and the most recent matchup was in 1958.
Northwestern (0-2): This purple Wildcat showdown has unfortunately favored Northwestern the entire time. These teams have faced off since 1938 and 1941 so another matchup is overdue.
Ohio State (0-1): This is another one-time matchup where Ohio State and Kansas State faced off back in 2004, one of Synder's down years.
Oregon (0-1): This one was a tough matchup as it was the 2012 team playing in the New Year's Six Bowl game against the Ducks. The Wildcats had felt they should have been in the National Championship, but an unfortunate loss to unranked Baylor ruined those chances. This was also the matchup of quarterback greats Collin Klein and Marcus Mariota.
Penn State (0-2): Kansas State and Penn State faced off back in the late 60s. This is another rematch that is long over due.
Purdue (0-3): This series' history spans all the way back to 1929 and their most recent matchup was in 1998. Purdue unfortunately took down the high-flying Michael Bishop and the 1998 team in their bowl game.
Rutgers (0-1): Kansas State and Rutgers have never faced off in the regular season, only in a bowl game back in 2006, the first season without Bill Snyder.
Wisconsin (0-2): The Wildcats and the Badgers have only faced off twice, once in 1964 and once in 1982. The distance between the two schools isn't too bad, so this would be an interesting rematch to see in the future.
SEC
Alabama (0-1): Kansas State unfortunately could not take down the mighty Nick Saban and Alabama back in 2022 when the Wildcats had just come off a big Big 12 Championship win over the undefeated TCU Horned Frogs.
Auburn (0-4): Auburn is another team that just seems to have Kansas State's number with the Wildcats having four chances to get one in the win column and just being unable to do so.
Florida (0-2): This is another matchup that happened a long time ago, once in 1949 and the other time back in 1973.
Vanderbilt (0-2): Kansas State and Vanderbilt have faced off twice, both early in the season as non-conference games and Vandy found a way to walk away with the win on both occasions.
All series records found on mcubed.net.